Viewbook - Colorado College

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Colorado College | 2006 Online Viewbook

The Foundation
Innovative Course Design
Majors & Programs

The Arts

Student Life

Diversity

Athletics



Students at Colorado College devote energy and effort not only to academics but also to interests outside the classroom. Most students participate in at least one extracurricular activity and many hold leadership positions, setting our graduates up for success in their future careers. There are more than 50 clubs covering topics from athletics to the arts, media to debate, and community service to religious life.

A Sampling of Student Organizations

Top Debaters

For honing analytical, communication, and organizational skills, debate is unbeatable. And as many college debaters around the country are learning, it’s also hard to beat the nationally ranked Colorado College debate team. At the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) Championships held March 23-26, 2006, where there were 273 individual teams entered, the Colorado College Speech and Debate Team earned 2nd place in the Overall Team Awards. Two CC students — Kate Storms and David Booth — advanced to the quarterfinal round, placing them in 6th place overall.

Worner Center

The center of campus life at CC, Worner is a gathering place. It is the place to go to the post office, buy event tickets, grab a bite to eat, and meet with friends and professors. It also houses student organization offices, arts and crafts studios, and various other services.


The residential life experience is integral to the learning process, and you will learn as much outside the classroom, during lunchroom debates or late-night chats, as you do in class. This is why we require all students to live on campus for the first three years, and we guarantee housing for all four years. Our close-knit community enables students to truly get to know one another, and students form friendships that will last well beyond CC.

While the residence halls are similar in many ways — all have a variety of planned activities as well as professionally trained live-in staff members — each living community is unique. We have recently renovated buildings, apartments, and houses that are on the National Register of Historic Buildings. Some residences are single-gender, while others are co-ed by wing, floor, or alternating room. All rooms are equipped with Ethernet jacks that allow students to have high-speed Internet access, and the campus as a whole has wireless access. All student buildings adhere to ADA standards. First-year students are assigned to live in one of two residence halls. Upper-class students have the option of living in traditional residence halls, theme houses, small houses, or apartments.

In every residence hall, you’ll find that students plan their own recreational, educational, and cultural activities, ranging from the spontaneous — midnight breakfasts and pool tournaments, to the organized — excursions such as bike trips, hikes, and visits to the CC cabin arranged through the residential life program. About 15 percent of our students belong to a sorority or fraternity on campus.

Anikka’s Tips on how to Survive the Dorms

Photo of Annika Sellz '06The walls are not made of concrete.
You may love to listen to the Dixie Chicks or Barry Manilow (or the Spice Girls in my case) but that does not mean that everyone who shares a wall — or a building — with you likes them as well. Also, remember that the crowds at karaoke bars are there voluntarily....

Sleep is essential.
It is imperative that you learn to sleep in any condition if you expect to survive dorm life. If this means having to use an eye mask and ear plugs, so be it. It’s a guarantee that your sleep schedule will not coincide with you roommate’s or any of the other 25 people on your hall or 250 people in your building.

Decorate — don’t just leave it to your roommate.
If you don’t set some guidelines with your roommate on how your space should look ahead of time, they might put up whatever they can find, just to cover up some of the white wall space. You could very well end up with a Costa Rican flag and a wolf poster that hangs off center above the couch (because a nail hole was already there) as your only decorations.

— Anikka Sellz ’06
Meet the People
Visiting CC
campus community
and beyond

Community is a word that comes up again and again as you read through CC materials, but when you arrive on campus you will discover that it is not only an ideal but a reality. Whether it is in the classroom or in a local or global community, CC supports students as they transform knowledge into action and understanding into caring.

Community-based Learning

“Community-based learning is experiential education, a collaboration between the college and the community,” says Paul Kuerbis, director of the Colket Center for Academic Support. An important emphasis at Colorado College, community-based learning has been incorporated into courses in environmental science, sociology, comparative literature, psychology, chemistry, and philosophy. And the Block Plan facilitates this holistic relationship.“ The experience students have is woven into the course, so it strengthens their academic understanding of that discipline,” says Kuerbis. Students in a biochemistry class studying the AIDS virus worked for Southern Colorado AIDS Project to understand the impact of the disease on social structures. Drama students wrote, produced, and performed the “Ugly Duckling Festival” for local grade-schoolers in their schools, addressing concepts of difference and self-worth.

Community Systems

The problems faced by immigrants in metro Denver and in the rural San Luis Valley were brought to life in the sociology course “Latino Immigration and Urban Change.” During the first half of the block, students collaborate on a survey with a community organization in a disadvantaged Denver neighborhood. In the second, students spend time on the Baca campus, where they are involved with community organizations working with migrant farm laborers. In both environments, students learn not only how to engage with specific populations but also how community organizations operate and how social problems are addressed within organizational frameworks. “Colleges and universities should be involved with their communities,” says Eric Popkin, assistant professor of sociology. “It gives students a deeper understanding of what they’re studying in the classroom, as well as helping the organizations that we work with achieve their objectives.”

The Center for Service
and Learning

The Center for Service and Learning was created to promote an ethic of service and to develop civic-minded leadership among all members of the college community. Its purpose is to recognize and understand the civic and social challenges of our world and to act with others in pursuit of a just society. 84 percent of Colorado College students participate in some form of community service during their four years on campus, and students volunteered more than 43,000 hours of service during 2004-2005.

Career Advising
and Internships

The Career Center helps students clarify career goals, explore graduate study programs, develop effective job search strategies, and identify sources of job opportunities. The staff conducts workshops on interviewing, networking, resume and cover letter writing, and it also organizes recruiting visits from corporations and non-profits, graduate and professional schools, and the Peace Corps. In addition, the center provides individualized services for students, such as videotaped practice interviews, as well as a resource center of material regarding jobs or internships and the graduate school admissions process.