The heart of the First-Year Initiatives program resides in the annual FYI seminars offered to first-year students (average class size: 15). The seminar topics range from the traditional to the unconventional. Each seminar is more than just a series of orientation sessions. It is an actual course at Beloit College. This is a rather unusual feature of first-year programs. Entering first-years learn to be both students of academics and students at Beloit--they discover not only how to evaluate complex arguments and write lucid essays, but also how to get from the World Affairs Center to the Wilson Theater, how to choose classes wisely, how to maximize the Morse Library's facilities, etc.

A few months before their first semester, new students receive an FYI course catalog and choose a seminar that reflects their interests. The seminar consists of a one-week orientation session that begins the first day the students arrive. During this week in late August students then attend a series of programs. Most of their time is spent in seminar as they are series of programs with topics that range from adjusting to the culture of their new environment to planning for their community service projects, which is a required component of the FYI experience.

Collaborative learning is an integral part of the FYI Program, and of Beloit's traditional liberal arts education. The FYI seminars mix elements of conventional and unconventional learning, which makes collaboration both possible and exciting. For example, two seminars with differing topics--one questioning the importance of technology in society and the other exploring connections between artists and scientists--met to discuss the importance of bridges: bridges as both technical adaptations and as cultural metaphors. One seminar even went on to do an art exhibit of bridges they constructed throughout the semester.

Please note that all Seminars begin during New Student Days and will meet on seven of those days (three or four hours each day), and then continue throughout the fall semester. The FYI Seminar will be one of four courses you take during your first semester at Beloit College and will count as 1.5 units of credit.

Below are downloadable seminar descriptions for past and current FYI seminars.