First-Year Experience
The First Year Experience (FYE) is an integrated set of programs to increase engagement with the social and intellectual life of the campus community and to provide tools for you to succeed in their classes.
We want all new members of our community to become fully integrated into the academic and co-curricular culture of Catawba College. In the spring before your first year, you’ll come to an Accepted Students Day, where you’ll meet new peers, faculty, and staff and have the opportunity to learn about how to select classes for the fall.
Getting into the rhythm of Catawba starts early with the First-Year Retreat, where incoming students get to know one another, meet faculty and begin developing into successful college students. You will also come to campus to enjoy an Orientation, where you will meet members of your incoming class and prepare for life at Catawba socially and academically, learning the layout of campus and learning about all the services we have to offer. During Welcome Weekend in August you will come to campus and prepare for your classes, assisted by your ALPHA orientation leader and First Year Seminar professor. The centerpiece of the FYE is your First Year Seminar, a course that will introduce you to a topic of interest while teaching you college survival skills and supporting your college transition. In this course, you will develop critical thinking, reading, and writing capabilities, beginning your preparation to succeed in professional careers, to make meaningful contributions to the communities in which you live, and to continue to learn throughout your life.
