The Collegiate Scholars Program offers lectures, classes, seminars, and senior thesis opportunities to students who participate. Courtesy | Facebook
Seventeen seniors in Hillsdale’s Collegiate Scholars Program are defending their theses this semester following spring break, which is a culmination of approximately one and a half years of research and writing.
“By the end of the process, they go from just beginning with a general question to having written upwards of 30 pages about what they’re interested in,” Eric Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Classics and Chairman of the Collegiate Scholars Program, said.
The Collegiate Scholars Program offers lectures, classes, seminars, and senior thesis opportunities to students who participate. Students can apply to the program as early as their sophomore years.
Beginning the spring semester of their junior year, students in the program take a class titled “Life of the Mind,” in which students begin their thesis process.
“Ideally by the end of that class, they have a topic and a committee,” Hutchinson said. “They have a large part of their bibliography and they at least know where things are and what things they need to look at. By the end of that semester, they’ve submitted a prospectus to me and to other members.”
Students then spend their senior year narrowing their thesis and writing the paper, with a first draft due in the middle of February. Thesis topics vary within the program, depending on the discipline of the student. The maximum page limit for the thesis is 30 pages.
One senior had presented a thesis in the fall semester, with a total of 18 presenting this academic year, Hutchinson said.
“CSP theses are required to be interdisciplinary, and students are able to incorporate their major and their various interests. We have theses on political topics including abortion and legal issues, various authors and literary works, philosophy, history, and theology,” junior and co-consul of CSP Adeline Kaufman said in an email.
Senior Caitlin Filep defended her thesis, “Metaphor as Nature: Transcendent Truth and Natural Metaphors in Emily Dickinson’s Poetics” March 27. She is studying English with a minor in Greek.
“The defense went phenomenally,” Filep said. “It was absolutely a blessing from the Lord, it just went so much better than I could have expected. I was really pleased to see all the support that I received from some of the people that I invited.”
Filep said she is grateful for the opportunity to write and defend a thesis, which she sees as the best way to conclude her undergraduate academic career.
“It’s incredibly rewarding and fruitful to have something where you can culminate all of your thoughts and work during your academic career,” Filep said. “It kind of focuses it into something that you love, and you get to present it in that way. I didn’t realize how cool of an experience that would be until I was actually doing it.”
Thesis defenses are held in the Heritage Room and are open to the student body. More information regarding the times of specific defenses can be found in the Student Activities Office email.
“I think the process is really useful for students regardless of what sort of field or vocation they’re going to end up doing after college, because of what they have to learn to do,” Hutchinson said. “The kinds of skills that they have to use in completing this project are transferable to a lot of other domains.”
