By Sarah SumadiThe Daily Northwestern
It’s no wonder SESP touted itself as the “small school that thinks big” on last year’s commencement T-shirts. Each entering class more than doubles in size by graduation after attracting transfer students from all over Northwestern.
SESP graduates about 100 students every year, and more than half of those students transferred into SESP during their sophomore or junior years. Last year, 39 students transferred into SESP, increasing the school’s total enrollment by more than 16 percent. Inter-school transfers increased enrollment in the School of Communication by about 12 percent last year, but transfers accounted for less than 3 percent growth in NU’s other schools.
Only 40 of NU’s more than 2,000 freshmen start out in SESP.
“I think high school students see the word ‘education’ and think it’s just a school for teachers,” said Assistant Dean Susan Olson. “They don’t see the ‘social policy’ part.”
SESP junior Ivy Letourneau was one such student.
“If you asked me in high school what social policy was, I wouldn’t have had any idea,” Letourneau said. “But if you told me what social policy was, I would have known immediately that it was what I wanted to do.”
After pursuing premed and then political science in Weinberg, Letourneau transferred to SESP during the Winter Quarter of her sophomore year.
“I had to take five classes that quarter, and the only reason I made it was because I was finally in SESP, liking what I was studying,” Letourneau said. “If I had been lukewarm about my classes, it wouldn’t have worked.”
Students can pursue one of four majors – social policy, human development and psychological services, learning and organizational change, or secondary education. A professionally trained adviser, not a professor, assists the 20 to 30 students within each major.
“I had always heard how great the advising was, but I never realized the extent of it,” Letourneau said. “My adviser in Weinberg didn’t know my name, but I can call Mark (Hoffman, Letourneau’s adviser) any time of the day. I even got a card from him on my birthday.”
Many say the school’s small size is its biggest advantage.
“I appreciate getting advice right from the faculty and not having to go through a big bureaucracy,” said Medill sophomore Quinton Sprull, who plans to submit his SESP transfer application next week. “The class sizes cater to individual learning.”
SESP’s multidisciplinary, “real world” material is a big draw for students, said Prof. Jody Kretzmann, who has met many transfer students in his Community Development class.
“The faculty are dedicated to seriously engaging students in the research,” Kretzmann said.
The practicum, a quarter-long internship, is the cornerstone of a SESP education.
