We tend to notice more, learn more, and change more during a first year. Our senses are on alert, wary of the unknown, excited by the new. In some respects, you might grow more during your first year of college than you will during the three subsequent years combined. In this course, we will read about the peril and promise of first years: a Black student in Arkansas helping integrate her all-white high school, a rookie teacher in Massachusetts struggling to engage high school seniors, and a Syrian refugee family in Connecticut adjusting to a world with a different rule book. Along the way, we will reflect on our own first year experiences, past and present. This seminar is writing intensive--we will experiment with low-stakes prompts to help support our work on major projects. In both our discussions and written assignments, we will embrace the poet Rilke's advice "to be always beginning: to be a beginner."
To find books for this class, please visit the St. Olaf Bookstore.