About Frontiers

Welcome to Frontiers, Goucher's First Year Colloquium

How can we live securely in a dangerous world? .... Why are Americans turning to alternative therapies to address their health problems? …. What happens to us when we step across the frontier separating the garden from the wilderness, the tamed from the untamed? …. “Am I Black or White? Am I Straight or Gay?” ….  Is the development of scientific theory based on empirical evidence and rational reasoning free from bias?  … How do you characterize yourself as a musician? ….  What does it mean to consider the suffering of non-human animals, and what are we compelled to do about that suffering? 

This is a just a sampling of the questions you will have the opportunity to investigate this Fall in one of Goucher’s first year seminars.  Each seminar draws on the passions, expertise and creative interests of an enthusiastic professor to investigate cutting edge material. Unlike a first year survey course that tries to give an overview of an entire field or discipline, each Frontiers seminar examines a particular question or topic in depth and from multiple points of view. Hallmarks of a Frontiers course are lively and informed class discussions; support in developing the skills of critical and creative thinking, reading and writing; and the opportunity to work collaboratively with other students on a project that your group designs and develops independently. Each class operates as an engaged intellectual community, and class discussions are enriched by community-based projects, guest visits from experts in the Baltimore-Washington area, field trips, and opportunities for hands-on investigations. 

We call the seminar program “Frontiers” to emphasize the ways that – just as your Goucher education overall will encourage you to cross boundaries and explore the meaning of global citizenship – your first year seminar is designed so that  you, your classmates and a skillful teacher embark on a shared intellectual adventure that offers the excitement of intellectual discovery and the pleasures of creative accomplishment.

Your Frontiers class will also serve as your advising group, a place where you are challenged and supported to develop the skills needed to engage deeply and critically with complex materials, to take risks, to reflect on your own strengths, passions and goals, and to begin to develop a vision for your four-year long journey through the liberal arts. 

When we recently asked seniors at Goucher to reflect on their experiences in Frontiers, they said that the class helped them adjust to the expectations of college, encouraged them to think independently, and provided them with new lenses with which to see the world.

And when we surveyed upper class students, one of the main pieces of advice they had for you was to choose your Frontiers course deliberately. This might mean that you use this class to develop and extend an existing interest. You might use it to learn more about a potential major and to try something out that you think will be of long term interest. You might, on the other hand, use this opportunity to learn about something completely new -- to challenge yourself, to move beyond your comfort zone, to ask new questions and see the world in a new way. For example, a Frontiers course can provide a unique opportunity for a biologist to practice improvisation on the piano, for a history major to learn the science of acupuncture, or for a political scientist to read and write poetry.

We encourage you to read the course descriptions over carefully, and perhaps to share the list with a friend, a parent, or a mentor who knows you well. If you have questions, please contact the Frontiers Program Director, Barbara Roswell, at broswell@goucher.edu.