First-Year Humanities and Writing Program

One of the hallmarks of a CMC education is the first-year humanities program that all students take in their first year at the College. The program has two components: the First-Year Humanities Seminar (FHS) and the First-Year Writing Seminar (FWS). FHS introduces first-year students to different topics, methods, approaches, perspectives, and frameworks in the Humanities; individual sections are taught by faculty from a range of departments and discliplines (including philosophy, religion, literature, government, history, and the arts). FWS, taught by faculty from the Department of Literature, introduces students to the college-level study of writing and literature, and emphasizes the development of students’ abilities in written and oral communication. Students take one of these seminars in each of their first two semesters at CMC. While each FHS and FWS seminar has a distinctive approach in terms of texts and topics, the pairing of these seminars gives first-year students a shared academic experience in small, writing-intensive courses that foster critical thinking about a wide range of important issues.

Primary Contact: Dean Ellen Ketels