The First-Year Initiatives (FYI) program began in 1990 as an innovative way to offer incoming students  a richly inspired introduction to inquiry, critical thinking, and collaboration in the liberal arts, and to cultivate students’ agency as learners and their sense of ownership of their education.

The FYI program introduces new students to the College and to one another. It begins with New Student Days, held the week before the semester formally starts. During this period, first-year students have the campus largely to themselves, which encourages their cultivation of academic and social ownership. This experience builds confidence, trust, and a certain at-homeness—all qualities highly conducive to their sense of well-being and ongoing academic development.

FYI links new students from the day they arrive on campus not only with a group of peers, but also with an experienced professor, who both leads the FYI seminar and acts as a mentor and advisor to all seminar participants. In all these roles, seminar leaders are dedicated to fostering in students the same passion for inquiry that has led them to become teachers and scholars. The FYI seminar continues throughout the fall semester; most first-year students also take three more courses chosen in consultation with their FYI advisors.

The close relationship between student and seminar leader continues long after the conclusion of the fall FYI seminar. The FYI professor acts as primary advisor and mentor of the students from the FYI seminar through the end of the sophomore year, by which time students declare a major. In the spring semester of their first year, students continue to work with their advisor to develop an academic plan that enables them to take full advantage of the many opportunities for new and varied learning experiences at Beloit College, including co-curricular activities, community engagement, and off-campus study and internships, whether they are located around the corner, across the nation, or on the other side of the world.

One exciting opportunity for self-directed student development is found in the Venture Grant program, which makes competitive awards to first-year students. During the summer following their first year, grant recipients engage in ambitious learning projects in the U.S. and abroad, projects that they have themselves developed and proposed, with the support and assistance of their advisors and Beloit’s Student Affairs staff. In their sophomore year, they share their experiences with the Beloit community in a variety of venues, from film screenings to presentations in Beloit's International Symposium.

Recent Venture Grants have supported students studying South Asian dance forms in India, tracing the itinerary of famous Beloit College scholar Roy Chapman Andrews (inspiration for Indiana Jones, no less!) through southern China, producing a short educational film on anorexia, and volunteering and living in a community for mentally disabled persons in Queretaro, Mexico. 

The Four Principles of the First-Year Initiatives Program:

Great Teaching:
Great teaching is not something a college should save only for juniors and seniors. From their first moments on campus, students study with outstanding Beloit College professors. FYI seminars have approximately 15-16 students, and seminar leaders also act as academic advisors for the next two years.

Varieties of Learning:
Learning is not something to be confined to a single field or discipline. Faculty and staff in fields of expertise ranging from anthropology to theatre to biology lead the seminars—and each seminar incorporates multiple approaches and perspectives. While each FYI seminar is different—so as to give students a great deal of choice—sections also share common readings, common time slots, and common cultural and social events.

Before graduation from Beloit, students master at least one field, the major, in some depth. But in introducing students to learning at the College through the FYI Seminar, we want to emphasize that knowledge has no boundaries. In the four years students spend here, we want to stimulate their initiative to become broadly educated in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

Personalized Learning:
Learning is both something shared and something very personal and individualized. FYI seminars include a week of orientation in which fellow seminar members (and future friends and graduates) get to know one another. During the orientation and fall semester seminar, students undertake significant speaking and writing projects, both individually and within the close group that the FYI Seminar becomes. FYI Seminars are designed to foster the creativity, flexibility, and teamwork best learned in small groups—as well as equipping students for excellence in speaking and writing. In the words of one professor, Beloit's FYI program "begins preparing students to do well at Beloit, and do well after Beloit, on the first day you arrive."

Beyond Classroom Learning:
Learning is not just for the classroom. During orientation week and throughout the semester, students explore Beloit the City as well as Beloit the College. Noted anthropologist Margaret Mead once described Beloit as a "microcosm of America." With its heavy industry, urban challenges, and surrounding agricultural lands, with its ethnic diversity and long and fascinating history, Beloit is a stimulating window on the world. Previous FYI seminars have included working with the Landmarks Commission, tutoring children at a local community center, working on a community farm, and various individual hands-on projects.