First Year Experience

First Year Experience

The First Year Experience at The College of Idaho provides living and learning experiences that facilitate a successful transition to a college community centered on exacting scholarship and life-long learning. In keeping with the mission of the college, the program emphasizes frequent and meaningful interaction with faculty, staff, and student leaders. Focused on student learning, the program seeks to provide both the challenge and support necessary to foster student success in the first year and thus to enhance student engagement, satisfaction and persistence.

The First Year Experience consists of a number of elements:

First Year Theme & Book 

The First Year Theme & Book serve to model intellectual engagement and to develop a sense of community among first-year students and the campus as a whole.

Each year the college selects a First Year Theme to tie together a common reading - the First Year Book - and a series of campus events. First-year students are asked to read the First Year Book before they arrive on campus in the Fall. Events at Fall Orientation, often including a panel presentation and student-led discussions about the book, kick off the First Year Theme. Other events, which can include guest speakers, films, debates, theatrical productions or special menus in the dining hall, continue throughout the year.

The First Year Theme for 2009-10 is Talking Trash.

The First Year Book for 2009-10 is Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage by Heather Rogers.

Students will receive a copy of Gone Tomorrow at Coyote Saturday / Monday.

McCall Wilderness Experience

During Fall Orientation all first-year students travel to scenic McCall, Idaho where they can canoe, take part in a ropes course, play volleyball, hike, and enjoy the Idaho wilderness with the ultimate purpose of getting to know each other better. Students form strong community bonds in McCall and many students say that their best friends are ones forged during their McCall experience.  See Fall Welcome Week for more details.

First Year Advising

First Year Advisors at The College of Idaho commit to promoting the academic success of first-year students and facilitating their integration into the intellectual life of the college by:

• helping students to comprehend the meaning of the liberal arts and to recognize how our Liberal Arts Curriculum furthers that tradition
• providing students with an opportunity to explore possible majors and transitioning students to departmental advisors
• helping students to effectively navigate the college’s registration process
• and providing students with information about campus resources and support services for academic, personal and financial issues that may arise while in college.

Incoming students meet their First Year Advisor at Coyote Saturday / Monday

First Year Seminar - Civilization Cohorts

During the fall semester, most first-year students are registered for a First Year Seminar and a course in World or Western Civilization. Seminars offer students the opportunity to engage in analytical reading, critical thinking and well-reasoned writing on the seminar topic. Students have the opportunity to choose the topic of their First Year Seminar, and the students in each Seminar are registered for the same Civilization course. Students are co-enrolled in this way to help create close relationships among a community of student learners, as well as to encourage out-of-class impromptu discussions and study groups.

Your First Year Advisor will schedule you for a Seminar-Civilization Cohort during course registration at  Coyote Saturday / Monday.

First Year Living Communities & Mentors

The College of Idaho offers living communities especially designed for first-year students. By living with and amongst their peers, students have opportunities to develop strong bonds with other members of their class. And because many first-year students will also have classes together, they can form study groups with fellow residents from right down the hall.

In addition to an RA, first-year students are assigned a First Year Mentor. Mentors are upperclassmen who are trained to serve as a resource and help meet the unique needs of incoming students. Mentors provide programming on basic college skills including the following:

• Time management
• Effective study techniques
• Registering for classes
• Communicating with floormates

Mentors also assist with academic and advising questions and work to make the transition from high school to college as smooth as possible. See Residence Life for more information about First Year Living Communities.

Center for Experiential Learning (CEL)

The CEL schedules advising appointments with all first-year students. CEL Advising introduces students to CEL resources for exploring areas of interest (often useful in choosing majors), and to create awareness of other campus resources available to help students succeed (everything from the catalog to the library to the counseling center).

Students reflect on their first-year successes (academic and social) and discuss strategies for continued success as well as methods and resources for documenting experiences that will be useful in future preparation of marketable personal statements, resumes and cover letters. CEL emphasizes the importance of documentation in requesting letters of recommendation from faculty and other referees (highlighting personal responsibility) while providing an all- important reality check. Through CEL Advising, students are introduced to the Student Affairs Department Mission and Vision Statements.

See the Center for Experiential Learning for more information.