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A two-day celebration was held on Sept. 20- 21 to commemorate
the first decade of the College’s First-Year Program
(FYP). The activities, which began in the Brooks Concert
Hall, featured a lecture by Dr. Jill Ker Conway, president
emeritus of Smith College and a prolific author; her book, The
Road from Coorain, served as the first FYP common reading
text in September 1992. Ker Conway’s speech was titled “Liberal
Values in 21st Century Lives.”
The celebration continued throughout the weekend with a
series of panel discussions in the Rehm Library, featuring
current FYP students, alumni and faculty participants.
The First-Year Program, which helps students explore the
connections between living and learning, brings together
160 first-year students, all living in the same residence
hall, and a group of distinguished teachers from a variety
of different disciplines. Through a series of seminars, common
readings, films, concerts, retreats and residence-hall discussions,
FYP students and faculty explore the program’s central
theme—Leo Tolstoy’s question, “How, then,
shall we live?”
Since 1992, the program has received national attention
and achieved enormous success, including improved classroom
performance, greater campus leadership and community service,
and higher retention and graduation rates.
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