tionary funds to projects like a Muslim chaplain’s residency and a Chinese music concert. Supportive alumni have made possible other rich experiences like the Freirich Business Plan Competition, the grassroots Skidmore Business Network, and more summer collaborative research and overseas study. In 2001 Skidmore ran just four of its own overseas pro- grams, and only 30% of students studied abroad. Today it’s up to 60%, placing Skidmore fourth among U.S. baccalaure- ate colleges. Cori Filson, director of off-campus study and exchanges, says her office now facilitates not just college study but internships, work, and volunteer opportunities where students interact deeply with people of other cul- tures, tackle issues that are new to them, and help create real solutions to international problems. Filson urges stu- dents to explore locations beyond Western Europe, though she supports any study abroad, because “students really blossom in communities they couldn’t enter otherwise.” She observes, “Our students want to engage with the world. They don’t see international education as a check mark on their to-do list; they’re integrating it into their entire aca- demic career and pursuing it after graduation too.” Surveys show that such in-depth activities are transfor- mational, providing students with better-focused ambitions, higher skill levels, and greater confidence and maturity. These experiences often become stepping stones to grad school or a first job.
And Skidmore has ramped up services in the Career Development Center to help students articulate and act on their job goals. The CDC trains peer mentors to help with resumes and other prep, offers a wide range of resources, co-sponsors a popular Career Jam each year, and teaches job-related workshops. A new career counseling position was added to focus on the transition to grad and profes- sional school.
Louise Mallette ’74, a career-planning veteran and alum- ni board member who is consulting for the CDC, says, “The beauty of the liberal arts is that its diversity enables students to follow many amazing paths. Skidmore helps them make a thoughtful, deliberate segue between the liberal arts and translating their passions into job skills.”
A healthier campus community
“A liberal education provides the best possible preparation for a well-rounded life of human flourishing,” declares Glotzbach in the 2005 strategic plan. Such a life includes “personal growth and the cultivation of mature friendships as well as community involvement, attention to the arts and other sources of spiritual renewal, and a commitment to health and wellness.”
Recently Skidmore has placed special emphasis on sub- stance abuse, including the appointment of a new director guiding new programming. A Harvard-trained epidemiolo- gist, Jen Burden started up the program and has used dona- tions to hire a health educator and a substance-abuse pre- vention coordinator. Burden says, “Nutrition advice or more treadmills can be easy fixes, but when it comes to excessive drinking, we’re talking about changing a national culture.” And so her office is persistent in conducting research, re- quiring online prevention courses, partnering with parents and peers, and following up on counseling. Offering fresher and wider food choices, longer hours, and an interactive ambience, the renovated Murray-Aikins Dining Hall serves up both health and social growth. Upper- classmen are glad to eat more meals on campus, and many professors are now regulars too. A vast range of student clubs and other cocurricular outlets also add to conviviality.
Athletics boosted
Just a few months into his presidency, Glotzbach had to re- balance the men’s and women’s sports programs with no wiggle room in the budget. Having seen as a father what sports can do for a young person’s sense of self, he was a fan of all Thoroughbred teams. But he bit the bullet and announced a plan to shut down the ice-hockey program. Immediately, hockey alumni and parents bonded together in protest—and in constructive work toward a solution. Glotzbach met with them, and together they restarted the Friends of Skidmore Athletics. Soon FOSA had raised enough money not just to save hockey but also to support all 19 var- sity teams and create a Skidmore Athletics Hall of Fame. With athletics’ role in a liberal arts education expressly
g
Tang’s 10th anniversary
Lead gift for Valentine Boathouse project
Launch of intergroup relations program
First Freirich Business Plan Competition
20 SCOPE WINTER 2013
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