 Freshman seminars bring students into the intellectual life of the university and to the adventure of learning at the collegiate level. The seminars offer a chance for freshmen to gain early experience to high interest areas, chosen and taught by faculty. Through freshman seminars, first-year students are capable of studying a topic focusing on their discovery of new disciplines, ideas, and research together with other interested students and a faculty member teaching out of his or her passion.
Freshman seminars propose faculty members the chance to experiment with ideas and design a seminar on a topic of interest. They may choose a topic related to their present research or just one of interest that they have always wanted to discover. Faculty members’ investment of time could advance their intellectual pursuits, at the same time as stimulating new students in their development as learners as they share in their enthusiasm for their work.
The first year experience of college students is a serious time in their development as learners. Research consistently shows that the investments we make in the students’ first year give quantifiable differences in their classroom appointment and maintenance to graduation. Through the small seminar format, first year students are able to engage with faculty on a more conversational level and learn how to learn early in their career from some of the best minds on campus.
By working with a faculty member or other scholar, first year students are able to see learning and leadership in action, as faculty and other scholars demonstrate what it means to be able to perceive and develop opportunities, foster and guide change, and apply skills and knowledge to understand and clear complex issues of work, community, and public life in domestic and global settings. Freshman seminars can make available a positive first step in the student’s progress toward learning outcomes.
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