Freshman seminars to begin Monday

Some students just can’t wait to get to college.

Starting Monday, a group of freshmen, having moved about a month before fall classes begin, will take classes as part of the Intensive Freshman Seminars program.

The three-week program runs Aug. 3-20 and consists of a three-credit hour course and the chance to get a jump-start on the college experience. All incoming freshmen were eligible for the program, according to the program’s Web site.

Twenty-four courses are offered, with topics ranging from biology, psychology and the environment to Shakespeare, law and politics.

One seminar, The Psychology of College Life, taught by Lisa Thomassen of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, combines the study of psychology with practical applications for new life in college, such as dealing with roommates, alcohol and the freshman 15.

“I hope students enjoy the class and learn to appreciate psychology and that some of the findings from psychology will help them with their college career,” Thomassen said. “We will be looking at studying effectively, group living, wellness, as well as a couple of other topic areas.”

Mike Beam, director of the Intensive Freshman Seminars, said he feels the program is unique among the other orientation programs.

“The Intensive Freshman Seminar, unlike orientation, IUBeginings and Welcome Week, is primarily an academic introduction to IU,” Beam said. “There are myriad of other, outside-of-class activities during IFS for participants, but each of the days during the program centers first around the courses.”

IU professors and student-interns teach the courses, and the freshmen will have resident assistants living with them in the residence halls.

One teaching intern, junior Justine Carlotta, said she was drawn to the fresh energy that is packaged with the incoming freshmen when she decided to sign up to help teach the seminar Violence, Sport and the Spectator: An Exploration of Violence in Modern Society.

“I never took public speaking,” Carlotta said. “Nor have I ever been on the other side of the classroom. So it shall be an interesting experience. This is going to be the first experience in an IU classroom for these students. I’ll be sure to make a good impression. I don’t want to be a bore.”

Aside from the classes and early residence hall experience, students meet each other and become further acquainted with Bloomington through the program by taking trips to the opera, dances and group basketball games.

Though Intensive Freshman Seminars is an academic experience, it also provide students the tools they’ll need outside the classroom.

“Most importantly, IFS creates a community for students where they can interact with a diverse mixture of individuals both inside and outside of the classroom,” Carlotta said. “They’ll walk away with good friends and good memories.”