"I love my class," senior Margery Yeager said enthusiastically about the Explorations class - "Political Domination and Student Activism" - she co-teaches with fellow senior David Moon. The atypical learning environment of the Explorations program, in which upperclassmen teach a seminar class to incoming freshmen, has proved to be a rewarding experience for many group leaders and their students.
The Explorations program, an initiative of the Experimental College, was founded in 1972 as a new freshman advising program.
"Explorations offers first-year students advising, learning, and a sense of community within the context of credit-bearing seminars designed and led by upper-level undergraduates," according to the Ex College's Fall Bulletin. The program also provides a unique opportunity for student leaders to take on the triple roles of professor, advisor, and friend to their group of freshmen.
The idea for senior Lauren Maggio and junior Chelsea Davenport's Explorations class, "Cultivating Peace: Exploring International Children's Literature," came from an idea to include an interdisciplinary seminar for the incoming freshmen.
Last spring, "the Peace and Justice Studies Department was trying to work with Explorations under the umbrella of the Decade for Peace" Davenport said. She and Maggio, both self-proclaimed literary-minded people, decided to approach this larger theme through the world of children's literature with their seminar.
"We divided [the course] into four major international conflicts that involve children," Davenport said. The conflicts include World War II traveling to Johannesburg to find their mother. Students paired up to study a chapter of the book and examine the aspects of apartheid it addresses, including socio-economic class differences, racism, and domestic issues.
In addition to studying the relationships between international conflicts and children's literature, the members of Maggio and Davenport's class share their "roses and thorns," or their ups and downs of the week. Students find relief in sharing the little things that get them through the week - going to see Almost Famous with friends, doing well on a Calculus exam - and commiserating over their endless homework and lack of sleep. Maggio and Davenport also set aside time each class to help students navigate Tufts' unusual calendar ("So we have Friday's schedule on a Wednesday?!") and the always-confusing block schedule.
Other Explorations leaders take approaches similar to that of Maggio and Davenport by trying to incorporate advising into the academic environment. Junior Jenn Sapp and her co-leader Michelle Kahn, who teach a class titled "Alcohol and Society," always begin class by discussing the highs and lows of everyone's week.
Seniors Greg Propper and Megan Dooley, who teach "The Making of a President: the 2000 Election," also try to both advise and teach their students. "We make sure we set aside at least a half an hour each week to go over advising stuff," Propper said.
Explorations leaders must strike a balance between maintaining control of their classes and conserving a feeling of social equality in the classroom. Many leaders discover that they must simultaneously be teachers, advisors, and friends to the freshmen in their classes.
"We were the first upperclassmen [our freshmen] met at Tufts," said senior Mike Glassman, who teaches a class titled "Creating Television" with fellow senior Jason Wang.
Leaders act not only as academic advisors to their students, but also as mentors; freshmen often consider their leaders to be guides to social life at Tufts. "Although this is an academic class, it's a class that helps adjust the freshmen to college," Sapp said.
"You're not only their teacher, but you're their peer leader," Yeager said. She suggested that maintaining an atmosphere of mutual respect often helps to incorporate these roles more easily.
Many Explorations leaders find that their new positions as teachers allow them to greater appreciate the time and effort professors put into teaching courses. Each week leaders spend two to three hours researching and collecting material for class discussion and creating a lesson plan. "It's a lot of work - we get a whole new perspective of how much professors put [into their classes]," Propper said.
Leaders usually begin planning and researching the classes during the spring semester and continue organizing over the summer. Yeager said she and Moon "spent hours and hours on the proposal [for our class]."
According to Associate Director of the Ex College Howard Woolf, the Ex College runs two informational meetings - one in November and one in February - for those upperclassmen interested in leading an Explorations class. He said the most important consideration in leading a class is the time commitment.
The Explorations program carries as much academic weight as any other course at Tufts. According to the Ex College Bulletin, in addition to teaching class each week, leaders also attend a credit-bearing methods course in which they "are exposed to a range of teaching techniques and learning theories, asked to articulate their course goals, and give a forum for discussing the unique problems that inexperienced teachers often encounter."
Robyn Gittleman, Director of the Ex College and Explorations coordinator, serves as a resource for the student leaders. "[She] acts as a mentor to the two leaders, specifically around the teaching method," Woolf said. Gittleman and Woolf help student leaders find material, deal with problems, and synthesize ideas.
Most leaders agree that the Ex College administration is helpful and supportive throughout the planning and teaching process. "They've been great," Propper said.
Explorations classes benefit both the freshmen and the leaders.
"I think this entire program on a whole is a great experience for [incoming freshmen] and for us," Glassman said.
