Most institutions don’t pay much attention to the unstructured zone between courses and extra-curricular activities, but at Olin, we’ve given it a lot of thought. We call it the Learning Continuum. It consists of courses, undergraduate research opportunities, “Passionate Pursuits,” co-curricular offerings, community service, service to the college, clubs and organizations and recreation. If it helps you to visualize it, take a look at the Learning Continuum graphic (JPEG, PDF). Some of the key opportunities in the Learning Continuum are summarized below
As an Olin student, you'll have the ability to start new clubs and organizations with an uncommon amount of support. Start a photography club, an a cappella singing group, or a poetry group - we'll support you all the way! Olin’s student government, CORe, has created a website with descriptions of the clubs at Olin: http://core.olin.edu.
The Council of Olin Representatives (CORe) is a student-elected, student-led body that serves the students of Olin College and represents them to other parties. Olin's student government is unique in the strong ties it has to the college's governance structure and in having a high level and variety of representation, responsiveness to student initiatives, and a central role as a hub of information relating to the student body.
To help them stay well-rounded and balanced, students are encouraged to pursue their personal artistic, humanistic, philanthropic, and technical interests through the college’s Passionate Pursuit program. The program enables students to develop their interests with the support and guidance of a faculty member and, in many cases, funding from the college. Participating students complete a final project at the end of each semester and receive non-degree credit for their efforts. Examples of recent Passionate Pursuits include trapeze lessons, exploring Kung Fu, video game design, digital videography, conversational Arabic, scuba diving, aerial silk acrobatics, exploring the world of cooking, a comparative study in social dance, and choral music of the world.
Olin's co-curricular offerings combine fun and intellectual awareness. Faculty or staff members lead the co-curricular groups and give transcript notation to students with regular participation. Students register during the first week of each semester for co-curriculars such as the following: Latin Dance, Make Your Own Documentary, Chinese Conversation, Choral Music, Current Events Table, Engineering for Humanity, FoodLab, Olin Brass Ensemble, Gender and Engineering, German Conversation, New England Parks and Selected Readings, The Art and Traditions of Middle Eastern Dance, Ornithology for Engineers, and Spanish Conversation.
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