Home - Undergraduate - Academics - First Year Seminar

First Year Seminar

Main content

This course (required for all first year students) will be the perfect transition into life as a Redhawk.

You’ll pick your own class theme designed and taught by a passionate faculty mentor. You’ll also be mentored by an upperclassman student who’ll help you become involved on campus, in classroom discussions, and more.


Members of the Global Honors Program will join the Honors First Year Seminar class to explore the meaning of freedom locally, nationally, and internationally. For more information, click here.

This program will grow your character in three integrated areas: Learning, Living, and Faith.

LIVING

As an orientation course, students are encouraged through tools, workshops, and lessons to develop the best academic skills and habits.

LEARNING

This course involves active learning via discussions, co-curricular activities, reflection of personal goals, shared readings, course activities, and service projects.

FAITH

Roberts provides a place where students can safely share their unique perspectives no matter where they are on their spiritual journey.

Greater Stories

Cecilia Guerra Headshot

"I truly enjoyed my time as a peer mentor. From getting hands-on experience of leading a classroom to having the opportunity to get to know my peers in a unique way, I grew so much as a leader and individual through the experience of serving as a mentor. This position is a perfect way to grow in leadership skills, learn how to develop relationships in a classroom setting, and serve your fellow classmates."

Cecilia Guerra, Peer Mentor 22

First Year Seminar Themes

  • Creating Your Personal Success Plan with Kirby Trask
  • Leveraging faith, reflection and strategic thinking to shape your future with Joel Hoomans
  • I just want to drink coffee and worship with Courtney Fantauzzo
  • Your mission - if you choose to accept it with Tammie Myslivecek/Ashley Cooper
  • Global Poverty and Sustainable Innovation: The Power of Hope with Jason Taylor
  • Next Stop: College - Where I Discover Who I Am with Lindsey Mwene/Katherie Allkofer
  • We R Who We R: Finding Our Truth and Living Our Truth with Diana Abbott (Provisional)
  • Thriving: Growing Through Exploration of Culture, Calling, and Care with Kelly Fasoldt (AEP)
  • Freedom in Rochester and the World with Denise Johnson & Jeffery McPherson

Learn More

  • Creating Your Personal Success Plan (or Your Bespoke Success Plan)
  • Be the Change by Being You
  • ”Clink! Sip! Ah,” Coffee and Our American Culture
  • Global Poverty and Sustainable Innovation: The Power of Hope
  • Uncommon Courage
  • Surviving a First-Year Collegiate Apocalypse
  • Freedom in Rochester and the World
  • Search for Meaning with a Heart for Truth: Taking Your Faith to College
  • The Creative Life-Mapping the Heart and Mind
  • Refugees: Ministering across Cultural, Linguistic, and Religious Lines
  • Understanding Current Events through the Eyes of Faith
  • Academic Explorers: How to be a Friend
  • Meaning in a Meaningless World
  • Passport to the World: Discovering the Value of a Global Perspective
  • Servanthood: Practicing Service in a Needy World
  • Setting Captives Free: Abolition in the 21st Century
  • Permission to Speak Freely: The Questions Matter – Opinions are Required
  • Graphic Novels: Beyond Kryptonite and Batmobile
  • The Bee’s Life: How Honeybees Can Help Us Understand Living in Community and Being Human
  • Inside Out: Getting Through the First Semester of College
  • The Hidden Meanings, Themes, and Thoughts in Fairy Tales
  • Unplugged: Understanding the Spiritual Disciplines as a Means to Connect with What Lasts (the Eternal?)
  • Silence of the Lambs: Understanding the Sociopath and the Devil You Know