First Year Experience

“When the porcelain bowls of scalding butter tea steamed in their hands, Haji Ali spoke. ‘If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways,’ Haji Ali said, blowing on his bowl. ‘The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything …you must make time to share three cups of tea’” (150).

These lines come from Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, the 2010 summer reading for new Franklin students, which speaks to the kinds of questions that bring a student to Franklin College. What does it mean when people of different cultures come together? How are geographical, economic, and political borders redrawn, maintained, or dissolved in our ever-changing global world? And finally, how can you as a college student make a difference in this world?

The First Year Experience at Franklin College is an integrated mix of programs from all over the College intended to assist students in making the transition from their secondary school to university life, while beginning to answer many of the questions posed above. All new first-year students participate in Crossing Borders, the First-Year Experience. Crossing Borders introduces students to Franklin College. The program represents the foundation of our liberal arts experience, emphasizing our multi-cultural and international academic learning environment. First Year Experience includes the following components:

New Student Orientation
Each year New Student Orientation offers an introduction to campus resources and to Lugano. Activities span the week prior to classes and culminate with the traditional trip to Valle Verzasca. For more information, please see Orientation.

First Year Seminars
First Year Seminars are semester-long, three-credit courses taught in a particular academic discipline. The First Year Seminars reflect the specific research interests of the Franklin faculty. Each new student enrolls in a seminar that corresponds to their own area of interest. Fall 2010 topics include: Renaissance Venice, Business Ethics, Identity and Place, Global Social Movements, French Studies, History of Tourism, Italian Studies, and Sustainable Development. The common theme of border crossings links each seminar. Each seminar features an academic mentor, an upper-division student selected to work closely with both students and the professor.

Co-curricular Activities
Tutte le strade is a program of co-curricular activities for the entire campus community that includes regular events scheduled throughout the term. These events extend the orientation period and range from the intellectual to the experiential. The 2010 schedule includes visits to local festivals, movies, hikes, lectures, and the annual road rally.

Residential Life Programming
Through this program selected upper-division students known as Peer Mentors create programs in collaboration with dedicated Resident Assistants aimed at fostering intercultural and social development in the first year.

Academic Advising
Each student will be assigned an Academic Advisor, a faculty member who will assist the student in developing plans in tune with his or her personal academic, career, and life goals. Normally, your Academic Advisor is also your First Year Seminar professor.

Academic Support Services
Research assignments included in the First Year Seminars will accustom the student to using the library, IT services, and the Writing Center.

Academic Mentors
The First Year Experience provides academic assistance for first year students, while allowing an opportunity for upper-division students to develop their teaching and leadership skills. Academic Mentors work together under the coordination of the Director of the Writing and Learning Center with their individual classes.