Program Overview

First Year

First-year Elon College Fellows are in a common advising seminar (Elon 1010) and also take the required academic freshman seminar together (COR 1100: The Global Experience). Students also attend an field-trip colloquium in the fall that integrates with the COR 1100 course and introduces the arts and sciences as relevant to any issue. A required 4 credit Winter Term class titled Paths of Inquiry in the Arts and Sciences continues the introduction to the liberal arts as by examining different academic approaches to discovery. Fellows learn to ask good questions and begin to understand how different disciplines work independently and collaboratively in addressing complex questions and problems. Part of this course is a five-day trip to Washington, D.C., to observe the arts and sciences in action

Second Year

Sophomore Fellows may serve as student mentors for first-year Fellows and continue to take courses in general studies and in the intended major. In the fall, sophomore Fellows enroll in a 1 credit seminar in either the Arts and Humanities, the Mathematical and Natural Sciences or the Social Sciences depending upon the student’s intended academic major. These branch specific seminars consider connections among related disciplines and help second year Fellows to confirm the academic major and to identify a potential faculty mentor with whom to work on a two year research project.  Second year Fellows join Third year Fellows in an end of fall event and dinner at which Junior Fellows present their research proposals.

Third Year

Junior Fellows enroll in a two-credit fall seminar that prepares them for their research project. By the end of the fall seminar, Junior Fellows, working with their faculty mentors, will develop a formalized research proposal. Junior Fellows present their proposals at a poster session event attended by second year Fellows and their faculty mentors. Completion of the Fellows research project requires enrollment in a minimum of 4 credit hours of department research over the course of the junior and senior years. Junior Fellows may also serve as mentors for first-year Fellows.

Fourth Year

Senior Fellows continue and complete their research projects. Expected outcomes of Elon College Fellows research is a high quality product appropriate to the discipline and a professional presentation of the research and its outcomes to an appropriate audience. The year ends with a Senior Celebration for Fellows and their Mentors.