About Us

City Semester is an interdisciplinary, experiential semester program that starts from the very simple premise that New York City is our classroom. The program integrates the study of all academic disciplines as well as the arts and civic leadership around projects that examine what is happening in our city right now. Like other semester programs, it offers you a chance to step outside your everyday routine, have an adventure, challenge your assumptions, and grow in new ways. At the same time, the program is unique in that you are studying your own city and your place in it. For each graduate, our hope is that a new understanding of where I come from sharpens your sense of where we can go.

As New Yorkers, we all work, live and play in and around the city, and as members of the Fieldston community, we spend a good part of every day in the Bronx. But what do we really know about our neighborhood, our borough, our city? We invite you to dive deeply into this exciting place with us, combining your studies with an experience of New York’s people, history, culture, landscape, ecology, literature, arts, architecture and languages. This is a fascinating place, full of adventures and challenges, and City Semester seeks to explore the city through rigorous scholarship connected to deep immersion in the lived life of the city.

City Semester is a time and place to take some intellectual and personal risk-- to move beyond the boundaries of academic disciplines, social groups and the walls of the school, to try out new ideas and to find new opportunities- all in a safe and supportive community. Each day will include challenging academics, unexpected adventures and unique opportunities to develop leadership skills, all organized around solving specific problems, contemporary and historical, in the city.

Collectively, we will learn about how we shape and are shaped by our environment. Individually, you will be free to pursue your passions, develop leadership skills and make new connections, all organized around learning about and solving specific problems in the city.

We spend an average of two days a week doing research, exploring neighborhoods, interviewing residents, working with community groups, presenting in the field, and speaking with policymakers. It is a time and place for you to take some intellectual and personal risks -- to move beyond the boundaries of the classroom, academic disciplines, social groups and the walls of the school, to try out new ideas and find new opportunities.

Interdisciplinary Study:

• connecting disciplines while respecting the integrity and depth of each
• deepening the student experience by engaging important, relevant and meaningful questions that more closely reflect lived experience

Experiential Learning:

• immersing students in the landscape, culture and people of the city
• collaborating in team-based learning, modeling cooperation and citizenship to build community

Civic Leadership:

• partnering with communities, organizations and individuals in place-based learning and doing; combining scholarship and activism to address policy challenges in a global city
• inspiring students to apply their knowledge and skills as responsible citizens and leaders