Message from the Director:

I want to take this opportunity to share with all prospective and accepted students my excitement about Skidmore's First-Year Experience. The centerpiece of the First-Year Experience is the Scribner Seminars. Every fall, we offer roughly 45 seminars on campus, and two in our London program, designed to encourage first-year students' active participation in their own learning. The seminars are taught by faculty from virtually every discipline, who gear seminars to highlight their own intellectual curiosities and passions.

Scribner Seminars, each limited to 16 first-year students, invite participants to work closely with faculty and peers; help students identify and fulfill their academic aspirations; introduce them to new ways of thinking; and provide opportunities to work both collaboratively and independently.

The seminars serve not as survey courses within programs, but as an introduction to the liberal arts. Faculty invite students to take intellectual risks, challenging their notions about inquiry and knowledge as they make connections across disciplines. In addition, participants experience a rich array of related co-curricular activities. In most cases, students live in residence halls in proximity to other students in their seminars.

The Scribner Seminar instructors serve as faculty advisors and mentors, helping their students make informed choices throughout the early years of the college career.

Should you come to Skidmore, you will be invited to exercise your imagination and challenge yourself. I hope you would make the Skidmore education your education, and develop your own intellectual curiosities and passions along the journey.

Beau Breslin
Assistant Dean of Faculty, Director of the First-Year Experience,
Associate Professor of Government