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English

Student Handbook 2024-2025

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Academic Catalog 
Volume 2024 2024-2025 Article 4 
7-1-2024 
Signature Programs 
Saint Mary's College of California 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.stmarys-ca.edu/undergraduate-catalog 
Recommended Citation 
Saint Mary's College of California (2024) "Signature Programs," Academic Catalog: Vol. 2024, Article 4. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.stmarys-ca.edu/undergraduate-catalog/vol2024/iss1/4 
This Section I is brought to you for free and open access by the College Archives at Saint Mary's Digital Commons. 
It has been accepted for inclusion in Academic Catalog by an authorized editor of Saint Mary's Digital Commons. 
For more information, please contact digitalcommons@stmarys-ca.edu. 
2024-2025 Academic CatalogSaint Mary’s College of California
Signature Programs
Saint Mary’s Core Curriculum
Collegiate Seminar
January Term Program
 
Saint Mary’s Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum consists of skills, knowledge, and values that provide the foundation of undergraduate student learning at
Saint Mary’s College. It is an intentional, developmental, and integrated program of study in four broad intellectual areas:
Habits of Mind, Pathways to Knowledge, Theological Understanding, and Engaging the World.
Habits of Mind: Fundamental to a liberal arts education are the habits of mind that prepare students for a lifetime of
learning and critical engagement with the world. A trajectory of developmental learning begins in the first-year writing,
and continues through January Term and Collegiate Seminar courses. The Habits of Mind curriculum serves as a foun-
dation for developing students’ skills in Critical Thinking, Shared Inquiry, Written & Oral Communication, and
Research Practices.
Pathways to Knowledge: An understanding of the diverse ways that humans encounter and explain the world is a
central component of a liberal arts education. Through specially designated courses in the disciplines, the SMC Core as-
sures that students will tread the most important pathways to knowledge: Math, Science, Social Science, Arts and
Humanities, and Second Language Proficiency. 
Theological Understanding: Theological Understanding invites students from all faiths and none to explore the
perennial questions of theology and the implications that such questions have for how we should live both individually
and as a community. Students meet this goal with courses designated to Christian Foundations and Theological
Explorations.
Engaging the World: In fulfillment of the Catholic, Lasallian, and liberal arts mission of the College, SMC students
engage with the world beyond their immediate context. Students will explore justice, global citizenship, and community
engagement through Identity, Power, and Equity in the United States, Global Issues and Perspectives, and Engaged
Learning. 
Collegiate Seminar
Since 1941, Collegiate Seminar has been central to the undergraduate experience at Saint Mary’s College. The program, revised
and renewed over time, seeks to engage Saint Mary’s students in a critical and collaborative encounter with the world of ideas,
as expressed in great and challenging texts from across cultures and times. Attending to the dialogue among writers and tradi-
tions, students take part in the Great Conversation. The program seeks to help them develop as curious, thoughtful members of
an intellectual community, able to think clearly, critically, and collaboratively, and to articulate their ideas effectively in speech
and writing - powers that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
As Collegiate Seminar reflects the core identity of Saint Mary’s as an intellectual community, it involves all undergraduate stu-
dents and faculty throughout the schools and academic departments of the College. It promotes collaborative dialogue and re-
spect for multiple perspectives and interpretations, inviting students and faculty to share their different ways of seeing and
thinking in a thoughtful, serious, and respectful conversation.
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In Collegiate Seminar classes, students read and discuss challenging texts from diverse genres, traditions, and periods, and, un-
der the guidance of faculty from many disciplines, test their own experience and their notions of authentic humanity against
them. They develop an appreciation for the diverse ways of knowing that the texts embody, and for the intellectual threads that
connect the texts through history and culture. In their Seminars, they create the groundwork for a lifelong reflective pursuit of
meaning and truth, and for a method of seeking truth that attends to and values the views of others.
January Term Program
Since 1970, the January Term (JAN Term) Program has offered both undergraduate students and faculty the opportunity to ex-
plore courses and experiences that depart from the constraints of the regular semester. Here, students are encouraged to ex-
plore beyond their major, minor, or other Core requirements. Each year, faculty develop a new curriculum composed of content
and approaches designed to stimulate the imagination, and experiment with both subject matter and technique.
Like Collegiate Seminar, all undergraduate students and faculty from across the College participate in January Term. Students
and faculty are freed from disciplinary boundaries to create innovative learning experiences intended to spark curiosity. Since
students enroll in only one course at a time, faculty members expect more and tend to increase the pace of instruction.
The College offers on-campus courses as well as off-campus travel courses throughout the United States and many parts of the
globe. Many courses emphasize experiential learning through service, community-based research, and on-site learning relevant
to the region.
Each January promises new and unique opportunities. January Term is designed to suspend the ordinary and engage the extra-
ordinary, nurturing students as lifelong learners.
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Signature Programs