Junior Seminars

For Students and Advisors

The Junior Seminar is intended to be the culminating experience of the Stetson General Education curriculum. The course builds upon, reinforces, and enhances foundational skills—in reading, writing, speaking, critical thinking, and information literacy—introduced in the First Year Seminar and subsequently developed in other General Education and major-specific courses. At the heart of each JSEM are Stetson's core values: personal growth, intellectual development, and global citizenship, which manifest themselves through deep engagement with one of the five areas of Personal and Social Responsibility: Ethical or Spiritual Inquiry, Health and Wellness, Human Diversity, Social Justice, or Environmental Responsibility. Whatever the course's actual subject, each JSEM helps students develop their capacities for ethical reflection and action in their personal, professional, and public lives. Although offered from a particular department or program, a cross-disciplinary environment is created that promotes the integration of learning through the disciplinary training students from a variety of majors bring to the course. Such diversity allows each class to transcend the paradigms or methods of any one major and to make connections across intellectual borders. JSEMs are enriched through active discussion and writing-enhanced pedagogy; and many, though not all, courses include some sort of experiential component: fieldwork, hands-on assignment, and/or community engagement.

 JSEM courses have the following goals:

  • To enrich student understanding of a particular values area in search of personal and intellectual growth
  • To challenge how students learn by providing a major academic experience in a new field of study
  • To encourage personal and social growth by interacting with students from a wide range of majors and minors
  • To bring a sense of conclusion of general education goals

With the following learning objectives:

  • Write effectively for multiple audiences and for multiple purposes
  • Speak in an understandable, organized, and audience-appropriate fashion to explain ideas, express feelings, or support a conclusion
  • Engage with information strategically and for a variety of purposes
  • Analyze, evaluate, and synthesize data to reach a conclusion or develop a position
  • Make connections among ideas and experiences and synthesize ideas across perspectives