First Year College

The First Year College (FYC) is a comprehensive program designed to: ease the transition from high school into college, increase student engagement in academic and co-curricular activities, and set the foundation for academic success.  Our best faculty, staff and students work with first-year students in a wide range of new and exciting academic and co-curricular initiatives.  Several of the new initiatives include:

First-year Academic Experience

• Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGs) Students live and work together.  Students are assigned to FIGs according to a common interest in a theme of their choice. 
• Core Curriculum The FIGs consist of first-year core courses: Introduction to College Writing, College Writing and Research, Information Technology Literacy for the 21st Century, Presentations, and the First Year Seminar.  These courses, taught during the first year, are linked with a collaborative format consisting of a common theme, a team of instructors, project based instruction and ability-based assessment.
• Information Literacy Information literacy - the ability to locate, analyze, and apply information in a scholarly context - is the cornerstone of our first-year students' academic experience.  Information Literacy is embedded in our core curriculum and supported by our Library Information Service department and Technology faculty and saff.
• First Year Seminar (FC101) The First Year Seminar helps students engage quickly in the academic and student life on campus.  Through self-confrontation and feedback, students learn to better understand themselves, their role in the academic community and, ultimately, forge lasting ties with their professors and classmates.

Academic Support

• Academic Advising Professional advisors play a critical role in the FYC.  Advisors assign class schedules, develop early intervention strategies for at risk students, monitor academic progress and help students make a successful transition to college.
• Academic Tutoring Academic tutors are professionals who provide free one-on-one sessions in subject areas, as well as programs to help improve writing, research, and study skills. 
• Career Center Career Counselors partner with students to prepare them to chart their own career path.  The goal is to integrate academic themes with job prospecting.  Beginning in the FYC, career initiatives build service learning skills, explore academic majors, and open career vistas across the curriculum. 
• Learning Resource Center The LRC specialists provide on-going student assessment and academic support to those students with learning disabilities and/or ADD. 
• Library & Information Services 

Student Life and Co-Curricular Programs

• Student Life Programs The FYC provides Student Life Programs that involve and engage students.  While we provide many programs that entertain students, we also promote activities that involve students in the active process of creating and maintaining clubs and organizations, community service projects, leadership programs, and intercollegiate or recreational-intramural sports. 
• Living and Learning Communities The FYC enhances the residence life experience through themed and academic clusters according to students' academic and social interests.  These communities are an extension of the FIG initiative providing additional peer and faculty support and cohesion within the living environment. 
• Recreational Sports Programs The Athletic and Residence Life departments and the FYC have partnered to offer a recreational and intramural sports program for residential, nonresidential and Thames Academy students.