The First Year Experience

• Students will reflect upon their expectations and goals for college and on Heidelberg’s expectations and goals for them as indicated in the College’s Mission to “promote and nurture intellectual, personal, and professional development, leading to a life of purpose with distinction.”
• Students will develop an understanding of the importance of academic engagement in their completion of reading and writing assignments, participation is class discussions, the ethical use of information, and involvement in campus-wide academic and cultural programming.
• Students will develop their ability to locate, access, and evaluate information and ideas from a variety of sources.
• Students will develop the ability to recognize important concepts in what they read or hear in conversation as well as their ability to critically evaluate the statements made by others.
• Students will develop the ability to think deeply about a topic, recognizing the sources and rationale for their own ideas and effectively incorporating the ideas of others into their own clear, intelligible written and oral discourse.

The First-Year Seminars are small, discussion-based courses that introduce topics in a wide range of academic disciplines. Topics vary from economics in literature to visual culture to wilderness survival and sociocultural practices in sports.  First-Year Seminars all bear the FYE 100 number and enroll only 20 first-year students per section, allowing our students to engage closely with faculty, with each other, and with ideas at the heart of the seminars.