Academy 101 A college education is not simply a matter of training you for a career–it is a matter of lighting a fire that will burn within you until your last breath. An excellent liberal arts education provides you with breadth and depth: breadth comes from taking a range of diverse courses and depth comes from your selection of a major and minor. Thus, each course you take is an investment in you, as it adds to your knowledge base and your possibilities for the future.
The transition from high school to college, however, can be challenging for freshmen, and the momentous change often makes it difficult for students to see their roles clearly. The faculty and staff at Western Oregon University understand this fact:
time management, work load, and class attendance are now your responsibilities you are now part of a new environment where you might feel isolated from family and high school friends you may feel confused about your menu of choices for areas of study you may not be aware of the many resources on campus that exist for the sole purpose of insuring your success you may lack confidence in your writing and researching abilities you may feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information you must process on a daily basis you might begin to feel pangs of inadequacy: the more you learn, the less you feel you know you may feel like your ability to make a difference in the world is suddenly becoming impossible to imagine.
As of this moment, however, you are a blank canvas: your options and opportunities are limitless. The key to painting the next four to six years of your life in the most beautiful ways possible is to become knowledgeable about the options and opportunities that lay ahead of you as a college student. This course is designed to enhance your success and confidence as a freshman by specifically addressing four areas that challenge most students: writing processes, research processes, an understanding of the purpose and functions of disciplines, and global awareness, with special emphasis on a global topic of your choice.
Learning Objectives Writing: Content and Research SkillsOur focus will be on the progressive development of the fundamental skills needed for successfully composing college-level research papers, with primary areas of focus which include the following: selecting and defining a research topic; becoming familiar with (1) primary and secondary sources and (2) the visible and invisible web; locating, evaluating, and summarizing sources; synthesizing gathered research; offering an applicative/ analytical component to the body of work (i.e., answering "so what? why should people care?"); organizing and drafting a paper; learning that revision refers to global restructuring strategies as opposed to editing; gaining familiarity with proper documentation (which will be limited to APA and MLA formats); and collaborating with peers for writing purposes other than editing.
Writing: Command over Fluency and Usage Our focus will be on the progressive development of the fundamental convention-related skills needed for successfully composing college-level papers, and areas of focus include the following: developing an understanding of simple, coordinating, and complex sentences; developing control over the construction of simple, coordinating, and complex sentences; learning to account for appropriate registers and word choices, according to purpose and audience; utilizing commas, semi-colons, and colons appropriately; lessening homophone errors (e.g., there, their, they're; then, than; to, too, two; etc.); and learning to self-edit.
Content Knowledge: Contextualizing Global Issues in Our University Setting Our focus will be on the progressive development of the awareness required for successfully making choices as college students with regard to areas of study and possibilities for effecting change; areas of focus include the following: introducing students to each division's role in the university, which includes an overview of the kinds of work their majors do both in and beyond their college careers; and introducing students to each division's role in a global context, which includes one or two samples of how a particular discipline works to affect change on a global level (e.g., Business might speak about how a business person can affect, and be affected by, the global economy; Anthropology might provide an overview of the types of work in which anthropologists are engaged in the middle east; Psychology might describe the work of psychologists who are assessing the immediate effects and predicting the long-term effects of international terrorism, etc.).
Content Knowledge: Global Issues Our focus will be on the progressive development of awareness with regard to global issues; areas of focus include the following: each team will work together to develop a working knowledge of one "umbrella" global issue of their choice (e.g., human rights in Iraq: past, present, and future; evolving gender roles in Japan and the role that Princess Aiko will play in that evolution, etc.); and each team member will develop a working knowledge of one sub-topic which falls under their team umbrella issue.
