Helping students build connections with faculty and peers that will enrich their entire Duke experience is a central goal of the First-Year Experience. Associate Professor of Practice of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Eileen Chow is seen here with students Tashvi Kapoor (l) and Lola Liu (r) at a field day held for the Asian Cultural Heritages Constellation. (John West/Trinity Communications)
Building Connections Through the First-Year Experience
What do cooking dumplings and meeting a former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have in common?
Both are memorable experiences first-year students had this fall, thanks to Trinity College’s Arts & Sciences Curriculum.
Finding your footing in a new place can be challenging, but the Arts & Sciences Curriculum’s First-Year Experience helps students make meaningful connections from the moment they arrive on campus.
All first-year students in Trinity College participate in the First-Year Experience through either the FOCUS Program or Constellations. Both provide the opportunity to explore important topics, themes and disciplines in groups of related classes within a cohort-based structure.
Encouraging students to build connections — with their peers, faculty and the community — is a core value underpinning the First-Year Experience. While many connections are made in the classroom, students also participate in a wide variety of co-curricular and experiential learning opportunities that help them create friendships, find mentors and engage with the broader community.
“In a new environment, you need something to make you feel at home.” – Lola Liu
Lola Liu, a student from Beijing, China, is finding her place at Duke through her Constellation, How Do Asian Cultural Heritages Circulate? Enrolled in Eileen Chow’s class, Asian Foodways in Migration, Liu and her classmates have cooked dumplings in Chow’s own kitchen, shopped with her at Costco (a first for Liu!) and made sandwiches for Durham Community Fridges.
“My Constellation is quite diverse. We have people from the US and also outside of the US, so we have really different perspectives on food,” Liu said. “This Constellation absolutely helped me settle in, because it’s really hard in the first few months when you're meeting so many new people.”
Getting to know Associate Professor of the Practice of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Eileen Chow both in and outside of the classroom has been incredibly important to Liu in her first semester. “My relationship with Professor Chow will continue,” she said. “I want to keep in touch with her for the rest of my Duke journey.”
“The goal of the First-Year Experience is intellectual discovery, but it's more than that. It’s also about building a cohort,” Chow said. “A lot of the students in my Constellation have become good friends while they’re also developing a kind of compass for how life can be for their next four years.”
“In FOCUS, you’re surrounded by people who are curious, passionate and importantly different from you.” – Jules Gates
Jules Gates is a third-year student majoring in Computational Media and exploring minors in Cinematic Arts and Philosophy. As a first-year student, she joined the Virtual Realities, Fictional Worlds, and Games FOCUS cluster, led by Shai Ginsburg, chair and associate professor in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
She’s now a teaching assistant for the FOCUS cluster, helping to ensure that first-year students are having the kind of experience that was so important to her when she arrived at Duke.
“Professor Ginsburg creates a space where everyone feels their voice matters,” Gates said. “Seeing how he leads with curiosity, patience and respect has shaped how I approach supporting others.”
It’s not just the students who benefit from the collaborations and interdisciplinary emphasis of the First-Year Experience. “Teaching in FOCUS has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my time at Duke,” Ginsburg said. “It offers a unique opportunity to connect first-year students with faculty in a way that feels personal and transformative, not just to students, but to faculty as well.”
He continues to draw inspiration for teaching and research from colleagues he might not have met without the program. “It’s allowed me to work closely with faculty from a wide range of departments and disciplines, fostering meaningful collaborations and friendships that extend beyond the classroom. These interactions have broadened my intellectual horizons and exposed me to diverse approaches and methodologies. Some of these connections have even developed into ongoing research partnerships, which I deeply value.”
“The structure of the FOCUS program — living together, taking multiple classes together, sharing weekly dinners — brings students and faculty together in a way that feels natural and meaningful,” Gates said.
“Many of my closest relationships on campus began in that cluster, and those connections have shaped not just my work, but my life at Duke.”
“Reach out and be neighbors.” – Eileen Chow
While forging lasting friendships and connecting with faculty mentors are important goals of the First-Year Experience, making connections off campus is also a priority. Many students arrive at Duke with little knowledge of Durham, so getting to know the larger community is especially important for creating a sense of belonging.
Students in the Constellation What Drives Us to Innovate and Create? partnered with Duke Arts Create and the Arts Annex to work with four local artists. From painting watercolors with Amelia Shull and gel printing with Morgan Riker to exploring needle crafts with Sean Graham and Holly Johnson, students were introduced to professionals who spend each day immersed in the creative process.
Members of Joan Clifford’s class in the Constellation How Do Humans Understand Life, Death and the In-Between? volunteered to assist in preparing for the Durham School of the Arts’ 14th Fall Arts Festival. Clifford, associate professor of the practice of Romance Studies, encouraged her students to connect with the community more deeply by staffing a table for children’s activities on the night of the event.
“This wouldn’t have happened without the First-Year Experience.” – David Schanzer
In addition to introducing new students to their Durham neighbors, the First-Year Experience also offers unique opportunities to connect with national leaders in government, business and the arts.
On October 8, students in the Peace or War? Constellation met with General C.Q. Brown Jr., U.S.A.F (Retired), former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “It was an hour-long discussion that focused on ethics and warfare,” said David Schanzer, professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy. “The students were fully engaged the whole time. It was a great experience, and it wouldn’t have happened without the First-Year Experience.”
Students of Ed Tiryakian in the Constellation How Do Sports Shape Society? were excited to bring to campus DeMaurice Smith, former executive director of the National Football League Players Association, for a discussion of his work and signing of his new book, “Turf Wars: The Fight for the Soul of America’s Game.”
These are just a few examples of the opportunities through which the First-Year Experience encourages students to build community within and beyond classroom spaces. Moving through these experiences as a cohort brings students together with their peers and faculty in ways that can be life changing.
“I felt a true creative community — where curiosity was the default and where people asked big questions without needing perfect answers,” said Graves, reflecting on her FOCUS experience as a first-year student. “It set the tone for how I collaborate and whom I seek out: people who challenge each other thoughtfully and who treat play and imagination as serious forms of inquiry.”