First-Year Experience

Seminar Themes

The seminar is designed to pair a faculty member passionate about a specific academic theme with students who share an interest in that topic.  Students select the specific seminar based on the title and a 75-125-word description that faculty provide.  Below are the theme titles taught in the Fall 2007 pilots (we did not require the brief descriptions in the pilot stage).

Theme Title Faculty Member
March of the Penguins: Exploring Animal Communication Dr. Wendy Chambers
American Fiction and Change Dr. Olivia Carr Edenfield
Developing a Global Perspective Bob Frigo
Environment, Property Rights and the Economy Dr. Godfrey Gibbison
Exploring Mathematics: A Focus on History and Gender Dr. Donna Saye
Finding Happiness in a Consumption-Oriented Society Dr. Trey Denton
Girls and Boys, Books and Toys Dr. Jerri Kropp
Gun Control and Violence in America Dr. Stephanie Sipe
Live Theatre in the Digital Age Jim Harbour
Patriotism and National Identity Dr. Steve Engel
Science and Politics in the United States Dr. Michelle Cawthorn
The End of Easy Oil and the Future of Energy Jessica Orvis
The Wild West: Fact, Fiction, and Folklore Dr. Alan Downs

As is evident from the pilots, themes can be very narrow or somewhat broad.  Faculty's priorities in selecting a theme should be:

  • To select something about which they feel passionate;
  • To use the theme to address the common learning objectives of the course;
  • To be able to teach the theme material at a level accessible to first-year students; and,
  • To be reasonably confident that the theme's title and description will attract the interest of enough students for the course to make (courses cap at 22).  On this last point, FYE will work with faculty to present themes and descriptions designed to accomplish this.

Please note:  seminar themes should not be introductions to specific disciplines per se.  They are more accurately described as special topics courses. A problem that some first-year students report is not being engaged with a series of coursework that is all introductory in nature.  One of the program objectives for FYE 1220 is to address this issue through these special topics courses.

Several faculty have pointed out, however, that these special topics courses can be a means for effectively introducing students to faculty within a major and the application of the discipline to a specific issue.  For example, while students shouldn't survey the field of elementary education, they may gain a more in-depth appreciation of the impact of "No Child Left Behind" in Georgia.  In this way, they can see their discipline (or a potential discipline) "in action" in a way that they often do not as first-year students.  FYE sees the seminar as a way for faculty (and by extension, departments) to expose students to their major or potential major in a powerful manner early in their college career.

For ideas of how other institutions develop theme topics, see below:

If you would like to discuss specific themes, feel free to contact Chris Caplinger at caplinca@georgiasouthern.edu or 478-1456 or to attend one of the brainstorming sessions. 

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