First-Year Seminar

 

First-Year Seminar Logo

First-year Seminars play a central role in the lives of incoming students at Stockton. First-Year Seminars are courses drawn from across the General Studies curriculum, so that each class has a different content area and academic focus. This is one of the things that makes our program unique, so that students can take courses on a range of topics including sustainability issues, mythology, diversity, the history of Paris, American stories, health care, the political economy, or detectives in literature. Whatever the focus, the seminars are carefully designed for new students, who will work on the essential skills of critical thinking, college-level reading practices, information literacy, and communication skills cultivated through writing, speaking, and listening.  

First-year Seminars also include a common reading that is taught in all of the program’s various classes, which bring their own particular intellectual perspectives to the book. This book represents a student’s first shared intellectual experience with the incoming class, and engaging with the common reader is a cherished tradition at Stockton. The university provides the book for each new student and faculty plan opportunities to think about the text both inside and outside of the classroom. A Convocation Lecture presented to the entire first-year class culminates the student’s sustained engagement with the text, and is usually given by the author of the featured book. 

Incoming students must sign up for a First-Year Seminar during their first semester, and cannot take more than one of these classes as part of their course of study. The credits earned count toward a student’s graduation requirements for every major and program, and all of the seminars are designed to help students practice the skills needed to be a better college student and achieve their life-long learning goals. First-year Seminars are an essential part of the First Year Experience (FYE) at Stockton, and the coordinators of both programs work closely to ensure that our new students have a welcoming and challenging first year. 

 

The Common Reading


MY MONTICELLO

MY MONTICELLO

by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's writing has appeared in Guernica, the Guardian, Kweli, Joyland, phoebe, Prime Number Magazine, and elsewhere. Her short story "Control Negro" was anthologized in Best American Short Stories 2018, guest edited by Roxane Gay, and read live by LeVar Burton as part of PRI's Selected Shorts series. Johnson has been a fellow at Hedgebrook, Tin House Summer Workshops, and VCCA. A veteran public-school art teacher, Johnson lives and writes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

 --Taken from the author's bio on Macmimllan Publishers

 

Reading Resources

Convocation Lecture for First Year Students with Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Wednesday, October 16, 2024
4:30pm
Stockton Peforming Arts Center
Galloway Campus
Reception and Book Signing to Follow in the Art Gallery

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's writing has appeared in Guernica the Guardian, Kweli, Joyland, phoebe, Prime Number Magazine, and elsewhere. Her short story "Control Negro" was anthologized in Best American Short Stories 2018, guest edited by Roxane Gay, and read live by LeVar Burton as part of PRI’s Selected Shorts series. Johnson has been a fellow at Hedgebrook, Tin House Summer Workshops, and VCCA. A veteran public-school art teacher, Johnson lives and writes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

For questions, please contact Geoffrey Gust: geoffrey.gust@stockton.edu or 609-652-4491

First-Year Seminar Program Convenor:

Geoffrey Gust, Ph.D.
geoffrey.gust@stockton.edu 
609-652-4491

Handbook for Faculty

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