The "Take-Five" Program

Take Five is a program designed to provide students with the opportunity to acquire a broader liberal-arts education that might not otherwise be available to them. Students in the program are allowed to take courses for one additional semester or stay for a fifth year without additional tuition charges. Many Mechanical Engineering students have taken advantage of this program to study a subject in greater depth. A listing of the Take Five program regulations and deadlines and frequently asked questions and answers are included within the College Center for Academic Support homepages. Below is a list of current and previous Take Five students (Mechanical Engineering majors) and their areas of concentration, organized by [Name], [Class Year]: [Project Area/Title]

Mary Delmastro, 2001: Study Abroad in Arezzo, Italy
Carolyn Holloway, 2000: Experiencing Italian Art & Architecture
Matt LaSalle, 2000: Religion and Human Motivation
Abdul Siddiqui, 2000: How To Gain Power
Jeffrey Swing, '99: Study and Simulation of Small Group Interaction
Rhima Coleman, '98: Origins of Monothestic Religion
Jonathan Dirrenberger, '97: Austraila - Transitions From Mechanics to Music
Jennifer Tarbox, '97: The Making of a Female Paradigm
Matthew Earl, '97: Astronomy
Laurie O'Connor, '97: Asian Religions
David Yanatsis, '97: Impact of Modern Science on American Culture & Philosophy
Ryan Richmond, '96: Entering the 21st Century as an Informed American
Garth Wales, '96: Study abroad in Paris, France
Clotilde Mercier, '96: Study abroad in Paris, France
Emily Hackett, '95: Foreign Languages and Linguistics
Donald Dalrymple, '95: Effective Communication
Duncan Callaway, '94: Chaos Theory & its Significance to Humanities and Social Sciences
Thomas Kitson, '94: What Do Environmental Science and History Have in Common?
Christopher Painter, '94: Japanese Culture - the Complete Experience
Melanie Preston, '94: Classical & Contemporary Composers & Their Works
Custodio Ferreira, '93: Roots of the American Culture
Hui Li, '93: Economics

Mary Delmastro (Take-Five '00)
I spent last semester in Arezzo, Italy, studying the Italian language, history, art history, and culture. My studies there were a specific example of my more general Take Five "Cultural and Universal Concepts of Beauty in Art and Architecture", in which I am studying art produced by varied cultures. I want to explore the extent to which a concept of beauty transcends culture, as well as why art is important to humans.

Jonathan Dirrenberger (Take-Five '97)
Right behind my passion for mechanical engineering and mathematics lies my passion for music. As a mechanical engineering major, the University of Rochester's Take Five program provided me with the unique opportunity to spend a fifth undergraduate year studying music, particularly theory and composition in both jazz and classical styles. I spent the first semester of my Take Five year studying music at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. I then spent the second semester studying music at the distinguished Eastman School of Music and also at the University of Rochester's main campus. The Take Five program thus allowed me to pursue my interest in music while simultaneously experiencing a foreign culture. More importantly, however, the Take Five program provided me with a short recess between my intense undergraduate studies and my future career plans in mechanical engineering, allowing me to sort through my life's aspirations and interests from a different perspective. Had I only the standard four years to obtain my BS, my busy undergraduate schedule would never have permitted these opportunities. I only wish every student could indulge themselves in such a stimulating and gratifying experience.

Christopher Painter '94
My Take 5 program focused on Japanese studies. I took classes in Japanese Language, Literature, History, and Cinema. I also went abroad for a semester and furthered my studies at Chubu University near Nagoya, Japan. My experience there also included some engineering work. This later led to my returning to Japan, and Chubu University to do some research for a professor that I had met my first time in Japan. All this has not only given me a better understanding of the Japanese culture, but has given me many valuable contacts in Japan.

Emily Hackett '94 (Take-Five '95)
I did a Take 5 Program in foreign languages - Spanish, Chinese, and German - and linguistics. Last year, after graduation, I studied materials science at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and became proficient in Chinese. Now I am a first year graduate student at Cornell. I feel that the Take 5 program has given me a lot of these great opportunities both because of the practical Chinese language background, making my study abroad experience possible, and the extra year it gave me to mature, develop my goals, and seek ways to reach them.

Duncan Callaway '94
My Take 5 curriculum was composed of four courses in a subject called Chaos Theory. I took courses in Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Sociology and Philosophy. In addition, I spent one semester, outside of the Take 5 program, as a student intern at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in a program called SERS (Science and Engineering Research Semester). Although they forced me to graduate from the U of R a year late, both experiences were invaluable with respect to the knowledge and new perspectives I acquired and the boost they provided to my resume.