Breakfast provided.

Remarks by FYE staff.

Teaching FYE as a Graduate Instructor: Expectations vs. Reality

Carolyn Carmody, M.A. Student in Higher Education and Student Affairs & FYE Instructor

Graduate Instructors play an important role in delivering FYE courses, and they navigate this work while simultaneously developing their own professional identities. This session invites participants to reflect on what they hope to gain from teaching First-Year Experience while balancing the demands of graduate school. We will explore common expectations, unexpected realities, and strategies for navigating your dual role as a student and an instructor. Attendees will leave with practical resources and renewed confidence in their ability to succeed as a graduate instructor.

UConn in the Capital City: Acquainting Students with Hartford

Dan Covino, Academic Advisor at UConn Hartford

Many UConn’s Hartford students have limited familiarity with the city, hindering their sense of belonging and engagement. A new UNIV 1820 course, “UConn in the Capital City,” used place-based learning and digital mapping to introduce students to Hartford’s cultural and civic landscape. Throughout this class, students explored the city and collaboratively used mapping software to create a “Student’s Guide to Hartford.” This course demonstrates how students can strengthen their connection to an urban campus environment. This session helps attendees adapt such a class to their campus.

Incorporating Practical Skills for Student Success within First Year Seminars

Kay Camerato, Associate Director, Office of Student Care and Concern

First year students arrive at college with varying levels of preparedness for the academic and personal demands of a large public research university. This interactive session explores how First Year Experience (FYE) courses can intentionally support student success by developing core college readiness skills: communication, self-awareness and self-advocacy, and executive functioning. Participants will examine practical examples of assignments, and in-class activities that foster skill development using a strengths based, student centered approach. The session also highlights the role of Peer Mentors in contributing to these efforts and further developing their own skills. Attendees will leave with adaptable strategies ready for implementation in FYE courses.

Neurodiversity & Neuroinclusivity in Higher Ed: Best Practices Starter Kit

Andi Kent, PhD, Assistant Director of Faculty Development at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

The world is neurodiverse, and there is a growing awareness that our environments – classrooms, offices, universities – need to adapt to become more neuroinclusive. Participants will leave this session with a range of strategies – from awareness building to active-learning adjustments – to apply to their various educational contexts. Simple choices can make a world of difference to all types of learners, and we’ll explore places in our pedagogy to make these inclusive choices.

Nexus for FYE

Rachel Mongillo Jennett, Assistant Director of Academic Support at the Academic Achievement Center

Is it Worth it? Exploring the ROI on a college degree.

Jordane Virgo, Advising Director at UConn Avery Point

This session will dive into the required investments a student has to make to attend college. Time, sustained effort in the classroom, social and professional growth, and, of course, financials. Students in their first year always want to know, is it worth it? Will they make their money back? Will this degree lead to fulfillment? Will the university network lead me to career growth and success? Using recent data and direct participant feedback through group discussion, this session aims to answer those questions.

FYE: Lessons learned 1999-2026

Steve Zinn, PhD, Professor of Animal Science

This session will identify examples of activities in FYE that have worked and some that did not work over 26 years of teaching.

Building Classroom Community in the FYE Space with the Supervising TAs

Sarah Walsh, Hannah Tuxbury and Annika Tobey, FYE Supervising Teaching Assistants

Enjoy lunch and celebrate our 2025  FYE Award winners!

Engaged by Design: Using Gamification to Spark Library Joy

Erica Charis-Molling, Instructional Design & Learning Librarian at UConn Library

When you think of library presentations, do you think of musty tours and snooze-inducing point-and-click database demonstrations? At UConn Library, our redesigned our first-year campus partner sessions replace endless walking and passive website demos with gamified, story-driven challenges built for Gen Z learners. In The Babbidge Files, students must prove their existence to a haunting ghost using academic sources. In AI Library Lockdown, they race to reboot a hallucinating AI assistant. This session introduces four reimagined library offerings, sharing the instructional design thinking behind them, and inviting instructors to explore ways to "spark joy" with their least engaging course content.

Letters Across Campus: Building Belonging Through a Cross-Class Pen Pal Exchange

Landon Bassett, Undergraduate Laboratory Technician, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineer and Juliet Kapsis, Program Coordinator, Events & Conference Services

In an era when much student communication happens online, what happens when we slow things down and invite students to connect through handwritten letters? In Fall 2025, two First Year Experience instructors piloted a cross-class “pen pal” exchange designed to foster belonging, reflection, and connection across the UConn campus.

Ethical Decision-Making: The Kidney Machine

Amy McKeon, Academic Advisor I, Allied Health Sciences

WWYD? "An epidemic is afflicting victims’ kidneys such that they have become painfully ill. Your company has developed a Kidney Machine which offers the cure to this disease – but you only have the resources to offer this to five individuals." Students have 5 minutes solo and 5-10 minutes in small groups to choose who deserves the cure. Participants will experience the twists & turns of this activity and discuss how to apply it to their classroom. This has been applied to FYE and SYE for health, business, and engineering. The presenter will share unexpected successes and failures to implement seamlessly.

FYE Instructors as Cultural Mentors: Supporting International Students’ Intercultural Development

Rae Alexander, Assistant Vice President for Global Affairs

The presence of cultural mentorship may be the most significant factor impacting whether students develop interculturally while studying abroad. This session will explore the concept of intercultural competence and why it is important for international students studying at UConn. It will introduce the concept of cultural mentorship in international education, empowering FYE instructors to position themselves as cultural mentors to first year international students. Participants will brainstorm ways they can incorporate cultural mentorship activities into their FYE classrooms.

Empowering Observation Through Art

Amanda Douberley, Curator & Academic Liaison, William Benton Museum of Art

Today’s world moves fast and is filled with distractions, making mindfulness more important than ever. Being present and aware of the details of daily life supports not only student success on campus, but also in the workplace. According to the job site Indeed’s Career Guide, mindfulness is associated with observation skills, which “refer to the ability to use all five of your senses to recognize, analyze and recall your surroundings”. This session will empower participants to sharpen their observation skills through group discussion of works of art and introduce different options for bringing FYE classes to the Benton Museum.