Academics

Signature Experience @Peddie

Signature Experience @Peddie
EXP Research Science Program
Asian Studies Program
Summer Signature Experience
Overview
The Signature Experience @Peddie affords Peddie juniors and seniors the opportunity to pursue in-depth academic and co-curricular passions that promote their intellectual, social, and moral growth. Students can participate in Signature Programs in several ways: through intensive summer programs or study over a longer period of time, or through in-depth courses of study housed within or between academic departments. Drawing on past and present initiatives, the Signature Experience @Peddie is rooted in “first principles” that stress both collaboration with mentors and original, independent work. Ultimately, the programs housed within the Signature Experience @Peddie help Peddie students realize their potential as young thinkers and leaders. At the same time, we seek to inspire academic innovation by encouraging teachers to work with students and colleagues to develop programs of depth, rigor and excitement.

EXP Research Science Program

Overview
Part of the Signature Experience @Peddie, Peddie’s Research Science Program (EXP) supports independent student research, helping upper level students pursue their scientific interests and encouraging them to consider eventual careers in science-related fields.

Laboratory Work and Placement
EXP is a cooperative (co-op) educational experience for some of Peddie’s most engaged and talented science students. Much like college co-op programs, EXP combines work done at Peddie with “real world” laboratory experience. Students perform at least 200 hours of laboratory work during the summer. Students working in local laboratories participate in regular seminar sessions with EXP faculty and other EXP students. These sessions are held on the Peddie campus. Students in labs at a distance communicate weekly with the EXP faculty via Skype. To ensure a safe and high-quality laboratory experience for students, all labs must be thoroughly vetted and approved by the Director.

Currently, students have been placed at Princeton, Rutgers, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia, as well as in private labs. Their work ranges from material science to molecular biochemistry to RNA modeling.

Asian Studies Program

In this era of rapid change, in which understanding the societies, histories and cultures of other nations is a pre-requisite — not a privilege — of a first-class education, Peddie takes seriously our responsibility to graduate accomplished students who understand the complexity of globalization. Thus, the overarching goal of the Asian Studies Signature Program program is to provide juniors and seniors with a coherent, linked course of study integrating language, history and travel, which enables students to develop a clear understanding of the geo-political, economic and cultural issues of a wide variety of Asian countries.

Advanced offerings in Mandarin, history electives focusing on Asian history, culture, religion and politics and an established sister-school relationship with EFZ Shanghai further enable students to develop an individualized, comprehensive program specifically tailored to their interests.

Peddie Voices Blog posts about Asian Studies

Summer Signature Experience

The Summer Signature Program enables a select group of students to spend three to six weeks of the summer before their senior year pursuing their passions and intellectual interests.

Freed from some of the limits of school and geography, students can experiment in using the world as their classroom in innovative ways. Whether academic, artistic, spiritual or political in nature, the distinguishing element in a successful Signature project is its independent quality. Under the guidance of a faculty director, selected students spend the winter and spring developing an intellectual grounding for their project. 

From studying the communal life of Roman Catholic nuns in New Jersey, to exploring Latvian culture, to creating a functioning aquaponics system on Peddie’s campus, the result is a uniquely designed project that will remain an integral part of a student’s academic and life experience.