First-Year Connections

A dynamic social and academic program

Hofstra's First-Year Connections initiative is all about helping ease the transition from high school to college. This program is an integrated academic and social approach that connects first-year students in small learning communities.

All eligible Hofstra first year students are able to benefit from First-Year Connection's thematic concept. The program's innovative interdisciplinary curriculum is an ideal introduction to the liberal arts, no matter which school or major Hofstra students select as their own path of study to experience.

"One of the key benefits from doing the First-Year Connections program was that I met and made strong connections with my entire class, not just a few people. I also learned how to interact with the teachers, which would have been a lot harder for me in a less relaxed environment. The small-class setting and the individual attention we received enabled me to better concentrate on my work." - Krista Darrell, Class of 2009

With "Connections Clusters," students take courses in different disciplines, but each course complements the others. For example, a student may be studying slavery in America in a history course, while reading Huckleberry Finn in an English class.

"Connections Seminars" are classes in which students work closely with a professor on a topic in that professor's particular area of research.

The following are some of the clusters and a brief description that are available for the fall 2007 semester. Take a look at the courses you can experience in your first year of academic study at Hofstra.

Some of the courses you can experience

Hip-Hop, the Dream, and Education
How has the emergence of hip-hop culture influenced youth identity today? The course begins with Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and examines the ways in which the subsequent emergence of hip-hop has shaped young people from various racial/ethnic backgrounds and social spaces.

Baseball in Literature
Historian Jacques Barzun observed, "Whoever would understand the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball." This seminar explores the weave of baseball's ubiquitous presence in American life, from its influence on language and expression to its connection with the American persona and identity through literature from Ring Lardner to August Wilson.

Fairy Tale in Literature
In the classic fairy tales of Perrault, Andersen, Wilde, and the Brothers Grimm, we encounter not only murderous stepmothers, abandoned children, and avenging woodsmen, but also love-struck beasts, wily girls in red hoods and triumphant mermaids. This course investigates the many social, historical and psychological meanings of classic fairy tales and their modern adaptations.

Haunting Tales: Ghosts and Graves in Gothic Literature
Why is it a pleasure to read literature that invokes fear and dread? Do confrontations between the living and the living dead - such as ghosts, speaking skulls, and corpses risen from the grave - purify the world of evil or leave an irreparable experience of trauma? And why does the passion of romantic love emerge within an atmosphere of heightened fear?

Word and Image: An Introduction to Graphic Design
How can graphic design inform, entertain, persuade and otherwise engage a viewer or audience? The importance of verbal language to visual impression and the play between them is basic to the designer's approach. In this introduction to the design process, we explore the relationship of words and images in a context where the connection between thinking and making is central.

Global Warming and the Science of Climate Change
Humans have raised Earth's atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, at least 30 percent higher than any level seen in the past 400,000 years. What are the likely outcomes of this increase? This course surveys the Earth's atmosphere, ocean and land surface processes as they regulate the climate system, with a particular focus on how we humans affect the carbon cycle.

The Brave and the Bold, the Weak and the Cold: Cultural Identity From Superheroes to Graphic Novels - History of Comics and Comics as History
This course focuses on constructions of cultural identity from the creation of the first superhero (Superman) in 1933 to the rise of a critical challenge to established values in the underground comics of the late-1960s to the rise of the self-consciously, historically grounded graphic novels from the late-1970s to the present.

9-11 and Its Aftermath: Did History Change?
Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it was claimed that these events were so unique and unprecedented that they opened a new epoch in world history. This seminar considers the events of 9-11 and the American response.

The Social Psychology of Everyday Life
This seminar introduces students to a wide array of issues in the field of social psychology, with applications focused on our everyday lives. We take up such questions as, Does violence in music and movies promote violent behavior? And, What factors promote versus inhibit helping someone in need or disobeying a morally questionable command from an authority figure?

Facebook, You Tube and Google: What the Digital Generation Can Expect
This seminar explores not only the many ways in which the digital revolution has not only changed college life - for better and for worse - but also information technology's dramatic influence on our social, professional, civic and political lives.