Smaller communities: the freshman seminar

by Patty Mattern

From M, spring 2003

A small group of University of Minnesota first-year students on the Twin Cities campus huddle in a chemistry classroom in Smith Hall. One student leans over a large bowl mixing cream and sugar. Another pours something into the bowl from a large metal bottle, and a fog rolls up the sides.

Mmmmm! Nothing tastes as good as vanilla ice cream magically frozen with liquid nitrogen.

"I do experiments like this so the students get turned on to science. Everybody likes to see things happen," Professor Lou Pignolet says. "This gets them going. This gets them talking."

With just 15 students in his freshman seminar, Alchemy, Magic, and Chemistry, Pignolet not only sparks interest in chemistry, he also carefully fosters a supportive environment for first-year students.

This freshman seminar and dozens like it transform the nearly 50,000-student University into smaller communities, making the first year at the University less overwhelming. Since they started in 1998, the seminars have given students the opportunity to do in-depth study with a faculty member in a small group setting.

At the beginning of the semester, Pignolet meets with his students privately to learn about such things as what music they like and what is most important to them in their lives.

Each week Pignolet discusses study and test-taking skills with his students. He creates an atmosphere where students are comfortable sharing their concerns about how they are doing in other classes.

"Freshmen are afraid. They can have one thing that isn't working in a class or they don't do well on a paper, and it can lead them to getting depressed," Pignolet says. So he offers encouragement, and the students who have become part of this academic family support one another.