The Barnard Academic Experience

I just recently declared my majors, and it’s been a real journey to figure out where my undergrad interests lie. In my first year at Barnard, I thought I was going to focus on international policy regarding human rights and environmental conservation. But after taking a few human rights intro courses and global policy courses, I did a 180 within the field, refocusing my future interests entirely on local spaces, specifically in terms of education and food sovereignty. With that, I finally decided that I would major in Environment & Sustainability and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. I’m also minoring in the Urban Teaching Track. 

Barnard’s flexible curriculum, class offerings, and unique position as a small liberal arts college within the larger research institution of Columbia University have allowed me to fully explore my interests.  Barnard has given me space to change my mind, to dip my toes into something new, and to connect seemingly different studies in a meaningful way that recognizes and uplifts the intersectionality of my identity and interests. You really dive into specifics and build bridges between different disciplines as you please, allowing you to explore your passions and interests in creative, personalized ways. At Barnard, you can really make your education yours. 

And at the center of all these opportunities and freedom at Barnard is the classroom experience. The classroom experience is intimate, intersectional, and builds meaningful, creative connections between professors, peers, and the city. It’s the classroom experience at Barnard that really makes the flexible Foundations curriculum, the myriad of class offerings, and the connection with Columbia really count! 

At Barnard, small, supportive classroom environments foster strong relationships with professors. 74% of classes enroll 19 students or fewer. Even when the classes are larger, the professors are still incredibly engaging and the classes still feel close-knit. For example, Educational Foundations, which is a larger introductory course of a little less than forty people, was still incredibly interactive and engaging. Each meeting had a clear structure and covered a lot of material, but was almost entirely built off of small group discussions, unconventional learning techniques, and frequent opportunities to build relationships with my peers, teaching assistants, and the professor. This class, and Barnard classes in general, gave me the opportunity to get to know a professor in a specific department quite well, even though it was a larger class. The strong connection I formed with my professor helped me hear about, apply for, and later join her research project on youth perceptions of inequality in urban and rural settings. I worked with her and other Barnard undergraduate students for the entirety of the summer of 2020. The engaging and intimate classroom environment at Barnard fosters these close relationships with professors, ultimately helping students access and explore their interests beyond the classroom.

Not only that, but Educational Foundations itself recognized intersections with other disciplines, including intersections between environmental justice and education. At Barnard, it is easy to dive deep into one subject area while also exploring this interest within various disciplines. In my experience, this takes the form of classes associated with my majors and minor, helping me bridge the gap between environmental science and social justice. Even my hard science and quantitative courses that I have to take for my Environment and Sustainability major still include a strong social justice framework. For example, in my Introduction to Environmental Science class, we used the GIS mapping system to see which communities would be affected the most by sea-level rise in New York, noting which communities would experience the most flooding, which had the most safety shelters, which had the most emergency first-aid clinics available, and so on. We were also able to look at the racial, gender, class, and other identity makeup in these communities. Not only did this lab help us understand what we were learning about with regards to climate change and GIS technology, but the conversation surrounding it was productive and allowed us to make connections between environmental science and social-justice action.

But the Barnard classroom experience stretches beyond the walls of the buildings on campus. Barnard’s unique connection with New York City allows for hands-on, localized academic experiences in a bustling, opportunity-filled, metropolitan center. In that same Introduction to Environmental Science course, we took field trips to Jamaica Bay to test water quality. We read studies about how pigeons in different areas reflected different lead levels, exposing environmental inequality in the city. But beyond field trips and hands-on experiences from a traditional classroom standpoint, New York City offers amazing access to performances, museums, major newspapers, news anchors, public classrooms, labs, clinics… the list of opportunities for students of any discipline goes on and on. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to be learning anywhere else!

Click here to watch a video about students’ personal experiences with the Barnard Classroom experience! Or click here to learn more about your area of interest at Barnard and all the amazing opportunities it offers!

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog! I hope it was informative and made you excited about the opportunities Barnard offers to discover and explore your passions. I’m so excited about the possibility of seeing you all on campus this upcoming year!