The Freshman Year Initiative
As you plan for your first semester at Queens College, you’ll register for two classes that are linked through the Freshman Year Initiative:
- A topic-based writing course (ENG 110)
- A course on a related topic that also satisfies a requirement for your General Education.
You should organize your schedule around a topic that is genuinely interesting to you—and feel free to try something new, even if you don’t know much about it. For example, let’s say you’re thinking about law school and interested in a Political Science course. You might join the Community called “The Economics and Politics of Change,” where your English professor will show you how to use writing to process and apply the new knowledge you’re acquiring in Political Science.
Or, follow a different path. Choose the Community called “Drama in Real Life” to learn how writing and performing enhance and complement each other.
Whatever Community you choose, you’ll attend both of those classes in a group of about twenty other first-year students, so you’ll get to know your classmates. Together, you’ll use what you learn in one class to help you in the other, and you’ll write scholarly essays at a college level
You’ll also find that the two courses fit together, because your professors are talking to each other in a scholarly conversation that they share. Part of the purpose of your FYI Community is to bring you into that conversation, where your professors engage with the scholars whose work you’ll read. English 110 and your General Education course will help you develop the tools and the knowledge you’ll need to enter that community as an active participant.
FYI Learning Communities for 2013:
Art History 110 + English 110 topics: New York City or Beauty
Astronomy 1 + English 110 topics: Creativity or The Planet
Biology 105 + English 110 topic: The Planet
Dance 150 + English 110 topic: Film
Drama 1 + English 110 topic: Page to Stage
Drama 100 + English 110 topic: Digital Revolution or The Planet or Literacy & Language
Education 105 + English 110 topics: Literacy & Language or Creativity
Environmental Science 100 + English 110 topic: American Dreams
FNES 163 + English 110 topic: Science & Culture
History 102 + English 110 topics: American Dreams
History 104 + English 110 topic: American Dreams
Mathematics 110 + English 110 topics: Memory or American Dreams
MNSCI 113 + English 110 topic: The Visual World
Music 1 + English 110 topic: Creativity
Philosophy 101 + English 110 topic: Religion
Philosophy 104 + English 110 topics: Film or Science & Culture or Memory
Political Science 100 + English 110 topic: Film
Political Science 102 + English 110 topic: Economy
Psychology 101 + English 110 topics: American Dreams or Cultural Identity
Sociology 101 + English 110 topic: Cultural Identity
Urban Studies 101 + English 110 topics: New York City or Cultural Identity or Celebrity Culture
Urban Studies 103 + English 110 topic: Cultural Identity
