First Year Seminar 191EDU16 - FYS- First Year Seminar/EDUC

As you transition to life at UMass, it is important to understand how to take care of yourself and your mental health. In this course, we will explore important resources on campus and methods of self-care through story-telling, discussion, and personal reflection. By better understanding the necessity of self-care using a critical lens, you will be better equipped to make the transition into college life. These experiences will ultimately lead to a better understanding of your academic path and professional goals

First-year (R1ST) Interdisciplinary Learning

This seminar gives first-year students practical experience with one of the most valuable skills in contemporary education: interdisciplinary learning. The course prepare students investigate how connections across fields can inspire more thoughtful, creative, and inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. Students will be introduced to co-constructing sense-making, explore collaborative projects in UMass, and discover how seemingly unrelated disciplines illuminate and enrich educational practice. Weekly sessions blend reflective discussion, collaborative challenges, guest perspectives from across UMass departments, and creative projects that push students to connect their own skills and backgrounds to education in new ways. Students leave with a broader professional identity, a richer understanding of how an interdisciplinary learning happens and the confidence to build bridges between their world and the classroom. The goal is not to survey many fields superficially but to develop genuine facility with the question of how disciplines can inform and enrich each other ? and how we can use that enrichment in our classroom.