Students Engage with Libraries During First Year Seminar Shared Experience
The First Year Seminar (FYS) Shared Experience for the fall 2025 semester took place the week of September 15. As part of the course revamp, this year students were able to select their own experience during their FYS 101 section time through the Cuse Activities application. Some classes still chose to engage in an activity together, but it was not a requirement.
In alignment with the revised Shared Experience, the Libraries expanded first year students’ exposure to the variety of expertise, resources and activities available. The Libraries hosted 22 events for students enrolled in First Year Seminar 101 classes – a record for our unit. Our First Year Seminar Shared Experiences included:
- Two separate visits to the SU Archives in the Special Collections Research Center, hosted by Meg Mason, University Archivist
- Two book repair workshops in the Preservation Lab, hosted by Marianne Hanley, Preservation Librarian
- Two separate introductions to primary source research at the Special Collections Research Center and research opportunities available on campus with The SOURCE, hosted by Jana Rosinski, SCRC Instruction and Education Librarian, with Kate Hanson, Director of The SOURCE, and Odette Rodríguez, Assistant Director of The SOURCE
- Two sessions on news and newspaper databases, hosted by Michael Pasqualoni, Librarian for the Newhouse School of Public Communications
- Two sessions on board games, hosted by Kristin Jeter, Access Services Librarian
- Two sessions on trivia, hosted by Michelle Mitchell, Reference and Instruction Libarian
- Two sessions on the power of AI, led by Juan Denzer, Librarian for the College of Engineering and Computer Science
- Two presentations on Constitution Day, led by John Olson, Government and Geo-Information Librarian
- One CoPilot Workshop, led by John Stawarz, Online Learning Librarian
- Two sessions on literary treasures, led by Patrick Williams, Humanities Librarian
- A Zotero workshop, led by Winn Wasson, Social Sciences Librarian, and
- Two Digital Scholarship Space visits, led by Alexander Schulz, Information Literacy Scholar
Shared experience instructor and Newhouse Librarian Michael Pasqualoni said, “The subset of FYS 101 students attending a pair of news and newspapers sessions benefited from database recommendations. They also shared back favored news platforms, which included top mentions of titles like: New York Times, CNN, TikTok, Instagram and Wall Street Journal. Interestingly, slightly above one in four of the SU undergraduates at these sessions reported selectively paying out of pocket for personal subscriptions when a title is a high priority.”
Students in the news and newspaper databases session said, “I learned a lot about news databases, which I believe will help me in my future academic research” and “I liked learning about different resources that the school had that I was unaware of prior to attending.”
‘I taught a workshop on Zotero, which is a software that can help you save, organize and cite your sources,” said Winn Wasson, Social Sciences Librarian. “I could tell the session was a useful and positive experience for attendees. In fact, the next day, as I was walking across the Quad, a student who participated in the workshop saw me and shouted, ‘Hey! Zotero!’”
One of the peer leaders in the literary treasures session said, “I loved learning more about Bird Library and getting to see everyone excited about books” and another said “I liked getting to know the resources for myself as someone who has been on campus and hadn't even known. Patrick and Alexander were incredibly helpful in answering questions and were very friendly and passionate about their work.”
Students participate in FYS Shared Experience session on board games.
Students explore Constitution Day display as part of FYS Shared Experience Week.
Students explore VR equipment as part of FYS Shared Experience Week in the Digital Scholarship Space
Students participate in book repair workshop in the Preservation Lab as part of FYS Shared Experience week.
Students learn about primary source research in the Special Collections Research Center as part of FYS Shared Experience Week.