St. Lawrence University

Small-Town Canton, at the Foothills of the Adirondacks, Offers Outdoor Adventure in Northern New York and Canada

St. Lawrence University is located in Canton in northern New York. The area lies along the border with Canada, between the St. Lawrence River and the Adirondacks. Canton is approximately an hour from Ottawa, Canada, the nation's capital and home of the NHL Ottawa Senators. Two hours to the northeast is metropolitan Montréal, Canada. Montréal is home to a rich French history that dates back over 300 years and offers an incredible array of architecture: pubs, churches, and an old town that seems almost like a taste of European class and style. Montreal is also home to the NHL’s Montreal Canadians team. Syracuse, New York and Burlington, Vermont, are within a three-hour drive of the university.

The St. Lawrence campus and local region sit just north of the Adirondacks. Of course, the mountain range offers incredible forest views, hiking trails, scores of rivers and brooks, and the world-famous Lake Placid, which was used twice for the Winter Olympics and is still home to professional sports activities.

The St. Lawrence Seaway, the Thousand Islands, and countless wilderness lakes and rivers are easy day trips for boating, hiking, skiing, canoeing, swimming, and sightseeing. St. Lawrence students find the area is perfect for biking, running, canoeing, snowmobiling, roller-blading, and fishing. In addition to the university's facilities, an ice arena, a theater, two golf courses, and athletic fields are available in Canton for student use.

Active Learning, Small Classes, and a Variety of Athletics and Research Opportunities Encourage Student Leadership

Students at St. Lawrence University do not just process traditionally learned course work in the classroom. Many participate directly in community-based active learning that provides them with an enormous choice of options through which they can learn, be of service, and develop as persons. The goal of the St. Lawrence liberal arts education is the development of literate, thoughtful, rhetorically sensitive, and ethically responsible individuals.

With an undergraduate student body of just over 2,400 students, St. Lawrence is able to keep course work focused and enable small classes to be accessed by all. There are many research opportunities at St. Lawrence University which are an integral part of the education. Each year nearly a hundred students are able to participate with key staff and faculty members on important research projects or, in many cases, develop new personal research projects.

The athletic department provides the opportunity for virtually all enrolled male and female students to participate in athletics in a wide variety of sports. With thirty-three intercollegiate sports to choose from, and many club and intramural sports options, students are able to select from a wide variety of athletic options.

With all of the outstanding organizations to join and activities in which to participate, it is no wonder that so much student leadership emerges along the way. With the small classes, campus athletics, and the endless list of organizations such as chess society, dance team, Black Student Union, and many more-there; is no shortage of opportunities for group membership and the resultant active learning and growth and development of student leadership.

Volunteerism and Community Service Provide Student Leadership Opportunities for a Civic-Minded Generation of Students

Volunteerism and community service have risen greatly since the horrific events of September 11, 2001, when America saw its hopes for humanity lost with the destruction of the Twin Towers in NYC. College students, as in many past generations, have been at the forefront of those efforts, signaling what has become known as a second civil-rights generation.

St. Lawrence University's commitment to service has produced coinciding curricular activities and events for students to develop, understand, and apply practically all of the fundamentals required of leaders. The staff and university faculty come together with students to outline programs that drive a lifetime of growing and create significantly more important relationships with a greater social force. Student leadership and community service are two of the basic products of this effort.

Each year, the Center for Volunteerism initiates a number of activities aligned with its mission. Recent events include the Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Walk, Habitat for Humanity Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser, Rummage Sale, AIDS Awareness Day, MADD Make a Difference Day, Walk-A-Thon, Habitat for Humanity, and the Tennis Tournament. Outside volunteer centers such as CAVA (Citizens Against Violent Acts) regularly enlist the aid of individual St. Lawrence students to support the very immediate real-world crises of sexual and physical abuse suffered by many residents in the local area. Once completely trained, students can give back directly in a way unavailable in the classroom, while also earning credit in many cases. These and other important organizations throughout the greater Canton area enable students to serve their community where they are needed the most.