Scripps is a community of intelligent individuals who are eager to learn. Because of how easy it is to take classes at the other Claremont Colleges, there is such a wide range of classes available to us Scripps students! I myself am an off-campus major, so I am very familiar with taking classes at the other Claremont Colleges. I know that talking about the Scripps academic experience can sometimes feel pretty theoretical and intangible, so in this blog post I want to dive into my academic experience through talking about some of my favorite classes I’ve taken in college!
I can’t write anything about my academic experience here without talking about performing arts! I have been so lucky to be a part of the Scripps voice lessons ever since my first semester. I am currently in the musical theater track with private lessons, which means that I get a 30-minute one on one voice lesson with my professor each week in addition to the hour long performance class with all of the other private voice students. I have found so much community and growth through my experience in musical theater voice lessons here, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with my professor.
While I would not call myself a science oriented person, the Introduction to Geology class I took as part of my general education requirements has been one of my favorite classes in college! My professor was so supportive and attentive to different learning styles, and it was clear that she had a passion for the subject. I really appreciated that instead of exams we wrote research papers about how the geological processes and concepts we were learning applied to our lives.
Lastly, I want to mention two CMC classes I took for my Jewish studies major! In my Eat, Drink and be Jewish class, we learned about Jewish dietary practices. Since the class was at CMC, we got to go learn from some of the highly skilled chefs who work at The Athenaeum, which is CMC’s event and speaker space. We all wore chef hats and made some of the foods we had been learning about in class! My CMC London and Paris in the 19th Century class was equally as fun! My favorite part of the class was when we got to learn letter writing techniques from the time period we were studying. Our professor coordinated a workshop for her two class sections to participate in a letter exchange where we wrote letters to each other using similar writing quills and paper folding techniques to what they would have used in 19th century Europe. This workshop took place at The Hive, which is one of our free makerspaces on campus!
While not every Scripps student will be taking these specific classes, my experiences in my favorite classes offer a glimpse into what academics are like at Scripps. The common theme in all my favorite classes I have taken in college has been the passionate professors! These professors have all been so eager to share their knowledge, and they have all wanted me to succeed. Something I love about academics at Scripps is that we have a rigorous yet non-competitive atmosphere! This means that everyone wants each other to succeed, and our community members strive to build each other up both inside and outside of the classroom. Given our small class size (~16) and student to faculty ratio (10:1), the Scripps academic experience often includes meaningful and collaborative connections with peers and professors.
As I head into my final year, it has been so lovely to reflect back on some of the highlights of my academics here! While everybody’s learning styles thrive in different environments, I can safely say that Scripps has truly given me the academic experience I didn’t know I needed.