Once I made my decision to come to PC, all I heard from every single person I talked to was a variation of..." Oh man their Western Civ Program is quite the work load." The more I heard this phrase, the more intimidated I became and I wasn't even at school yet! Then one morning, my mom, sister and I took a trip to Providence to buy my books and I asked the woman working in the bookstore to help my find my Civ books, she asked what team I was on and she walked me over to a long shelf covered in stacks of books. Looking at the heap of books, I asked, "Well which book do I need?" only to be shocked even more at her reply, " All of them." So not only had I heard from everybody and their cousin that Civ was rediculously hard, but I now saw how many books I needed for this ONE class, (overall it was around 12 books total). Talk about scaring freshmen out of their shoes! But once school started, my whole view on this class changed and I want to clear up any fears or intimidation about Civ that may have an affect on prospective students choosing PC...

Western Civ is composed of a team of four professors that take turns teaching the class their respected subjects of : Literature, History, Theology and Philosophy. Civ is required for all students and is designed to be a multi-disciplinary 4 semester class. This means for example, if we learn about Early Greek history on Monday, we may read a play for our literature class from that time period on Tuesday, then on Wednesday discuss the theology in the play, while questioning the values and virtues of the story on Thursday in Philosophy. That is what I have found to absolutely love about my Civ class is that unlike your standard college course where just one subject is discussed, Civ takes 4 subjects and blends them all together to obtain a better understanding of what we are learning.

At least once a week we have what is called a Civ Seminar where our 90 student class is divided into four smaller sections that meet separately and more intimately to talk about certain topics. It is during these seminars that we unfortunately ALWAYS have a quiz, and we are on task to have about 20 per semester. But after the quiz, we really get into the details of the topic for the day and with a smaller class, there is more communication and class participation; you really get to know your seminar professor on a personal level, which is great.

If the commitment to Civ is making you debate whether or not you are interested in PC, I hope this cleared up some of your doubts. Like I said, I too was intimidated, but now realize how enlightening the class is. Yes Civ meets everyday, but it is just another class on your schedule.

Western Civ is definitely a great PC trademark and it should not be feared!