Get to Know Us
Each First-Year at Siena Seminar course has a unique theme—from heroes to music to environmental storytelling—you're guaranteed to find a course you'll love.
Our Saints love First Year at Siena Seminar. FYSM teaches our first year Saints how to be college students, and does so in a way that is unique to our Franciscan heritage. Students learn important skills that carry over to each and every course they will take at Siena. They learn to:
- Read critically
- Engage with a text
- Articulate an informed position on big question
- Write clearly and persuasively
- Voice an opinion in a classroom conversation
- Make connections between and among the readings they are doing
Individualized Attention
In order to meet the goals of the seminar, class size is limited to 19 students. Classes are structured along a “learning community” model, where careful reading, class conversation, using writing as a way of learning, and thesis driven argumentative essays are valued.
