Sage's motto is "To Be, To Know, To Do." At Russell Sage, students start doing in their very first year. All RSC students make public presentations of original scholarship produced for the "Women in the World" course.

This accent on independent inquiry reaches its highest emphasis in the senior year. Every student completes a culminating project in her major - either an independent research project or an internship (or both). These projects are presented to campus audiences or even at national conferences, such as The National Conference on Undergraduate Research. These capstone projects are tangible evidence of initiative and achievement and stand out as such to employers and graduate schools.