Program Overview

Advanced Integrated Seminar

The Advanced Integrated Seminar (AIS) offers senior students a unique, self-directed opportunity to dive deeply into a topic of their choice, extending learning beyond the classroom. This required capstone experience fosters critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving, while building essential skills such as public speaking, research, media literacy, project planning, self-sufficiency, and goal setting—tools that will serve students well in college and beyond. AIS encourages interdisciplinary exploration and may include community service, alumni mentorship, or an internship to enrich the experience. With support from a program coordinator and faculty advisor, students take the lead as true experts on their chosen topics. Spanning the full academic year, AIS allows students dedicated time in their schedules to fully engage with their projects.

Key Elements of AIS

• Proposal: A planning document submitted in the spring of junior year and reviewed by a faculty panel.
• Paper: Based on a literature review and additional research through media, interviews, observations, and experiences.
• Product: Application of learning from research through creation of a performance, demonstration, or publication; an internship, extended volunteer experience, or action project can fulfill this requirement.
• Portfolio: A space for reflection and communication of accomplishments.
• Presentation: A celebration of what students learned through their AIS experience.

Example Projects

• Dirt on the Brain: This project explored how gardening is used and why it works, digging deep into the psychological and physical reasons gardening changes us with a special focus on how it impacts children.
• The Experience of Unhoused Women: This project looks at misconceptions regarding homelessness and the factors that make women more susceptible to becoming homeless. It also evaluated the effectiveness of the policies in place to protect homeless women and the mainstream prejudice and trauma that unhoused individuals face.
• The Trope of the Tortured Artist: The Trope of the Tortured Artist in Classical Music examined certain pressures on classical music students that may lead to mental health issues and burnout. It also looked at solutions for musicians' high rates of mental health issues.
• Responsible Parenting 101: Responsible Parenting 101: How to Understand Child Abuse, Neglect, and Trauma, looked at the effects of traumatic childhood experiences on adulthood. This project also surveyed anonymous sources on parental responsibility and control over a child's developmental experience.