Freshman Seminar is a year-long course taken by all first-year students. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the ideals and values of a Catholic liberal arts community. What do we do in this community? To put it simply, we pursue truth. And we ask students to begin to engage in that pursuit during their four years at Mount St. Mary’s University. Of course, there are many avenues to that truth; students will encounter those avenues during their college careers. In Freshman Seminar, we get them started on that road, by asking students to engage in a process of reflection. This reflection, in turn, brings students to examine critically the beliefs, opinions and value judgments that inform the way they act, both within the Mount community and society at large.

Specifically, Freshman Seminar focuses intensely on the development of writing, reading, critical thinking and speaking skills central to all academic inquiry in a liberal arts university. We believe that these skills are also essential to and prerequisite for responsible citizenship. Students in Freshman Seminar classes develop all of these skills as well as greater self-awareness as they explore issues relevant to work, education and values.

Faculty from across the college serve as teachers, mentors and advisors in the Freshman Seminar program, helping students explore themselves and the world around them.