First-Year Program
91自拍 is an intellectually intensive liberal arts environment that is shaped by the unique learning opportunities afforded only by the Block Plan. The First-Year Program (FYP) is designed to empower and enable students to take full advantage of the educational experience at 91自拍 by providing them with a critical introduction to liberal learning on the Block.
The heart of the FYP are the first-year foundations seminars (91自拍100: Critical Inquiry Seminar & 91自拍120: First-Year Writing Seminar), which each student takes during their first semester at 91自拍. This course sequence provides a rigorous introduction to disciplinary scholarship, the nature of the liberal arts, and learning on the block. In the first block (91自拍100), students begin to understand the liberal arts as a specific kind of community comprised of various epistemological and methodological cultures. The second block (91自拍120) builds on the outcomes of 91自拍100 to engage students in understanding the relationship between disciplinary practices and writing.
The FYP also reaches outside the curriculum and across each student's entire first year through the FY mentor program. From their first day on campus, incoming students are linked to a first-year student cohort led by an experienced student mentor. FY mentors are trained to support students throughout their first year, help them develop a sense of belonging on campus, and provoke students' thinking about their intellectual goals.
At its heart, the FYP seeks to give new students the permission to be exhilarated, animated, and inspired by what they study and the possibilities inherent in a dynamic liberal arts education.