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First Year Experience

Coming to college is all about change. New friends, new academic challenges, new perspectives.

Johnson State College has introduced the First Year Experience to help you succeed during this important life transition. Along the way, you will develop healthy connections with your peers and learn life skills you will carry for the rest of your life. The program includes the following components:

New Student Registration

During this one-day session, you can choose classes for the fall semester, take math and English placement tests, meet with your academic advisor, and get your ID photo taken and mailbox assigned.

Orientation

Get familiar with the campus; meet administrators, faculty members and classmates; start planning your academic path at JSC; and participate in other fun and informative activities. It all takes place over the weekend before classes start.

 

Common Reading Initiative

As a first-year student, you will be participating in the JSC Common Reading Initiative, a program of lectures, discussions, exhibits, films, and concerts that complement the book. We’ve designed the program to introduce you to the academic and intellectual culture of the college through a common reading experience.

The Fall 2008 Common Reading selection is Chris Rose's chronicle of post-Katrina New Orleans, 1 Dead in Attic. The collection freeze-frames New Orleans — a city caught during its most desperate time — as it struggles out of the floodwaters and wills itself back to life. In commenting on the book, one reviewer wrote: "Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy and even humor — in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland. They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators."

Click here for more information about the Common Reading Initiative.

First Year Seminars

First-year students are encouraged to take a first-year seminar their first semester at JSC. Each seminar is a three-credit, interdisciplinary course that is limited to 15 students. All seminars share seven key learning objectives, including critical analysis, information literacy and taking part in extended classroom experiences. Learn more about First Year Seminars.

First-Year Advisement Program

Academic advising at JSC aims to assist first-year students by:

• Helping you to identify academic and life goals
• Promoting engagement in the educational community
• Raising awareness of co-curricular activities
  

Click on the link to learn more about first-year advising.

Residential Experience Program

Take advantage of several opportunities throughout the year to discuss and address typical first-year concerns such as homesickness, time management, healthy diet and nutrition, community living, roommate issues and peer pressure.

Service Learning

You can begin exploring service learning opportunities — an integral part of the JSC experience— as soon as you become a student here. Visit Change Your World to learn more.