Mention First-Year Seminars to UC Davis students and alumni and you’ll most likely hear a positive recollection. 

Recalling his time in a Sports Law First-Year Seminar, attorney Scott Judson, who graduated with his undergraduate degree in 2009, said he still remembers his experience 18 years ago.

 “In my seminar, I built a relationship with the professor, had dynamic discussions with others and developed skills that helped shape me into the attorney I am today,” he said.

First-Year Seminars allow undergraduates to explore exciting and intriguing topics through interactive, hands-on experiences. One Spring 2022 seminar developed by Department of Design faculty member Tim McNeil and graduate student Edward Whelan, “Make an Exhibition: First-Generation College Student Experiences,” utilized the topic of museum exhibition design to do just that!

First-Year Seminars provides a lab like environment for instructors to test out new course ideas.  That was just the case in a winter 2022 course developed by the College of Biological Science’s Faculty member Laci Gerhart-Barley and PhD candidate Hannah Nelson, “Spineless, Ignored, Misunderstood: Perceptions of Animal Diversity in the UCD Community”.  A primary goal of the course was to help students break stereotypes in animal representation by studying animal diversity or lack thereof in media representation.  Throughout the course students learned how to code imagery, per

UC Davis Assistant Professor Mohammad Sadoghi and Nasim Bahadorani co-teach the first-year seminar, “Becoming an Extraordinary Human.” The course description boasts goals such as “higher levels of cognition,” “stress management,” and “increased self-confidence.” Their instruction is a quarter - to - quarter constant in FYS and provides a space for students to develop self-knowledge through the concentration and Tamarkoz meditation.

College students are often told undergraduate research will give them an edge in the job market. But the steps involved in finding a project can seem daunting. UC Davis makes the process easier with courses that open doors to meaningful research for all students.  In these classes, called course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), faculty and students work together on original research.

Click on the visual for information on BIS23A, Genome Hunters, a fall 2021 research based course that welcomes First Year Students! The course recently resulted in a student genome report that was awarded the American Society for Microbiology’s Resource of the Month, see that story here:  https://asm.org/Articles/2020/February/Microbiology-Resource-of-the-Month-Student-Discove. 

UC Davis students enrolled in a popular First-Year Seminar titled "The Power of Visual Language through Symbolism and Expression in Clay" have contributed to a mural recently installed just outside the UC Davis Environmental Horticulture Building.

Many thanks again for offering a First Year Seminar this fall, arguably as important as ever for new student academic success and community building. The Center for Educational Effectiveness, in collaboration with Academic Technology Services, has graciously offered to lead a pair of interesting and engaging webinars on inclusive learning environments in our small enrollment- yet now remote- seminars. These interactive webinars will be offered Monday August 31 10:30 am- 12:00 pm and Monday September 14 10:30 am- 12:00 pm.

Dear valued FYS instructor,

This Fall, virtually all First Year Seminars (FYS) will be offered remotely. We strongly encourage our instructors to schedule live (e.g., synchronous) sessions with enrolled students to provide regular, real time contact to foster and maximize community and active, discussion based learning.  These actions will help FYS meet one of our primary goals of developing close faculty and peer interaction within a small classroom environment. 

Becky Oskin, content strategist in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science, wrote this story for the fall 2019 issue of the College of Letters and Science Magazine.