The list of Fall 2008 First-Year Seminars will be available soon.

Kalamazoo College’s First-Year Seminars
• help students achieve college-level skills, particularly in critical thinking, writing, and speaking;
• help students find and develop a voice through writing, speaking, analytical reading, and discussion;
• use engaging pedagogy, are taught in a discussion rather than a lecture format, and teach students how to “seminar;”
• integrate collaborative and group work, research strategies, peer reviewing, and effective discussions, all promoting active, engaged learning;
• contain a significant intercultural component, appropriate to an internationally-focused college; and
• include a “Survivor in the Library” session, intended to help students learn research techniques and apply them to a focused project.

Students write frequent, short papers, with many opportunities for revision. Writing Consultants from the college’s Writing Center assists with projects. Peer Leaders assigned to each Seminar serve as mentors. First-year academic advising is linked to the Seminars; students are advised by either the professor or a co-advisor. Two seminars are grouped in a cluster called “Visions of America,” which considers issues of race, gender and class through the lens of music and theatre. One Seminar incorporates service learning.