First Year Experience
The first year experience is dedicated to ensuring students have all the information necessary to have the best first year at Lasell University.
The first year experience is dedicated to ensuring students have all the information necessary to have the best first year at Lasell University.
During the first week of classes each school hosts a "Meet Your Major" meeting for the first year students. The purpose of these meetings is to introduce first year students to their major department faculty, review department goals and expectations, and inform students about exciting opportunities in their selected program of studies.
The First-Year Success Series (FYSS) is a series of presentations, informational sessions and interactive workshops that support new students' transition to college life.
The First Year Seminar (FYS) at Lasell University is a theme-based inquiry course that provides the foundational experience of a Lasell education for students. Through studying an academic topic, students develop and apply core intellectual skills and receive an introduction to the core knowledge perspectives. At the same time, students connect to the experiences and people that make up the Lasell University community.
Course outcomes are accomplished through engaging activities including reading, writing, class discussions, presentations, team projects, field trips, service learning, and exploration of campus resources. Past course titles have included: Challenging Hollywood: Thinking Critically about Movies, Exploring Activism-Changing Our World, Let Us Rock, Pets: Our Perfect Companion, The Meaning of Dress, The "Reality" of Relationships, The Witch in History and Pop Culture, Women and Sports, and Zombies, Vampires and Revolutionaries.
Core Knowledge Perspectives: |
Core Intellectual Skills: |
Peer mentors are in integral component of the First Year Seminar (FYS) experience. Peer mentors are upper class students who co-facilitate FYS classes with faculty, and serve as role models for students adjusting to academic and social demands of college life. In addition, to working within the classroom setting, peer mentors meet formally and informally with students outside of class to discuss class assignments and other relevant issues. Peer mentors attempt to establish relationships with their mentees very early on in the first semester and will continue to serve as a student mentor throughout their mentees' first year.
Peer mentors are nominated by faculty and staff based on their academic achievements, level of maturity, trustworthiness, responsibility, and interpersonal skills. Peer mentors complete a leadership training program prior to serving in a FYS class.
Students who have taken FYS report that peer mentors provide a unique benefit to the FYS course. They find peer mentors to be especially helpful in the transition to college, reporting that peer mentors are able to bring the student perspective, first-hand knowledge about the challenges new students face when arriving at college.
Peer mentors role is to:
Upon entering Lasell University, all new students are given a six month online subscription to the Boston Globe Newspaper. During June Orientation, students are enrolled as Globe subscribers and discussants on the Lasell University Common Reading site. Students are engaged in Globe readings and discussions throughout the summer online and in First Year Seminar, Writing I and other classes during the fall.
The goals for our program are to:
Guided by faculty and upper-class students during the summer, the online discussion site offers new students the opportunity to read, post, comment, and "chat" about articles of interest. The discussion topics relate to the Lasell Community and the Core Curriculum's Knowledge Perspectives.
Discussions are carefully categorized into the following topics:
What brought me to Lasell was the vast amount of opportunities that it offers to students.