First-year Seminars

Madison Costigan • Jan 17, 2021 •7:00 pm

No Denying Disappointment, but Maintaining Hope

Recently, it has been hard to find anything in our lives that has not been affected by COVID-19, or any topic of discussion that is not centered on it. The news that next semester is going to remain mostly online may dishearten or frustrate some students, who desperately want to return to campus....

Nov 11, 2020 • Caitlin Burns

McCreery Encourages Students to Understand “Strategic Nonviolence” in First-Year Seminar

By Nikolai Kachuyevski '21 For Allyson McCreery, who has been teaching "Strategic Nonviolence & Civil Disobedience" since 2013, it is important that her students come away with the tools necessary to be able to assess civil resistance movements: how they’re organized and what components...

Oct 15, 2020 • Caitlin Burns

Dr. Kendi Inspires Class of 2024 During Virtual Common Read

At the Arcadia University Common Read event on Oct. 12, held virtually this year, first-year students and members of the campus community heard from Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Anti-Racist.  Dr. Kendi, a New York Times best-selling author and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the...

Dec 2, 2019 • Caitlin Burns

Students Make Glenside Twinkle for the Holidays

Glenside once again is ready for the holiday season, courtesy of students from the Citizenship and the Law First-Year Seminar, led by the Honorable Christopher Cerski, J.D., adjunct professor of Historical and Political Studies and Montgomery County District Judge.  On Nov. 21, students...

Denise Glick • Oct 31, 2019 •3:40 pm

A Kidney Biopsy—and Unexpected Benefits

The last time I was admitted to a hospital was January 2016. Of course, my transplanted kidney decided to wait until the most inconvenient time to throw a fit: the third week of this semester. Which isn’t just any semester, mind you. No, this is my first ever college semester. The transition to...

Oct 16, 2019 • Caitlin Burns

At Common Read Event, David Hogg Urges Civic Engagement, Activism

At this year’s Common Read on Oct. 14, 19-year-old David Hogg, March for Our Lives co-founder, gun control advocate, and survivor of last year’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., urged students to be civically engaged this election season and vote for...

Oct 14, 2019 • Elizabeth Thornton

Glimmer of Hope by the founders of March for Our Lives

Jessica Derr • Jul 31, 2019 •4:19 pm

Katniss in the Classroom: My FYS Experience

The Thanksgiving break of my freshman year of college was my first time going home since moving to school. Even though my hometown is a measly 15 minutes away from campus, I was now immersed in two entirely different spheres—my life at Arcadia and my life back in Willow Grove. Suffice to say, my...

Jessica Derr • Jun 25, 2019 •10:57 am

As Much As You Put In

I have never put much weight in the occult. To me, graveyard walks are a pleasant way to spend an evening. Ouija boards are not the earpiece of the dead, but a tool to push my cousins’ buttons. And The Long Island Medium, one of my mother’s favorite shows, does little more than make me roll my eyes...

Alura Neumyer • Apr 25, 2019 •3:20 pm

Coffee, Tea, and an Unexpected Boost

Every freshman is required to take a First-Year Seminar. Having come back to campus in the spring, there was only one course option available. That is how I ended up in “Coffee and Tea: Origins, Economy, Ethics.” At first, I was apprehensive. I wasn’t sure how a class about...

Jessica Derr • Oct 25, 2018 •2:43 pm

‘The Nun Is in Over Her Head’: A Conversation with Sister Helen Prejean

Growing up Catholic and enduring years of CCD, I had an established view of nuns in my head. They were habit-clad, solemn-faced, steely-eyed women, ever ready to put a finger to their lips and shush if someone even looked like they were about to speak in mass. Also lingering in the back of my mind...

Oct 11, 2018 • Caitlin Burns

Sister Prejean Discusses Social Justice and Death Penalty as Common Read Speaker

“People need to know,” said Sister Helen Prejean. “Most people have never thought about the death penalty, because it doesn’t touch their daily lives. Together, we need to change it.” Sister Helen, author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,...