This Sunday, the University closed the application process for its inaugural program of Stanford in New York City (SiNYC) in the 2016-17 academic year. SiNYC is an off-campus program in New York City that is meant to combine internship experience – ranging in work from cultural institutions to not-for-profit organizations – with coursework in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
“The initial vision was to offer one quarter with a focus on the arts, architecture, design and urban studies in the first year, with a plan to add more quarters with potentially different foci in subsequent years of the pilot,” said Shari Palmer, associate vice provost of undergraduate education, in an email to The Daily.
SiNYC is offered by the Office of Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education (VPUE), as are all the Bing Overseas Studies programs. Palmer stated that SiNYC’s uniqueness is in that it would offer opportunities and engagement that could only happen in New York, in the same way that the other off-campus programs have special connections with the communities that they operate in.
“We’ve also consulted extensively with the Stanford in Washington program, whose model of in-depth internships combined with coursework is probably the closest analogue to this program,” Palmer added.
Students will be taking a core set of classes and electives while working in various internships set up by the time that they arrive to the city.
“There’s a lot of intentionality in shaping the internship experience,” said Eric David Van Danen, communications director of VPUE. “We’re providing students with internship experience that places them in a role with real world experience but also allows them to learn and grow developmentally.”
According to Van Danen, students of the program will be living in vicinity of each other in Brooklyn Heights and may have the opportunity to interact along other students from other parts of the country and even the world.
Students will also have a faculty member in residence living near them.
Doug McAdam, the Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology, was selected to be SIiNYC’s faculty member in residence for the upcoming fall quarter.
According to Palmer, McAdam was chosen because he not only consulted in the design of the fall quarter program, but also because his teaching and research interests fit the focus of the SiNYC program well.
“He is a renowned teacher and mentor to undergraduates, and he has extensive recent experience in New York,” Palmer said.
McAdam will also teach two elective courses through the program.
The University plans to expand the program in following years by adding course offerings with potentially different foci. Over the course of this year, the overall SiNYC plan developed to include a program focus on media and finance in the winter quarter of 2016-17. The focus for a spring quarter offering, which would not be added until 2017-18, has yet to be determined.
Contact Catherine Zaw at czaw13 ‘at’ stanford.edu.