This message contains important information related to the FSEM program, the Colgate Community Reads Program (i.e., "Summer Reading"), and your first academic assignment as a Colgate student.
The FSEM program is an integral part of the first-year student experience. Each incoming student will be assigned to a First-Year Seminar, and the faculty member teaching that course will serve as your academic adviser during your first two years at Colgate, or until you declare your academic concentration (i.e., major).
Students from each FSEM will be housed together in one of Colgate's Residential Commons. Your FSEM instructor, administrative dean, the commons directors, staff members, community leaders (CLs), and peer mentor (Link) will help you to navigate your transition to Colgate and build strong connections within these diverse and inclusive communities. For many students, the connections they establish through the FSEM and their Residential Commons are the starting points for the most enduring and meaningful relationships they forge at Colgate.
First-year students will also be enrolled in a section of the Living and Learning Workshop (LLW). The LLW is a required element of Colgate's Core Curriculum. It provides ongoing orientation for new students to enable them to thrive throughout their time on campus. The LLW curriculum is composed of five 60-minute class sessions, which students attend during weeks two through six of the fall semester. The five modules are designed to support students. The sessions take place from 2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. on the following Fridays: September 5, 12, 19, and 26, and October 3.
First Colgate Assignment
Your first Colgate assignment consists of two short writing exercises. While this is not a graded assignment, your responses will be shared with your First-Year Seminar (FSEM) instructor and your administrative adviser (i.e., dean), so you will want to make a positive impression here. You may use a basic spelling and grammar checker for minor edits, such as correcting typos or fixing subject-verb agreement. However, you should not use AI-powered tools or AI features (e.g., ChatGPT or Grammarly's AI assistant) to rewrite, reorganize, or expand your work. Because your FSEM instructor and dean want to get to know you (as opposed to a machine), the writing you submit should be your original ideas, in your unique voice.
The first exercise is a brief letter of introduction written to your FSEM instructor and academic adviser (see prompt below). This is an excellent way to introduce yourself to some of the key mentors in your first-year experience, so please be thoughtful in your response.
Exercise 1 - Letter of Introduction
What would you like your FSEM instructor and administrative adviser to know about you? What experiences have shaped you as a person and student? What are your hopes and/or concerns for the next four years? What resources will you need to thrive - academically, socially, and physically, in terms of overall wellness - in your new community?
Exercise 2 - Community Read Assignment
The second part of your assignment is to read the short play Primary Trust by Eboni Booth and then craft a response (750-1000 words) to the prompt below.
What challenges does Kenneth have connecting to other people and building rewarding relationships? To what extent do you relate to Kenneth's struggles and unique personality? How do the characters in the play interact in ways that open or close possibilities for social connection?
To complete this part of your assignment, first-year students have free access to an electronic copy of Booth's play, which you can download from the Summer Reading website. [Note: You will need to login with your new Colgate credentials.] The details for this assignment also appear on the web page. We hope that Booth's play, which received the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, becomes a point of contact and common interest among members of the Class of 2029. There will be staged readings of the play organized by Colgate's theater department during the fall semester, as well as other programming opportunities related to the play throughout the rest of the academic year.
You can submit both parts of the assignment through this online submission form located on the Summer Reading website. We recommend that you write your responses in a separate program and then copy and paste them into the form. If you have trouble accessing the form, please contact ITS (itshelp@colgate.edu; 315-228-7111). If you have other logistical questions, please contact Laura Billings, academic department coordinator for the FSEM program and the Division of University Studies (lbillings@colgate.edu; 315-228-7807).
The deadline for completing this assignment is August 11.
Once you have submitted your assignment, your responses will be forwarded to your FSEM instructor and your administrative dean. You should also keep a copy of this assignment, as you may wish to refer back to it during the academic year. You and your classmates are the foundation of the inclusive community - a community rooted in the understanding, appreciation, and acceptance of differences - Colgate aspires to be. We thank you for taking on this challenge and warmly welcome you to our intellectual community.