Running Down a Dream: First-year Students Learn Resilience, Gain Confidence in Training for a 5K
On a bright October afternoon, first-year students filed into South College’s classroom W101 and settled into chairs arranged in a tight semicircle facing a projector screen. Jenny Adams, professor of medieval literature and English department chair, welcomed the 19 students as they pulled from their backpacks a book far from the works of Chaucer usually found in her courses: “Let Your Mind Run: Thinking My Way to Victory,” a memoir by Deena Kastor, American Olympic marathon medalist, and health and fitness journalist Michelle Hamilton. Read more here.
Faculty First-Year Seminar instructors reflect on their seminar experiences
Yolanda Covington-Ward
Department chair and professor of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
2025 Faculty First-Year Seminar: Using Black Feminist Writing for College Success
What would you tell a first-year student about your work and your class?
In my research and teaching, I try to make visible the labor, aspirations, and contributions of Black women in various contexts across the world who have been rendered invisible. I find many of the ideas generated by Black feminist writers to be inspirational in my own life and work, and I hope to share that inspiration with students in my course.
Jonathan Hulting-Cohen
Associate professor Saxophone Studio, Music & Dance department
2025 Faculty First-Year Seminar: How Music Works
What would you tell a first-year student about your work and your class?
I am a performing musician who plays Bach to Queen to avant-garde classical music. In this class, I invite you to bring your favorite musics, your prior knowledge, your questions, and your curiosities. I aim to create a course where your existing musical taste forms a substantial part of the content, and through my own wide-ranging appetites encourage you to broaden your understanding and appreciation for the preferences of your peers and me.
Can you share a memorable moment from a recent First-Year seminar?
I remember students lighting up at getting a front-row seat (in class!) to a UMass student string quartet's performance of a Beethoven string quartet. These were students with tastes that did not previously include classical music. To be clear, it isn't the sudden interest in classical music that was memorable to me, it was the broadening of the student's tastes, the appreciate of the skill of live performance, the intensification of the humanity of that act by sitting five feet away, and the joy of interacting with the musicians before, during and after the performance that spoke to me.
Torrey Trust
Professor, College of Education
2025 Faculty First-Year Seminar: AI for College Success
What would you tell a first-year student about your work and your class?
In this hands-on course, students will investigate how generative artificial intelligence (genAI) tools might support their learning and enhance their college experience. Each week students will use genAI tools to identify ways to address common challenges faced in college, including time management, finances, choosing a major, roommate conflicts, supporting mental and physical well-being, making friends, and doing well in college classes. They will get to use ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and other GenAI tools in class...for learning with and beyond the classroom!
Can you share a memorable moment from a recent First-Year seminar?
Two students said this class was their favorite class ever!