SUNY Geneseo Announces New Independent Learning Center

GENESEO — Since 2012, SUNY Geneseo’s Center for Inquiry, Discovery and Development (CIDD) has quickly become an active hub of both academic excellence and progressive learning on campus, culminating in the recent opening of new office space where CIDD students gather to cultivate their interests and build careers.

The organization is comprised of a number of accomplished, academically talented students, involving Student Ambassadors, Edgar Fellows, Presidential Scholars and participants in the Institute for Community Well-Being (ICWB).

“This center is where students initiate independent learning, where they connect their academic foundation to the world,” said SUNY Geneseo Interim President Carol S. Long, an influential figure in the formation of the CIDD. “The students involved in these programs all have extraordinary academic skills combined with the ability to work independently. The center is a catalyst to help reinforce their passion for knowledge, growth and community service and superbly complements a quality liberal arts education.”

“This is not a ‘class project,’” said Cynthia Oswald, Director of the CIDD. “They receive faculty support but the students independently design their own projects, giving them the opportunity to imagine what they can do with the skills they have obtained at Geneseo to generate new knowledge – to have a transformational experience. Some ambassadors focus locally while others have a more national or international perspective, but all enhance their academic interests with the added potential of positively impacting our community, state and the world.”

Oswald said in some cases, students are co-ambassadors on a project. All apply in the spring and work on their projects through the summer and fall.