First Year
First-year female-identified students apply to the Baldwin Scholars program in the fall, with the cohort announced before Thanksgiving. The program begins in the spring with a team-building retreat and a seminar for academic credit that is open only to the scholars. The course is team-taught by distinguished faculty with diverse intellectual interests in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
Spring Seminar — Sociology 180S: Perceptions of Self, Society, and the Natural World
The course encourages students to assess how perceptions are conditioned by the times we live in, by our families, by religious beliefs and other factors. How does a female-identified college student in the 21st century see the world differently than a Native American born in the 18th century, and why? The course destabilizes the notion that self, society and the natural world are fixed and unchanging. Through observation and research, students learn to assess the environment and determine how they might participate creatively as leaders. The course includes three units: one on the natural world, one on society, and one on the self. Each unit is taught by a female-identified faculty member. Students learn different ways of engaging the world intellectually and increase self-awareness and self-knowledge.
Sophomore Year
Baldwin Scholars live together on West Campus. Participants may pair with another Scholar or room with another first-year student.
Junior Year
During the summer before or after junior year, the Scholars complete an academic research project or an internship in a field of the student's choice. The Baldwin Scholars program will provide a stipend to cover living expenses.
Senior Year
Baldwin Scholars come back together in the classroom in the fall for a senior seminar entitled "What's Next: Women, Leadership, Purpose." Seniors also enjoy a number of events leading up to their graduation, including a senior dinner and other celebratory occasions.
What's Next: Women, Leadership, Purpose — senior seminar
The seminar is designed as an opportunity to reflect on women and the professions generally and to prepare students for post-collegiate futures more specifically. Professor Leslie Maxwell leads the seminar. Students will be challenged to take up these questions:
- Who are professional women?
- What do they care about and why?
- How do they care? What values guide them in their work? How do they show up, for themselves and for others? How do they handle uncertainty or difficulty?
- How might their stories inform your own narratives, goals, and plans?