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Summer 2013 Strong Start Freshman Connection: Canceled

The Summer 2013 Strong Start Freshman Connection has been canceled due to low enrollment. Please contact your advisor to ensure that you are making appropriate plans to meet your mandatory CSU Early Start program requirements this summer. If you would like to enroll in a section of University 100 in fall 2013, contact your advisor.

Fall 2013 Freshman Connection

Business and Pre-Accountancy (College of Business & Economics)

• Classes and times (.pdf, 50 kb)
• Advising: Juniper Hall 2113
• Appointments: 818-677-3537

Family & Consumer Sciences

• Classes and times (.pdf, 19 kb)
• Advising: Sequoia Hall (SQ) 111
• Appointments: 818-677-2883

Health Careers (College of Health and Human Development)

• Classes and times (.pdf, 19 kb)
• Advising: Sequoia Hall (SQ) 111
• Appointments: 818-677-2883

Humanities Learning Community

• Classes and times (.pdf, 19 kb)
• Advising: contact Marvin Villanueva at 818-677-4767, Jerome Richfield 240.

Kinesiology Learning Community

• Classes and times (.pdf, 19 kb)
• Advising: Sequoia Hall (SQ) 111
• Appointments: 818-677-2883

Science & Math

• Classes and times (.pdf, 31 kb)
• Advising: Eucalyptus Hall 2126
• Appointments: 818-677-4558.

Social & Behavioral Sciences

• Classes and times (.pdf, 19 kb)
• Advising: contact Dorna Basiratmand or Christina Mallory at 818-677-2658, Sierra Hall 204.

Undecided

• Classes and times (.pdf, 20 kb)
• Classes and times, BCFS cohort (.pdf, 19 kb)
• Advising: Bayramian Hall 210, 818-677-2108.

General questions

• Ask your advisor; or contact Dr. Cheryl Spector at 818-677-6535 in the office of Academic First Year Experiences or via email.

About the Freshman Connection

What is it?

• A special one-semester program for incoming first-year freshmen offering them the opportunity to register for linked classes (usually General Education classes) as part of a learning community. The learning community enables new students to take an active role in their own education. Students work with outstanding faculty and advisors and participate in exciting academic classes with other freshmen, giving them the opportunity to study together and help each other succeed in their first CSUN semester and beyond.

How does it work?

• Students register for a Freshman Connection cohort during their regular CSUN advisement appointment. Registration in a Freshman Connection cohort includes registration in each of the individual classes grouped together in that particular cohort.

What is a cohort?

• A cohort is a group of students, usually numbering 20-25 people, who take a selected block of classes together throughout an academic term.

How do cohorts help students succeed?

• By taking classes together, new students find that it is easier to manage their first term at the university. They make friends more rapidly and (according to campus data) do better academically than students who don't participate in a cohort. Faculty collaborating in the Freshman Connection also work together to support student success.

Who says so?

We have data from Institutional Research to back up our claims. And we also have Nathan's word for it. Nathan was a freshman in the fall 2011 COBAE cohort. Now (March 2013) finishing his second year at CSUN, Nathan says, "I met most of my CSUN friends in the Freshman Connection." Keep reading to find out how having friends in your classes helps you succeed.

What is a learning community?

• A learning community combines at least two different classes in different disciplines or areas to highlight the connections between them. The classes are taught by faculty from the different disciplines or areas included in the community. Participating students and professors form a community of learners, working together to ask questions and discover answers.

What can a Freshman Connection learning community do for you as a student?

Plenty!

1. You can interact with other students and teachers as part of a close-knit, supportive community of learners.
2. You can work with other students on learning community activities and projects across disciplinary boundaries.
3. You will experience a variety of teaching and learning approaches, including discussions, projects, field trips, other activities, and lectures.
4. You'll make friends.
5. You'll learn collaboratively. (After all, learning is a social and interactive process.)
6. You'll increase your sense of belonging to the CSUN community.
7. You'll get to take an active role in learning.
8. You will be exposed to diverse ways of thinking, teaching, and problem-solving.
9. You'll get to see teachers as learners.
10. You'll be more likely to see the connections between disciplines and courses instead of seeing them as separate entities.

What are some benefits for faculty?

1. Setting up a learning community builds community and often bridges the gaps between otherwise disparate parts of the university.
2. Participating can renew faculty's commitment to the teaching/learning process.
3. The learning community allows faculty to engage their disciplines in new ways.
4. The opportunity to be a learner can expand and improve teaching.
5. Faculty are motivated when they see increased engagement in their students.
6. The new approaches faculty develop by participating in a Freshman Connection learning community are transferable: they have positive effects on teaching and learning even in traditional (stand-alone) classes faculty may be teaching.

Who Is Eligible?

Fall 2013

Eligibility for the Fall 2013 Freshman Connection is determined by your major. Check the majors here to see if yours is listed. Not sure? Ask your advisor for help.

• Accounting (Pre-Accounting)
• African American Studies
• Anthropology
• Asian American Studies
• Biochemistry
• Biology
• Business Administration
• Central American Studies
• Chemistry
• Chicano/a Studies
• Child & Adolescent Development
• Communication Disorders & Sciences
• Economics
• English
• Environmental & Occupational Health
• Family & Consumer Sciences
• Finance (Pre-Finance)
• Gender & Women's Studies
• Geography
• Geology
• Health Sciences
• History
• Humanities
• Information Systems
• Kinesiology
• Linguistics
• Management
• Marketing
• Mathematics
• Modern & Classical Languages and Literatures
• Modern Jewish Studies
• Pan African Studies
• Philosophy
• Physical Therapy
• Physics and Astronomy
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Recreation & Tourism Management
• Religious Studies
• Sociology
• Undecided (undeclared)
• Urban Studies and Planning