Summer Pre-College Goes Abroad
What do you get when you take six years of experience educating high school students in a college environment and add a campus in Italy home to over 1,000 Marist students? I am pleased to announce that this summer the Marist Pre-College Program will expanded to include two courses on our campus in Florence, Italy!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Summer Pre-College Program, Marist offers an opportunity for rising juniors and seniors in high school to experience college life while earning three college credits. This challenging yet rewarding academic experience allows students to utilize our state-of-the-art technology, work with our incredible faculty, gain hands-on experience in their respective fields, all while getting an early taste of college life.
Since the Pre-College Program’s inception in 2006, the popularity has grown exponentially year after year with the addition of new courses, new faculty, and this year, a new location. In Italy, attendees will be experiencing student life and a rigorous academic course load while living in the heart of the beautiful European city of Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance.
Students have been traveling to Florence for centuries, inspired by the deep history and rich traditions in art and philosophy. The Marist Italy campus reflects the innovation meets tradition approach Marist College is known for. Resources range from utilizing the latest software for digital design on Mac computers to restoration of some of Europe’s oldest works of art in the Via del Melarancio classrooms. Of course, being the birthplace of the Renaissance, students will be surrounded by inspiring architecture and have the opportunity to view original pieces of art dating back to the 14th century. The Italy campus allows for cultural exploration through Florence’s rich history, art, cuisine, and architecture. This distinct European city is home to some of the region’s most recognizable buildings, including the Santa Maria del Firenze, more commonly known as the Duomo. As the second most popular study abroad destination for English speaking students, even those arriving with no knowledge of the Italian language or culture will be able to navigate through their new environment with ease. With access to over 70 museums and countless artistic inspirations, Florence is a student-friendly environment which offers the opportunity to study while experiencing one of the world’s most culturally rich cities.
The 2012 program will run from July 15-28th. For more information on our Summer Pre-College Programs, or if you have any high school students in mind that may be interested, please do not hesitate to contact the admission office at 845-575-3226, or visit www.marist.edu/prepollege. Thank you and enjoy your summer!
PRE-COLLEGE FILM PROGRAM A SUCCESS!
Eleven high school juniors and seniors attended Marist’s Pre-College Digital Movie-Making Program during the summer of 2011. They created a five-minute film in two weeks.
Assistant professor of media arts Josh Robbins led the event along with professor Jeff Bass, James Duryea, and Lee Walis with students Mike Caiola, ’11, and Nick Sortino, ’11, as teaching assistants.
“I loved it because we got to make movies the way movies are supposed to be made,” Robbins said.
The students, along with Robbins, wrote the script while taking intensive workshops in screenwriting, directing actors, blocking and the breaking down of each department. Once the script was written and pre-production was finalized, they created the film during three days of 12- hour shoots. The students acted in the film as well.
“One frustrating thing I find doing movies in college is that you also have four other classes,” Robbins said. “It’s hard to do production the way it is supposed to be done.”
The film, called “Jack of Hearts,” was shot in the studios on campus as well as outside and around Poughkeepsie.
Robbins said. “When we did the editing, we made decisions together on what shots looked the best.” The students got an additional treat when film director A. Sayeeda Clarke, a friend of Robbins, traveled from New York City to teach the students about how to cast and direct actors in a film.
Robbins is excited to run the program again this summer. “By the end, the kids were really making decisions based on knowledge,” Robbins said. “It was a great time. I got a lot out of it.”
Space is limited, so APPLY TODAY!
Article courtesy of Marist’s FoxTalk Magazine
Marist Pre-College Alumni: Kristal Seidita
Kristal Seidita
Kristal Seidita
Program: Business
Long Island, NY
Business Administration Major
Wellington C Mepham High School
Why I decided to do the Marist Summer Pre-College Program: I was interested in seeing more of Marist campus. I knew in the long run it would benefit me because I could earn 3 college credits.
Best part of my experience: First, my classmates. The best part of the summer program is making new friends. Throughout this program I got close with people from around the world. I still keep in contact with the friends I made at this program. When I stated as a freshman at Marist it made me feel comfortable that I already had friends from the summer program. My best friends currently at Marist is a girl I met at the summer program.
Second, I would say the academic program. This program allowed me to take an elective my first semester freshman year since I already covered the Bus 101 credits. Earning three credits allows you to have a head start your Major. I also met extremely nice professors who gave me letters of recommendation.
Would I recommend the Marist Pre-College Program to someone else? I would definitely recommend this program because it was a fun experience and I got to meet new people along with getting a head start in my education.
Did this program help in the college search process? Yes, for me it made it very clear that Marist was the campus I wanted to live on for the next four years of my life. It was clean, pretty and safe just what I was looking for.
Did this program help you prepare/transition into college? Yes, it gave me a good taste of how it would be to live on my own and helped me adjust and adapt to new surroundings and people.
Marist College Dance Ensemble: Dance Your Story
Marist College Dance Ensemble has just celebrated it’s 15th year anniversary with their show “Dance Your Story” this past weekend Saturday, April 21st and Sunday, April 22nd. The Dance Ensemble has recently received the honor of Club of the Year and it is also one of the largest clubs on campus with over 200 students. Not to mention, it is completely student run. Dancers, students, parents, grandparents and even professors and staff look forward to watching the performances every semester.
The show this year consisted of twenty seven different dances all choreographed by students at Marist. It included a variety of dance styles including Contemporary, Jazz and Hip Hop. We also saw different styles like an Asian Fusion Ballet number, Hula dancing and an African styled dance. The versatility and the creative concepts of these dances and routines kept the audience entertained and engaged. Walking into the McCann center, last minute tickets were purchased until sold out, flowers were being sold for parents to buy for their dancers, and stunning pictures of the talented choreographers were hung up. Before the show begun, the audience could tweet with the hashtag “#mcde” or the twitter name “@maristdance” and have the tweet appear on the backdrop of the stage. This was an awesome and fun way to have the audience and dancers get pumped up for the show. This just shows how much thought and effort the board of the Dance Ensemble put into making this show the best.
I am a freshman here at Marist and this was my first semester participating in the Dance Ensemble. I was in four different dances and needless to say, I absolutely loved it. At the beginning of 
the semester, sign ups for classes are held by e-mail. The classes range from beginner to advanced so even if you have never danced before there are opportunities for you to join! Then classes meet once a week for an hour to learn the routine by their choreographer. Eventually, we reached the all famous “Hell Week.” This is the nickname for the week of jam packed rehearsals the week before the show. The week may be exhausting but it ends up being so much fun. You are spending the whole week with your dance friends and we are just doing what we all love to do anyway. By the time its show weekend, all of our hard work has paid off as family and friends are amazed by the creativity and talent each member of the club has.
-Deanna Clark
Sustainability Day Success!
Many students came to the 5th Annual Sustainability Day to see how they can live a “green” life while at college! The day was filled with presentations by keynote speakers and Marist students and administrators. There were also tours of the Hancock Center, films to do with environmental issues, and booths by some of the clubs on campus. The event was organized by a group on campus called CSAC, which stands for Campus Sustainability Advisory Committee. CSAC is comprised of professors and administrators from different fields at Marist, representing everything from mathematics to student affairs. Students are also invited to be involved with CSAC, which I am through SGA Green, as well as some other students interested in environmental policy. It was quite an honor to work with CSAC this year to plan this year’s Sustainability Day, and it was even more of an honor to be able to present during the day.
Along with the presentation that I was able to make with S.E.E.D. about things that students can do to be more sustainable, Mr. Justin Butwell, Director of Physical Plant, and Dr. Geoff Brackett, Executive Vice-President, made a presentation about the sustainable efforts that have been put in place on the Marist College campus, specifically in the new Hancock Center. They also spoke about the expansion to the music department and the renovations to the dining hall in the near future and how they both will be completed using sustainable measures. When they finished their presentation, many students asked questions for more details about the exciting renovations that will be happening throughout this summer, next school year, and the summer of 2013. Later in the day, Mr. Butwell offered three tours of the Hancock Center so students who were interested could see firsthand the backstage ways that the Hancock Center is such a “green” building. Students were able to see how the data in Hancock is cooled with air from outside, and the tour concluded with a view from the roof. Many students had no idea that the roof of the Hancock Center is a green roof, including myself!
Sustainability Day was a huge success this year and I really learned a lot from the presentation and tour that Dr. Brackett and Mr. Butwell led. I hope that with new technology and new innovations, we will be able to see more green practices on campus, such as in any new renovations or new buildings in the future. For now, we as Marist students can do our part and do things like saving water, turning off lights, recycling, and so on. It’s not difficult if students are aware of their surroundings and do what they can to save the planet, one step at a time.
Go Green!
Courtney Lawlor ‘15
Follow @ce_lawl
Follow SGA Sustainability @SGAGreen
