First-Year Program Course Descriptions

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Making a Difference: The Role of Active Citizenship in a Democracy (CBL)

What should a thriving democracy look like? In an era of economic crisis, perhaps now more than ever we should be reflecting upon how well our democratic institutions meet the needs of a diverse citizenry and what role citizens should play in ensuring the health of these institutions. What does it mean to be a member of a society that proclaims a “government of the people, by the people, for the people?” As we wrestle with these questions, we’ll examine America’s founding principles and the fundamental debates over our core values as a nation.

In the Eyes of an "Other": Travel Narratives and Immigration Literature of the Francophone World

This course will introduce students to diverse cultures of the francophone (French-speaking) world through novels, films, and other texts (translated into English), which convey what it is like to find oneself in a foreign land. One thing that ties places as distant from one another as Haiti, Quebec, Belgium, France, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), and Senegal together is the commonality of the French language as a means of expression.

Blues People

This FYP approaches the issue of racial relations in the U.S. through the prisms of blues, folk, and popular music. Beginning with the creation of spirituals during slavery, we will explore the ways in which music has tended to draw African-Americans and whites together, and how it has, at other times, been manipulated to reinforce separation between the races. Specific musicians will help us to tell the story of the ways in which American racial history and music culturally intersect—particularly during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950-60s.

From Poverty to Prosperity: A Critical Examination of Poverty and Wealth in the North Country

What does poverty look like in the North Country? How has poverty been defined since The Great Depression? How does poverty affect North Country sectors such as health, education, housing, food, transportation, business, and the environment? What are the root causes of poverty? To explore poverty in the North Country, we will take regular field trips performing community service for various agencies in our local area. This will be a core component of our course and serve as a tool to explore and reflect on this complex issue in our geographic area.

The Power of Place

Congratulations, you took first place! There’s no place like home. My place, or yours? I felt so out of place. Simultaneously, people define and are defined by “place.” Throughout time and across cultures, the importance of place has been central to how people understand their world and interact with the environment.

Sciences of the Occult: Magical Thinking for the Enlightened Modern

Do disembodied spirits communicate with those able to hear their messages?  Do magical spells work?  Does astrology accurately predict the future? Do people communicate telepathically? Do we alter reality with the power of our minds?  Such possibilities seem to contradict the physical laws of the universe, and yet many of us have experiences that are not easily explained by or even compatible with those laws.

Creating the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project

Students at St. Lawrence University may not realize their proximity to one of the greatest North American megaprojects of the twentieth century: the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project. Constructed jointly by Canada and the United States (and Ontario and New York) between 1954-1959, the dams built as part of the project turned much of the St. Lawrence River into a lake that provided a deep canal system and allowed for the production of hydroelectricity. The flooding required a massive, and seldom seen, manipulation of the environment.

Finding a Voice: Creativity, Community and Performance

Each of us is moved in a unique, individual way by the beauty of the artistic expression that we see, hear or produce, but the meaning we draw from art is shaped as well by the experiences and ideals that we share within communities. This college will both investigate, and be invigorated by, the power of the social act of performance. We will learn, in part by regularly becoming performers ourselves, ways in which an artist, whether poet, dancer, actor or musician, can clearly communicate with an audience.

Individual and Social Wellness: Legal and Medical Issues

Mental and physical well-being are, in part, determined by individual behavior, personal choice, and circumstances. Stress, body image, alcohol abuse, fertility control, and AIDS represent a small sample of the legal and health issues that face all generations in our society, particularly college students. The course will begin with an examination of personal mental and physical health values and then move to an exploration of how well-being may be influenced by gender, race, class, genetic make-up, government, and the environment.

Representations of Africa: Myth and Reality

Images of untouched landscapes filled with wild animals, "tribal violence" and endemic disease often dominate popular portrayals of Africa. But to what extent do these everyday myths and stereotypes reflect the reality Africans have historically faced? This course will require students to consider the representation of Africa and Africans in a range of cultural texts from feature films, television documentaries, and artworks to novels, travel writing, and newspapers.

Lifestyles: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (CBL)

Statistics imply that Americans may be in the midst of an obesity epidemic. By understanding the various factors influencing our lifestyle behaviors (including the mass media, age, gender, socioeconomic status, technology), we can hopefully devise ways to “get us out of this mess.” This course will examine historical, cultural, social and psychological predictors of lifestyle behaviors, with a focus on physical activity and food choices.

Reflections on the Evolution of the Environmental Conscience: from Walden Pond to ArcGIS

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.” This phrase from Thoreau’s Walden begins an examination of the roots of our environmental consciousness.  The course will explore changing attitudes toward our environmental philosophies, both as individuals and as a culture.  Our society’s approach to environmental issues has evolved over the last 200 years, with dramatic influxes of new ideas from Thoreau to Darwin, Muir to Carson, and Ehrlich to Quamman.  Many of these ideas have been the result of historical changes in the nature of society. 

It’s the End of the World as We Know It!

You have just survived the apocalypse. Was it global warming that finally caught up with us or did “peak oil” negate our energy-dependent lifestyle? Did our debt levels, general environmental degradation, or political conflicts send us over the edge? What about nuclear proliferation or that latest pandemic on CNN? The survivors ask how we got here and what’s left to salvage.

What Makes a Leader? The Creative Experience of Leadership (CBL)

Leadership is the art and science of inspiring others to work together toward a tangible goal. Are the visionary imagination, oratorical skills, and confidence of an effective leader intrinsic qualities, or is being a leader really about being adaptable and observant, as John Fitzgerald Kennedy suggested when he observed, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” There are many philosophies on leadership.

Reason and Debate in Scientific Controversies

What is science? What makes a scientist? How do scientists communicate—with each other and non-scientists--and why? This course is designed to deepen your interest in science by examining controversies, both within science and between the scientific community and the larger society. Controversies we will consider include: were some dinosaurs warm-blooded? Should scientists believe in atoms? What is the relationship between vaccinations and autism? Is it possible to re-create human intelligence? How vulnerable is the electric grid to space-weather?

Identity and Belonging in the St. Lawrence Valley

What does it mean to live on or near an international border, specifically one created by the natural landscape, such as the St. Lawrence River? How do these political and geographical borders shape the identities of people living there? Your university sits in the St. Lawrence River Valley, which has occupied an important place in the history of North America since the pre-contact period between First Peoples and Europeans. It has served simultaneously as a place of residence, transportation route, conduit of commerce, and sometimes national symbol.

Connections and Intersections: Identity, Relationships, Culture

Though we have a tendency to think of the “self” as fixed and immutable, the reality is that identity is a set of social constructs and practices. We all create, communicate, and perform the multiple facets of our selves (or have them constructed for us by others) every single day. Using communication theories, acting/performance analyses, and embodied practice in classroom interaction and performance, we will explore the means by which we create our various selves, while also examining the idea that none of these selves are "natural" or singular.

Children’s Literature and its Life-long Lessons in Business (CBL)

For many our first endeavor into the world of business is the lemonade stand at the end of the driveway and the first key decision is what to charge. A nickel, a dime, or a dollar? The price will make or break the business -- charge too much and no one will buy your lemonade; charge too little and you will not have enough. Welcome to your first lesson in business. Or is it? Our business education starts at a much earlier age. Children’s literature is ripe with economic metaphors and references to business.

I was a Teenage Teenager

Alternately feared and revered by adult society in the 1940s and 50s, American teens became an essential target market of both the fashion and entertainment industries, leading to such film classics as “Blackboard Jungle” and “I Was a Teenage Werewolf.” Ever since, it has largely been American and British youth that have defined which aspects of western pop culture become mainstream and which sink into the backwaters of obscurity.