The Institute for Core Studies (ICS) is
designed to help first-year students in their academic transition
to University Life. As a unit, the three courses comprising
the ICS, Writing Composition, Scientific Inquiry, and Discover
New York assist first-year students in becoming their own
intellectual “gatekeepers” of the large amounts of information from
a wide variety of sources to which they are subjected each
day. The ICS has five basic educational goals: (1)
helping students to develop critical thinking and information
literacy skills; (2) familiarizing students with the evidentiary
bases of scientific knowledge, the use of quantitative and
qualitative research skills, and the distinctions between
correlation and causation in the transmission of
knowledge; (3) assisting students in developing the writing
capabilities and oral communication skills necessary to express
their own thoughts and feelings and questions about the world
around them; (4)encouraging student understanding of and an
appreciation for the uniquely multi-cultural nature of the New York
City Metropolitan area; (5) actively engaging students in the
University’s Vincentian mission of service to the community by
emphasizing Academic Service Learning.
The ICS mission is grounded in the Mission of St. John’s
University. The program’s emphasis on the critical importance
of science in the modern world and its recognition that
scientific reasoning can be fully compatible with religious faith
are classically Catholic. The ICS mandate for
Academic Service Learning, with its emphasis on the interpersonal
connections and mutual responsibilities shared by all members of
the human community, is notably Vincentian. And the
program’s focus on New York City as the primary American venue of
culture, art, intellectual activity, and social diversity, coupled
with its emphasis on scientific reasoning and the importance of
communication through written expression, is unmistakably
metropolitan in nature.
Each of the three classes comprising the ICS plays a distinct
but ultimately interrelated part in achieving these goals.