The Year Ahead in SUMMIT
Exploring what the first year in SUMMIT will look like for Agnes Scott's Class of 2027
When we’re talking to prospective students at their high schools, college fairs and during campus visits, we talk a lot about SUMMIT, Agnes Scott’s signature four-year experience based on global learning, leadership development and professional success. However, we do understand that it can be difficult to visualize what that will actually look like for you once you begin your Agnes Scott experience.
So let’s break it down: what will this year in SUMMIT look like for our current first-year class?
This part has actually already happened for our first-years in August directly after move-in. Our Legacy event both helps ensure students have everything they need to be successful once classes begin and introduces students to the idea of SUMMIT and the curriculum that they will be experiencing throughout their four years at Agnes Scott.
Here’s just a smattering of the events that students took part in during Legacy:
- We are Agnes: Getting Involved in the Agnes Scott Community
- Living, Learning & Leading in the ASC Community
- Legacy Group Meeting (small groups with an upperclass mentor): Belonging & Safety
- Legacy Group Meeting: Leadership at Agnes Scott College
- Meet your SUMMIT Advisor
- Introduction to your SUMMIT Experience
- Meet your SUMMIT Peer Advisors
- Living Honorable: Know the Code & Honor Pledge Ceremony
These fall courses are something every student takes throughout the fall of their first semester at Agnes Scott. While they all have different topics and disciplines, they all explore how the liberal arts inform good leadership and focus on building skills in critical thinking, writing, public speaking, digital literacy and teamwork. This year, students are taking classes in:
- Empresses, Saints and Eunuchs: Leadership Examples from the Later Roman Empire
- Environmental Leadership and Climate Change
- From Handbills to Hashtags: A Global History of Student Activism
- Leadership and Gender in Young Adult Fantasy Novel and Film
- Leadership and German Science Fiction: Anticipating the Future
- Leadership and the Art of Science
- Leadership for Introverts
- Life Writing & Leadership: Social Justice and Cultural Memory
- Media, Communication and the Shape of Our World
- Philosophy and the Crisis of Leadership
- Religious Leadership
- Social Business
- What Makes Life Worth Living: Creativity and Leadership
The first year of college can be full of questions and opportunities to learn more about yourself and what you want out of your college experience. SUMMIT opportunities will be taking place outside the classroom as well. It’s impossible to summarize all of the events, but here are just a few that are happening in the next few weeks (as this is posted):
- Major Exploration Panel to explore your major options
- Career Community Fest with the Office of Internship and Career Development
- Latinx Heritage Month Keynote Discussion with Samantha Ramirez Herrera
- Agnes Scott Virtual Career Fair with the OICD
- The Women’s Global Leadership Conference
This fall, students will also be applying and being placed into their Global Journeys courses. These courses happen in the spring semester of the first-year, and though each class has a unique topic (and destination), each will cover ideas of globalization, identity, imperialism and the ethics of travel. By the time students travel to their locations in March, each will be prepared to be so much more than a tourist! This year, students will be studying:
- The Art of Politics and the Politics of Art (Location: Florence, Italy)
- Contentment in a World of Anxiety (Location: Sweden)
- Cultural Identity Before & After Colonization (Location: Belize)
- Fashion, Ethics & Capitalism (Location: Paris)
- Germany in a Globalized World (Location: Germany)
- Global Perspectives on Theatre (Location: NYC, United States)
- Identity, Globalization & Social Change (Location: Bulgaria)
- Islamic Art & Architecture (Location: Morocco)
- The Many Forms of Diversity: Ecology, People & Spirituality (Location: Cuba)
- Music, Arts & Community (Location: Navajo Nation, United States)
- Pura Vida Under Globalization (Location: Costa Rica)
- Religion and Globalization (Location: Benin)
- Self-Determination and Sustainability (Location: Puerto Rico)
There are more aspects to SUMMIT than we could possibly cover in a blog post, but we think this gives a good introduction to the ideas and concepts of the first year at Agnes Scott. If this sounds like your cup of tea, make sure to apply to Agnes Scott. And if you’d like to learn more, reach out to us!
About the Writer: Rachel West is the Director of Enrollment Marketing at Agnes Scott. She co-lead a SUMMIT Global Journeys course to Martinique in 2019; you can read more about it in this post.
