1. First-Year Experience
  2. First-Year Seminar

First-Year Seminar

The First-Year Seminar (FYS) program is a unifying experience for all Washington College students. While every seminar topic is different, the program introduces you to critical inquiry, college writing and research, and other vital academic skills to set you up for collegiate success. Through the program, meet your academic advisor (often your FYS professor), Peer Mentor, the Center for Career Development, and other academic tools to benefit you throughout your time at Washington.  

When deciding which FYS course to take, consider one with a topic that interests or excites you, or one that's completely new to you. Throughout the course, your professor guides you through critical exploration, how to approach a text and use it to create questions, and how to take those questions and lead them to major research and findings. These skills lay the foundation for your time at Washington, and beyond.  

  • Mindsets and Multikills: The Psychology of Gaming 
  • Jane Austen and Fan Culture
  • Consider the Tree
  • The Price of Knowledge: Access and Privilege in our Information Landscape
  • English Romanticism and the Environment

students presenting fys research

First-Year Seminar
Faculty Headshot Martin Ponti

Department of World Languages and Cultures

Martin Ponti

Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, Director of the First-Year Seminar

FYS courses bring students and faculty together to explore a topic of shared interest. Embracing the liberal arts tradition of broad curiosity, the topics are specifically meant to be outside of typical research areas for faculty and expected majors for students. This joint inquiry provides the perfect venue for faculty to model the research process and collaborate with students in asking questions and finding answers around their topic, helping students learn in a rigorous way about a subject that expands their view of what they can learn. All FYS courses share three essential elements:  

  • The passion of a dedicated instructor
  • A small seminar format where students learn from each other
  • A sustained focus on the "habits of inquiry" at the heart of liberal education.

From the day you get here, we have your final goal in mind

First-Year Seminar

Your First SemesterJoint Inquiry Modeled by Faculty

Through the First-Year Seminar, faculty model the research process and collaborate with students in asking questions and finding answers around a topic of shared interest. Learn how to approach a text and use it to create questions, and how to turn those questions into research findings. 

The Writing Program

Throughout Your TimeHone Your Communication Skills

One of the most valuable skills you can learn is how to clearly and effectively write and communicate. Embedded into our curriculum, the writing program ensures you develop good practices and processes for communicating to broad audiences, and within your discipline. 

Research Opportunities

Throughout Your TimeHands-on Options to Pursue Your Passions

Cultivate the research skills, techniques and tools to serve you throughout your time at the College and beyond. Through coursework and co-curricular research programs, established partnerships, and other opportunities, engage in a range of collaborative experiences with faculty and other students. 

Senior Capstone Experience

Your Final SemesterIndependent Research Project

Your Senior Capstone Experience is a discipline-specific research project—typically a paper, comprehensive exam, professional portfolio, or other project of active learning—demonstrating an advanced level of critical thinking, writing skill, and rhetorical knowledge. 

Faculty Headshot Martin Ponti

Department of World Languages and Cultures

Martin Ponti

Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, Director of the First-Year Seminar