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After a three-year pilot phase, SAGES recently became the general education curriculum for all Case undergraduates. When we asked students to evaluate several distinctive aspects of the SAGES model, here is what they said:
On the First Seminar experience:
 "I
enjoyed my first-seminar course being
it was one of my only discussion-oriented
classes. It gave me the opportunity
to speak my mind, as opposed to listening to a lecture. Also, I enjoyed
the fact that the first-seminar SAGES course
gave me the opportunity to meet students
in other fields of study."
— Jesse Barrett-Mills
Hometown: Amherst, MA
Academic interests: Psychology, English,
and film
Extracurricular activities: Varsity
football, varsity track,
Sigma Chi
fraternity
 “I
discovered the endless opportunities
and resources here at Case. I learned about perspectives, passions
and creativity.”
— Lindsay Miller
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Academic interests: Engineering,
physics, psychology
Extracurricular activities:
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Club, Physics
and Astronomy Club, tennis and other sports
 “The First Seminar was enjoyable because of the discussion and
debate provided. Rather than just sitting in a classroom listening
to a lecture . . . or sleeping (though I would never consider
such a thing!) we participated actively in stimulating conversation. I
heard some original and thought-provoking
opinions which changed my view of the
world.”
—Nicholas
Matteo
Hometown: Oxford, OH
Academic interests: Computer science,
artificial intelligence,
and robotics,
as well as language
Extracurricular activities:
Medieval Society, open-source programming projects,
e-week Lego ™ robotics
competition
On opportunities for interdisciplinary study:
 “I loved my professor because we looked at texts from a more "historical" perspective
(my professor was a history professor) rather than just analyzing
the intent of the author, as I am more accustomed to doing in
past English classes. In addition, we had a huge variety of
people, and most of them were willing to speak up in discussions,
so there was always an added flavor to every class. Finally,
because I've been following the engineering track, most of my
classes were science and math related, so it was a nice break
to come to such a small, discussion-based class—it usually woke
me up in the morning.”
—Anjuli Sinha
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Likely major: Biochemistry, psychology,
or sociology
Extracurricular activities: Dorm
hall council, MaDaCol (modern dance group)
 “Right now I'm enrolled in “Mathematical Life and Death in the
Ancient Greek Society.” It's a very interesting class that combines
philosophy and mathematics and history. It
really makes you think of math as more than
just numbers.”
—Laura Wine
Hometown: Westerville, OH
Academic interests: Chemistry,
engineering, political science
Extracurricular
activities: Varsity tennis, Alpha Phi sorority
 “Peter McCall [Geological Sciences]
is a wonderful professor, especially in that
he was able to appropriately guide the
seminar without monopolizing it or controlling things too much.
We had open dialogues and allowed discussions to roam freely,
within reason. It was a wonderfully productive class, and I think
that the openness inherent in our class structure allowed us to
come together with open minds and bring all our ideas to the table.
Our topics ranged from religion to politics to science to the
nature of life and death to writing and anything else that we
could think of. I think that the seminar greatly enhanced the
life of my mind and the minds of others in class because we were
allowed so much freedom to explore. We even wrote our own syllabus.
Peter also held me to very high standards
in my writing; he saw what I was capable of and didn't accept
anything less than my best.”
—Victoria Joyce
Hometown: Carbondale, IL
Academic interests: Music and
English
Extracurricular activities: DJ-ing,
swimming, reading, writing (poetry, short fiction, autobiographical/diaries),
singing, playing violin, Footlighters, Sigma
Psi
On faculty advising and mentoring:
 “A
lot of my friends complain that their advisors
don't know them. My advisor definitely knows me. Dr. Vrettos [English]
does not have all the answers, but she knows who does.
If I was
having problems, I could talk to her and feel comfortable about
it, because she was someone who knew me and saw me two
times a week. She was not distant. It was
one of the better counseling experiences
I have ever had.”
--Connie Martin
Hometown: Clarkston, MI
Academic interests: Biology, virology,
physical anthropology
Extracurricular activities:
Dorm hall council, Ohio recycling campaign,
intramural sports,
painting and graphic design
 “Advising
with the SAGES program has been great.
I get along well with my First Seminar professor which makes
it really easy to talk to him about anything, whether school
related or not. Also, since I saw him three days a week during
my First Seminar for class, I could just stay after class to
talk, and none of the formality of making an appointment was
needed. My professor/advisor was more of a friend; not some
scary person who I did not know that I had to talk to about
my schedule.”
--Jason King
Hometown: North Canton, OH
Academic interests: Mechanical
and aerospace engineering,
but also writing,
philosophy, and political science.
Extracurricular
activities: Dorm council (treasurer), volunteering
at
Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital for
Rehabilitation, camping, working out
 “The
advising was great because Professor Ledford
[History] always seemed to be one step ahead of us. It gave
us a chance to know what our advisors did and what we should
expect from them.”
--Michael
Gregory
Hometown: Jamison, PA
Academic interests: Electrical engineering,
computer engineering, German, Russian
Extracurricular
activities: Varsity cross-country/track, Fellowship
of Christian Athletes, Die Deutsche Gesellschaft
(German club)
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