First-year Experience: Enduring Questions
As part of the core curriculum, all students participate in a year-long humanities program their first year on campus, called Enduring Questions. The shared-learning experience introduces students to Saint Anselm’s community, Catholic, Benedictine tradition, and college mission while articulating the value of the liberal arts and honing their interests, values, vocations, and possible career paths and determining how to seek a life worth living. The interdisciplinary program strengthens students' oral and written communication skills and critical reading and thinking skills while engaging in pivotal societal, scientific, and moral questions.
During the two-semester program, Enduring Questions uses a mix of contemporary and classic texts across disciplines, discussions, assorted media, lectures, and community engagement to engage students with different ideologies, pathways, and vocations with a liberal arts lens. The program encourages students to explore their interests and reflect on themselves by trying something new and considering other points of view.
Fall Semester: Enduring Questions - Part I
The first semester of Enduring Questions introduces Benedictine traditions, followed by topic-centered units focused on contemporary issues. The course is guided by the Hallmarks of a Benedictine Education and enduring questions:
- Discipline — How do I engage with the world around me?
- Community and Hospitality — How does community inform who I am?
- Stewardship — What are my obligations to others?
- Humility — How does knowing myself allow me to learn from other perspectives?
- Conversatio — Who do I want to be and how do I want to live?
In addition, during part I students also immerse themselves in two to eight hours of community-engaged learning through the Meelia Center for Community Engagement. Instructors work with Meelia and students to offer a menu of engagement options including (but not limited to) this sampling:
- Animal Rescue League Howl-O-Ween 5K
- Foster and Adoptive Parent Night Out (FAPNO)
- Halloween Dance
- Holiday Fair
- Manchester Police Athletic League Trunk-or-Treat
- Rock Rimmon Park Clean-Up
Part I includes enrichment hours to support student success on campus:
- Workshop at the Academic Resource Center (ARC)
- Tour of the Geisel Library and Information Cycle
- Workshop with the Career Development Center (CDC) survey
- Tour of the Monastery and Saint Anselm Abbey Church
Spring Semester: Enduring Questions Part II
In the second semester of Enduring Questions, students to expand upon their part I exploration of vocation and the liberal arts. Specifically, students will explore complex questions about the human experience, apply liberal arts teachings to better understand their own interests, and examine strategies to promote academic success and positive relationships. Additionally, students are required to participate in four enrichment sessions on:
- Information literacy
- Artificial intelligence
- Study abroad
- Sophomore experience