First-Year Symposium
The First-Year Symposium at Belmont Abbey College is meant to help students in the transition from high school to college as they strive to adjust to the academic and residential life of the campus. The main feature of the program is the first-year symposium, which leads students through shared academic and social experiences with 14-17 of their classmates. Symposium faculty serve as academic advisors, and students may also be assisted by an upper-class peer mentor.
The First-Year Symposium (FS101) is required of all first-year students as part of their introduction to the Benedictine mission and the academic life of the college. Common summer readings and whole-class activities enrich the student's experience in small class settings. There will be a universal curriculum for all sections, plus some special content from each instructor.
The course helps the newly arriving students develop the skills and understanding needed for meeting the academic demands of the college, for living in a new community, and for embarking on a liberal arts education in the Catholic and Benedictine tradition. Through shared activities inside and outside the classroom the students will be encouraged to form new friendships, develop the desire to live lives of virtue and excellence, and experience a harmony between social connections and academic achievement.
The specific goals of the First-Year Symposium are as follows:
- to acquire an elementary acquaintance with the Catholic and Benedictine traditions of learning and spirituality at Belmont Abbey
- to become a part of this Catholic and Benedictine community
- to begin to understand liberal arts education as a basic professional training in communication, ethics, and personal habits of learning
- to practice writing, researching, and the art of polite, critical discussion at the college level, while studying renowned works of literature
- to form good friendships while participating in sports and other activities and preparing to decide on a major field of study
- to begin to understand college experience as a precious opportunity to unite the physical, intellectual and spiritual dimensions of being human
Every year, the First-Year Symposium will focus on themes that are central to the Catholic and Benedictine vision of the Abbey and College. Each professor will also introduce readings related to his or her specialty within the entire range of liberal arts learning, on topics varying from genetics to mythology to the world of sports.
