2018 First Year Seminar Symposium

Hartwick Presents 2019 First Year Seminar Symposium

December 4, 2019

Hartwick College will host its First Year Seminar (FYS) Symposium on Friday, December 6 from 4 – 5:30 p.m. in the Stevens-German Library, Yager Hall, on the College campus. The event, which is free and open to the public, will provide an opportunity for first-year students to show off their work, ranging from research about political change to displays of visual and performing arts. Appetizers, desserts, and beverages will be available for all participants and guests.

Students from 14 different FYS classes have submitted their work and are slated to participate in the symposium. Presentations will include scholarly lectures, posters, works of art, videos, and short monologues.

“Our First Year Seminar Symposium highlights the College’s commitment to melding experiential learning with the liberal arts from the very first time students take our classes,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. William J. Ehmann. “Students, their classmates, and their instructors have been working diligently on these projects, and look forward to the opportunity to share their work not only with other first-year students, but the entire Hartwick community.”

Sample presentations during the FYS Symposium include:

  • “Politics Through Games” – Dr. Amy Forster Rothbart
    Students in the course will portray characters they represented during three classroom simulations. They will discuss what they learned from their mock negotiations of the United States Constitution, the conditions of peace at the close of WW II (as discussed at the Yalta Conference), and the deliberations of the United Nations Security Council in the lead up to the Rwandan genocide.
  • “Harry Potter’s England” – Dr. Cherilyn Lacy
    This course uses the Harry Potter book series as a gateway for exploring themes in British history since 1800. Questions of race and ethnicity (Mudbloods), the importance of education (Hogwarts), industrialization (the Hogwarts Express), and Victorian identity are examined. For the Symposium, students investigated the same issues within the history of Hartwick College and designed a museum-style exhibit based on research in the College’s archives and Yager Museum of Art & Culture.
  • “Ideas and Practice of Sustainability” – Dr. Mark Davies
    Sustainability represents much more than saving the rainforests and recycling. Over the course of the semester, students in this class investigated the environmental, social, and economic problems of the contemporary food system in the United States, and the opportunities, challenges, and barriers of local, sustainable food systems. Students developed projects to promote potential long-term changes in food production, community practices, and food security.
  • “Introduction to Music Education” – Dr. Meghan Sheehy
    Students developed atypical course concepts outside “traditional” music offerings (band, choir, orchestra, etc. The project prepares students to envision ways pre-K-12 schools may generate greater participation in music programs by offering unique and outside-the-box classes. Music Education majors are required to create Symposium posters with crafts, as opposed to a printed scientific poster, since the former is often the more common medium in public school; these presentations are part of their final exam.
  • “Foundation in Nursing Science” – Assistant Professor Lorena Marra, Associate Professor Melissa David, and Assistant Professor Maia Silber
    Students in this introductory course explore the role of the professional nurse in health and wellness, including self-care and the care of clients. They will present what they have learned on topics including: “Professionalism/Image of Nursing;” “Legal Issues/Malpractice;” “Stress Management/Sleep and Coping as a Student;” and “Do Religious Beliefs Affect Medical Choices?”

For more information, please contact First Year Seminar Symposium Coordinator Kathleen Carlson in the Center for Student Success, at 607-431-4136 or at carlsonk@hartwick.edu