This summer will bring 30 different major summer courses with multiple benefits to the students.
Joey Sullivan / Equinox Staff
Assistant Director of Continuing Education Steve Kessler said students get more individual attention and they can focus more on their courses in the summer.
Students can perform more effectively in summer when there is less to do on campus.
Kessler said, “there are fewer things going on, fewer distractions for students in the summer. So, it is a good time to concentrate on one or two or three courses.”
The summer classes will start on May 14 and run through the end of July. Students can take various courses which last about six weeks.
Kessler said there are 200 sections. While two thirds of those are online or blended courses, the others are traditional or lecture based.
He said, “We will register people throughout the summer. So, usually about 20% of Keene State’s population take some summer classes.”
He added, “Right now, about 600 students have registered so far. And the prediction is about 800.”
Students can take classes from every discipline. Kessler said, “Almost all the majors are representative. A lot of ISP courses and lower level, which is always important for students.”
He added, “We also do independent studies and a lot of internships happen in the summer.”
Summer can benefit students in various ways. Kessler said, “student use summer classes in different ways. Some need to catch up, some student trying to get ahead.”
He added, “A student who has a definite plan in mind who takes summer classes every semester could graduate in three years instead of four. Some students have high credit majors and so they can take care of summer and maybe light up their load little bit for the following spring.”
KSC junior Carley Treshinsky is taking the class Intro to Statistics this summer.
She said, “Between being an exercise science major with a biology minor and trying to fit in all of my prerequisite classes for graduate school, having the summer to get those classes done helps a lot.”
Treshinsky said, “Taking summer classes benefits me because they allow me to stay on track with all of my classes and not have to fit so many in during the fall and spring semesters.”
She added, “If I could not take summer classes, I probably would have to stay longer than four years.”
Kessler said, “Some students will use summer sessions to hopefully improve their GPA, retake courses they didn’t do well in the spring. Sometimes students are not able to get the course they want in the spring or fall because too many people enrolled, and they can do that in summer. “
Kessler said over one hundred professors are willing to offer summer classes, providing students varieties of courses, including some season based and experiential courses like ecological agriculture.
Kessler said, “There is one course called ecological agriculture. So, they will be here on campus growing vegetables. That doesn’t happen in the spring.”
KSC Geography Professor Dr. Sasha Davis is teaching two online courses this summer, which will run from May 28 to July 6.
Davis said, “The first class is ISGEOG 100, which is Introduction to Geography. This course covers general world geography and examines subjects like natural earth processes (climate, ecology and geology) and also human processes like world politics and the global economy.”
He added, “This course is designed to give students “IS” credits for their ISP program, and introduce them to global issues and to help students understand our world better.”
The second course he is teaching in this summer is called “Apocalypse, Science and Society;” ISGEOG 399.
Davis said, “This 300-level IS course can be useful for students who need to fulfill their 300-level ISP requirement. This course is really fun to teach, and it focuses on natural and human-caused disasters and the way societies fear and prepare for them. We look at different kinds of ‘world-ending’ scenarios such as super volcanoes, asteroid strikes, nuclear war and climate change. The class uses lectures and readings, but also, we watch films and analyze those to understand better both the science of the processes that create disasters, as well as the contemporary cultural narratives we have about catastrophes.”
Summer classes also benefit students financially.
Kessler said, “It is also, specially for out-of-state students, it is a money saver. Tuition for out-of-state students in summer is only about $50 per credit… That’s the difference in several hundred dollars per credits between fall or spring.”
He added that in-state students can also save money because the fees are reduced by 33 percent in summer.
Summer courses can be multi-beneficial to the students which can give them many other opportunities.
Kessler said, “Sometimes students will take summer classes, so that they can study abroad in the following spring
and use that time for semester away instead, which I think is everybody should do that.”
Treshinsky said, “I do recommend them [for people] who have a lot of classes to fit in and want to get their degree in four years without worrying about having to stay longer.”
Benajil Rai can be contacted at brai@kscequinox.com
