How Shall We Live?: Earlham Seminar I
(Required course for First-Year Students in the Fall Semester)

It begins with a dare: “How shall we live?”

Earlham President David Dawson put this question to the entire College community during his Inaugural Address. How students and faculty go about answering this question says as much, if not more, than any answer they may profess.

Students are invited to take up this question in their first semester as they begin their journey at Earlham.

“How Shall We Live?” is an intimate, collaborative, student-centered experience that will bring students to the heart of what the College community most values in an Earlham education. In this Earlham Seminar, students will substantially engage Earlham's five Principles & Practices of peace and justice, simplicity, integrity, respect for persons and community through readings, discussion, writing and other related activities that draw on content from a variety of disciplines.

Rooted in the testimonies of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), these principles offer a way to think about how members of the Earlham community live and how to put these core values into practice.

The seminar emphasizes intentional collaboration. Reflecting the Quaker philosophy that no one person or group owns the truth, students and faculty come together to critically and sympathetically explore, test and evaluate ideas that arise out of the course and relate to the student's own experience.

Every class will collaborate with one or more other seminars to explore how each course topic intersects with other compelling issues. These opportunities may include discussing common readings, attending events together, sharing a meal, or engaging in a service project that allows you to put Principles & Practices into practice. Throughout the course, students will be asked to listen carefully to their peers, think with agility and power, and respond with commitment. In the process, the faculty helps students to develop their writing, interpretive and other academic skills and enables each student to succeed in their career at Earlham and beyond.

Exploring how the Earlham community can make a lasting, transformative difference in one's life and in the world, this first-semester course helps student begin to answer the question, “How Shall We Live?”

Earlham Seminar II
(One Earlham Seminar II course required for First-Year Students in the Spring Semester)

These second-semester courses engage first-year students in exploring a topic of interest in an intimate, challenging and collaborative learning environment. These seminars introduce students to active and successful participation in a learning community and encourage students to find new ways to engage and understand the world. Earlham Seminars share these distinctive characteristics:

• Investigation of a topic and a set of related questions, using multiple ways of knowing, in order to examine intentionally how knowledge is constructed.

• Grounding in an academic discipline while examining issues from an interdisciplinary scope.

• Readings that engage a range of perspectives, discourses and values.

• Emphasis on reading, reflection, writing and oral communication skills, and providing opportunities for students to critique and analyze information, construct arguments, listen interpretively and demonstrate an understanding of various perspectives.

• Encouragement of personal creativity and confidence in ideas and the development of cooperative learning and research skills.

Earlham Scholars
(Optional Program for First-Year Students)

Earlham Scholars is an enhanced academic program for first-year students. There are extraordinary experiences offered in Education, Environmental Studies, French and Spanish Languages, and Natural Sciences. In their first semester, participants plunge into enhanced classes and study beyond the classroom. Earlham Scholars in each program (except the languages) share residence in the same hall. Read more ...