The Freshman Experience

     

In an effort to build a sense of community and collegiality among the Freshman class, while at the same time giving students the intellectual foundation and skills they need to flourish throughout their lives, the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) at Stevens Institute of Technology presents the "Freshman Experience." 

Together these courses provide students with the foundation they need to become reflective, critical, expressive and articulate, intellectually confident and, perhaps most important, truly innovative. It also helps them become oriented to college life while giving them a common base across majors and schools, enabling them to build a sense of solidarity and community.

Both courses comprising the Freshman Experience at Stevens will follow common syllabi and make use of the same textbooks, which means that every Stevens Freshman will be reading and discussing the same material, regardless of section or instructor. This will allow students to engage in discussions and debates about the material in virtually every venue of Stevens, from the dining halls to the sports arena. The text for CAL 105 has been published by Stevens and is given to all incoming students as our gift.

This experience centers on a sequence of two common courses that every new student at Stevens takes during the first year: 

CAL 103 - Writing and Communication

This course empowers students with the written and oral communications skills they need to participate in university-level discourse, and become thoughtful leaders in the global economy. An exploration of seminal humanities-based texts sets the foundation for further intensive academic inquiry on individual and group levels, facilitated by the S.C Williams Library Research and Reference staff.   

CAL 105 - CAL Colloquium: Knowledge, Nature, Culture

This course introduces students to all the humanistic disciplines offered by the College of Arts and Letters: history, literature, philosophy, the social sciences, art, and music. By studying seminal works and engaging in discussions and debates regarding the themes and ideas presented in them, students learn how to examine evidence in formulating ideas, how to subject opinions, both their own, as well those of others, to rational evaluation and, in the end, how to appreciate and respect a wide diversity of opinions and points of view.

Freshman experience
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Faculty Spotlight

Jennifer McBryan

Teaching Assistant Professor

 

What are your research areas of interest?

My interests are pretty eclectic. I have degrees in Comparative Literature and Art History, so I tend to be interested in the problems of representation that straddle the intersection between art and literature. Most of my research is in Modernist aesthetics and the relationship between form and meaning. However, I am also interested in more practical questions, especially in the realm of teaching. There are a lot of fascinating conversations going on about how students learn, and particularly how they learn to write, and I am always looking to be involved in those.

What are some of the courses you are currently teaching?

I teach CAL 103 and CAL 105, the two courses of the Freshman Experience. It's exciting and a real honor to be a part of a student's first year at college. 

What can students expect when they take a class with you?

Students can expect to work hard, but they can expect that I will work hard as well. I care a lot about what my students have to say, so I always give lots of comments on their papers and I'm always available to help. I want students in my class to be challenged and to tackle difficult issues in a serious way, but I also like to have fun and keep the atmosphere relaxed and enjoyable. I want to learn as much from them as they do from me.

What do you like to do when you're not teaching?

The usual stuff, I suppose: reading, taking walks, visiting museums, enjoying nature, spending time with friends and family, writing, traveling. I get a lot of joy from life's simple pleasures.