High School Seminars

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Each year since 1959, Colgate has given area high school students a taste of the college experience. Faculty and administrators teach four sessions, meeting for three classes each, during the academic year.

The university’s mission is to provide a demanding, expansive educational experience to a select group of diverse, talented, intellectually sophisticated students who are capable of challenging themselves, their peers, and their teachers in a setting that brings together living and learning.

The mission of the High School Seminar Program is to use Colgate’s resources to benefit the region by introducing area high school students to college-level topics that are not available at their schools and to encourage college attendance by providing them with the opportunity to experience a taste of life on a college campus.

Daily Schedule

Arrival: Buses unload students at Merrill House at approximately 3:45 p.m.
Classes begin: 4 p.m.
Dinner break: 5⁠–⁠5:45 p.m.
Classes resume: 5:50⁠–⁠6:30 p.m.
Departure: 6:30 p.m., students board buses at Campus Safety's parking lot.

High School Seminar Dates for Spring Session IV, 2026

  • Wednesday, March 11
  • Wednesday, March 25
  • Wednesday, April 1
  • Alternative weather date: Wednesday, April 15

Please email ramann@colgate.edu with any questions.

Current Course Descriptions

Milica Kolarevic, Visiting Assistant Professor of Global Public and Environmental Health, Colgate University

Who owns your health when your body becomes a stream of data?

This seminar examines how wearable technologies and health apps transform ordinary bodily functions into medicalized data. From heartbeats and calorie counts to sleep cycles and daily steps, the body becomes a site of constant monitoring and optimization. Students will explore the ethical and cultural consequences of quantifying health, asking how data-driven self-surveillance shapes our understanding of wellness, autonomy, and inequality.

Jessica Murray, Assistant Director of Student Success, Colgate University

Based on the work of Sandra Yancy McGuire, this course will help high school students become effective, efficient, and empowered college learners. Students will explore how mindset, motivation, and emotion influence learning, and how metacognitive strategies can be used to build sustainable, high-impact study habits. Students will create a personalized “study cycle” plan and gain the confidence and skills to put it into action across any college-level course. Along the way, they will develop a deeper understanding of themselves as learners — and how to take ownership of their academic success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cory Duclos, Director of the Keck Center for Language Study, Colgate University

The novel Don Quixote, written by Miguel de Cervantes is over 400 years old, but it continues to be considered one of the most influential pieces of literature. While the book is credited with establishing the novel as a modern literary genre, it's also a funny and entertaining book to read. In this seminar, you'll get all the historical and cultural background information you'll need in order to read Don Quixote on your own. We will also read some passages of the book together so that you can get a sense of the language and narrative style of the book. Everything we read will be in translation, but we will also discuss aspects of the original Spanish-language text.

Andrew Brawner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Colgate University

A brief overview of how the brain functionally develops and why we think the way we do as we grow up.

Sam Mathews, Assistant Director of Outdoor Education, Colgate University

Have you ever wanted to climb a wall like Spiderman? Take this course and learn how to tie knots, use ropes to belay (hold) other climbers and move up the wall using good technique. At the end, you'll know what rock climbing is really like - not just how it is in the movies or on social media. This class guarantees great fun and that you will be hungry for dinner!*

*students in this class will not eat at the regular time, they will meet at the climbing wall, climb for 1.5 hours and eat afterwards. Wall waiver required for participation.

Lyosha Gorshkov, Director of LGBTQ+ Initiatives, Colgate University

During the class, we will explore how the politics of freedom are connected to a gender, sexuality and power triangle. We will take a close look at the historic evolution of sexuality and gender roles under different political systems and cultural regimes. And, most importantly, how sexuality has become a hot topic of discussion nowadays.

Registration