Spring 2024 First-Year Experience Learning Communities

How to register:

  1. Meet with your academic advisor to choose your FYE.
  2. When registration opens, register for your FYE in Campus Connection using the MiSU eForm Tile>>Registrar's Office Folder>>First-Year Experience. You will be added to the FYE Learning Community within 24 business hours of submitting the form.

Other registration considerations: 

  1. Plan your other courses around the times of the FYE classes.  You will not be added to FYE classes if there is a scheduling conflict. 
  2. All FYE Learning Communities have a capacity limit; therefore, some options may not be available at the time you register.

FYE Learning Community descriptions & connected courses

From Edinburgh and Glasgow in the south to the wild Highlands of the north, Scotland is a country full of natural beauty, culture, and history. This FYE will cultivate leadership and communication skills while also preparing you for an immersive experience: spring break in Scotland! Join us as we explore the geography, history, and culture of bonnie Scotland. Ye dinnae ken Scotland yet, but you will!

**Students are responsible for the cost of the spring break (March 2024) study abroad tour. ONLY sign up for this FYE if you are able to travel out of the country during the program dates.

  • UNIV 110 First-Year Seminar 2 SH (RC, PSR3) MW 12-12:50 pm, Zeb Wallace
  • LEAD 101 Introduction to Leadership 3 SH (CCS1) TR 9:30-10:45 am, Jim Sturm
  • COMM 110 Fundamentals of Public Speaking 3 SH (FC) TR 11:00 am-12:15pm, Jessica Smestad

(Recommended for students in Teacher Education or Communication Sciences and Disorders)

This group of courses will explore the connections between classroom practices and the processes of learning. Why do some students remember pictures and others remember words? Is it useful to label students? Why are some students motivated and others not so much? Does development affect learning? How can educators help students be successful? We will explore these questions through coursework that looks at the complicated decisions that adults and kids in schools make every day and then visit elementary, middle and high schools to apply the information.

  • UNIV 110 First-Year Seminar 2 SH (RC, PSR2) T 1:00-2:50 pm, Kathy Hintz
  • ED 260 Educational Psychology 2 SH (CCS 1) TH 1:00-2:50 pm, Laura Zucca
  • ED 260L 0 SH, time arranged, Kathy Hintz

This activity-based class will address the importance of creating balance in our lives, so we can have time to do the things that make us feel happy and fulfilled. Focusing on the dimensions of wellness, students will learn how to adapt to the academic demands of college while living a healthy lifestyle.

  • UNIV 110 First-Year Seminar 2 SH (RC, PSR2) MW 11:00 – 11:50 am, Rachel Simonson
  • KIN 101 Social Dance 1 SH (PSR3) TTh 10:00-10:50 am, Terry Eckmann

Great athletes, actors, musicians, and public speakers can control anxiety, minimize stress, utilize imagery, and use relaxation to control their performance. This learning community combines both techniques of public speaking, movement, and psychology of sport to examine how both the body and mind influence performance.

  • UNIV 110 First-Year Seminar 2 SH (RC, PSR2) TTh 8:00-9:15 am, Beth Odahlen
  • KIN 126 Group Exercise 1 SH (PSR 3) TTH  12:00 - 12:50 pm, Terry Eckmann

This FYE learning community explores a common set of questions relating gaming and eSports to the college experience. How can we build healthy, gaming communities in digital spaces? How do we balance competitive demands of gaming with academic and personal responsibilities? How do games and game systems inform our own identities and how do we shape those same systems? We will explore these questions through readings, discussions, presentations, and projects. Learners will gain skills and knowledge to protect themselves online, engage with digital spaces in an appropriate way, and contribute to the wider discussion surrounding gaming spaces.

  • UNIV 110 First-Year Seminar 2 SH (RC, PSR2)  MW 10:00-10:50 am, Christine Borden-King-Jones
  • PSY 299 Special Topics in Psychology: Intro to Cyberpsychology 3 SH, TTH 2:00-3:15 pm, Ethan Valentine
  • ENG 110 College Composition I 3 SH (RC, CCS5) MWF 1:00-1:50 pm, Samuel Stinson

(Intended for online-only students)

Can one person change the world?  How does change take place?  What causes community action? This First-Year Experience course will examine how individuals determine their belief system, how that belief system impacts their decision making and behaviors, and how those behaviors lead to change in their community.  Students will examine why civic engagement and community service is an integral component of education and our society, as well as the differences between volunteering, civic engagement, and community problem solving.  Are you ready to see how one person, maybe even you, can create change which impacts a community, city, state, country, or the world?

  • UNIV 110 First-Year Seminar 2 SH (RC, PSR2) online- asynchronous, Christine Borden-King Jones

Being a college student can feel like you have to manage a million tasks at once. In this learning community, you will learn how to leverage technology to help you become the most effective college student you can be. 

  • UNIV 110 First-Year Seminar 2 SH (RC, PSR2) TTh 2:00-2:50 pm, Sophia Rammell
  • BIT 123 Technology Personal Development 3 SH (PSR3) MWF 12:00-12:50 pm, Jan Repnow

In this FYE you will explore what your personal goals are for life and success, and how to meet them financially and personally. Students will learn about how to identify and set goals, how to make difficult decisions, and balance personal and financial wellbeing. Come and explore who you are, what you want, and how to get it!

  • UNIV 110 First-Year Seminar 2 SH (RC, PSR2) MW 11:00 - 12:50 pm, KateLynn Albers
  • FIN 251 Personal Finance  3 SH (PSR 3) TTH 9:30 - 10:45am, David Frantsvog