Centre News
CentreTerm 2011 courses offer fascinating topics, exciting adventures
December 9, 2010 By Abby Malik
India is a popular location for CentreTerm courses, and a class will be heading to the country this January to study the
“Anthropology of Tourism.” In past years, among other activities,
Centre students have spent their time in India leading women’s
education classes (above) and visiting religious sites.
In New Zealand, Centre students study volcanoes, visit hotsprings, go sky-diving and hike up glaciers.
When Centre College students come back from vacation in January, they’ll be making plans to travel abroad or take fascinating courses during CentreTerm, including “Election Fraud and Monitoring in the U.S. and the World,” “Actualizing the Big Spill,” “Japanese Culture in 16 Days,” “Shrimp: A Global Trade Giant” and “Aliens, Atlantis and Archeology.”
Creative topics, independent research, off-campus programs and internships are the rule, not the exception, for CentreTerm (the College’s distinctive, three-week January term). The locations for off-campus study and the courses offered change from year-to-year depending on the interests of students and faculty. Among a number of options, this year’s off-campus sites will allow students to explore:
• Spanish Culture Abroad in Catalonia
• The Holy Land: Historical and Theological Studies of Israel
• Anthropology of Tourism: India/Nepal
• Ancient and Modern Greece
• African Politics and Civil Society: The Case of Cameroon
Centre is unusual among colleges with its 4-1-4 structured academic year. Students take four classes in the fall and four classes in the spring. In between, they participate in CentreTerm, three weeks of total immersion into fascinating, interdisciplinary subjects. Students take one class with a professor who is teaching only one class. This intensive short term allows students and professors the opportunity to get to know one another even better than in the longer terms.
During CentreTerm, all first-year students take a first-year studies course designed to provide a small-group learning environment that engages students and faculty in an intensive intellectual experience and fosters basic educational skills—how to read critically, think logically and communicate effectively.
For more information about CentreTerm, click here.
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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Forbes magazine ranks Centre 24th among all the nation's colleges and universities and No. 1 among all institutions of higher education in the South. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, click here.