September marks the influx of First-years. To acquaint first-year students with the campus and the abundant resources Gustavus offers, Residential life, academic departments and various offices have worked together to bring them an enriching First-Year Experience.
First Term Seminar (FTS) Director and Faculty in Residence for the First-Year Experience Kate Knutson is the one who made this comprehensive program available.
Director of Residential Life Charlie Potts explains how Knutson got inspired for the program.
“What she was noticing and what we were talking about is that a lot of people care about the first-year experience and put a lot of time and energy into it. But there are all these different things happening all over the campus. And there wasn’t a unified program,” Potts said.
Knutson, as noted earlier, has several jobs that enable her to work closely with the first-year students from both academic division and Residential Life division. Potts further elaborates on how Knutson made the most of that.
“When Kate took over, she really started to think about how do we create a comprehensive, one stop first-year experience. She has done an amazing job creating that and lining up FTS ideas with her faculty administrator and residence job and with social activities and with campus resource opportunities that are really giving first-years a well-rounded view of what it means to be a first year at Gustavus, ” Potts said.
The highlight of the social aspect of the First-Year Experience is “6-in-6”, which means six events in six weeks. Knutson made a full explanation of the system.
“There are ten different events that we’ve picked out for first-year students to attend. If they go to those events, they scan their cards. Every event they go to is an entry into a prize drawing for gift cards. And if they attend six events, there is an automatic prize that they get in addition to be in the drawing for the gift card prizes,” Knutson said.
This year is the third year of “6-in-6”. The feedback received from last year was positive. With 326 first-year students participating last year, total events attended was 688. This makes events per student to 2.11, and 35 different prizes were given out.
Potts also talked about another result of “6-in-6”.
“The First year students are feeling more connected to resources and they are understanding where they can go, what they can take advantage of on campus,” Potts said.
Freshman Kayu Shishido spoke highly of the First-Year Experience.
“It’s a new experience I‘ve never had. It’s a good chance to get to know new people and have fun together. I do feel connected,” Shishido said.
Potts also noted that the First-Year Experience can unify a class as students in the same class have more shared moments.
“The First year students are feeling more connected to resources and they are understanding where they can go.”—Charlie Potts
No major changes were made for the program this year. The only big difference is technical, as Knutson points out.
“The big change is that students can use their id card to scan. Unlikr last year when they had to fill out an entry form for each event,” Knutson said.
“6-in-6” is expected to be just as successful as in years past and all students age encouraged to attend the events, even though only first-years are eligible to receive prizes.
-Jessie Tan