General Education Courses

The General Education Program: love it or hate it, all students at AU have to fulfill the program's requirements. As you register for spring courses, you may have a tough time deciding which gen ed courses will be of most interest to you. This week we'll highlight some of our favorite gen ed courses and how the program has affected our undergraduate experience. Email us some of your favorite gen eds and we'll share your suggestions in an upcoming post!
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Half a semester into my junior year, I have learned to appreciate very much the Gen Ed program. It has allowed me to explore different academic areas (I am now an Econ student thanks to my ECON 100 Gen Ed class) and learn more about fields that I would have otherwise never been interested in. My freshman year I took Understanding Music, a class that at first I was skeptical about (I am quite tone deaf and have never played an instrument), but it has now become my favorite Gen Ed so far(or at least top 2)! My professor was Dr. Anne Kang. She loved teaching about music (it being her doctorate and all) but most importantly, her passion for it was contagious. I remember her playing the piano for us quite often, talking about Beethoven (and music history in general) as if she was BFFs with him and conveying a genuine interest in music that made my Understanding Music semester a surprisingly interesting and awesome one. This class was pretty cool and it certainly changed my perspective about Gen Eds.

(Also, special shout-out to Western Philosophy; great class for my Area 2)

-Triana Tello Gerez

Registration

Hey, everyone! Can you believe it's already November? That means it's time to start thinking about registration for spring 2012 courses!

CAS requires students to take two steps before registering for courses. The first step is to attend a pre-registration workshop. Here a CAS advisor will go over the basics of registration and will bring some new developments to your attention. The second step is to meet with your CAS advisor so that he or she can clear you for registration. When you come to this meeting your advisor will expect you to bring along your proposed schedule for next semester so that he or she can make sure that you are taking appropriate courses. Both the pre-registration workshop and the one-on-one meeting with your advisor for clearance are mandatory-- you will not be able to register until you have completed both steps. 

The peer advisors are a great resource as you develop your spring schedule. If you need help deciding which courses to take, want tips on how to balance your schedule, or have questions about the registration process itself, please don't hesitate to email or visit us! You can make an appointment at http://www.american.edu/cas/advising/undergraduate.cfm, and you can email us at CASPeerAdvisors@american.edu. 

Keep an eye out for more information about upcoming registration workshops hosted by the peer advisors!

Stress, Part 4

Thank you to everyone who emailed us their strategies for managing stress! Take a look at what your fellow students had to say:

"I do yoga to manage my stress from all of my academic work. I always plan out and organize when I'll study for specific classes so that I have a schedule and feel like I can manage all of the work I need to get done. I also make sure to take study breaks after a few hours of working and grab something to eat and go hang out with friends in the lounge, and that's how I manage my stress!"

-Kathleen McLaughlin

"I manage my stress by physical activity, listening to music, and hanging out with my friends. I'm on the bhangra dance team and dancing helps relieve my stress because it's a fun activity and I get to laugh and joke around with my other teammates. AU club volleyball is also fun because I enjoy the sport and it keeps me in shape. I find that when I participate in physical activities, it gets my mind off of what's stressing me out. Listening to my favorite songs also is therapeutic for me because they put me in a certain mood where I allow myself to relax. Hanging out with my friends is always great because I enjoy being around people and so much of my time is spent alone doing homework or studying so it's nice to get together after class or on weekends."
 
-Angelica Posey

"Organizing my sleep schedule and eating healthy helps me deal with stress. I would recommend not multi tasking and taking things one at a time. When doing hw or studying for exam give a subject an interval of 45 minutes and take a break doing some other subject. This also helps me." 

Hope this helps others also,
Oznur Ozturk

Thanks again for all the submissions! We want to hear your thoughts on other issues affecting freshmen and sophomores at AU, so feel free to send us suggestions for another weekly theme!

Stress, Part 3

College is all about getting to know yourself, and a big part of self-awareness is recognizing both your potential and your limitations. When it comes to school I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, but after a few semesters (and a lot of all-nighters), I finally realized that pushing myself so hard was actually decreasing my ability to get the most out of my courses and my time here in DC. Even though it’s possible for me to function on 3 hours of sleep, life is much better when I sleep for a full 7 hours! While I still work hard on my coursework, I’ve also learned to take advantage of other opportunities. For example, I realized that taking an hour to go to the gym makes me feel more energized and productive; it’s a nice break to do something physical after spending hours reading and writing. I love history and art so I’ve also made a point of going to more off-campus lectures and events on the National Mall. Embrace the things you love and remember to treat your body right!

-Lindsay Inge

Stress, Part 2

In dealing with stress, I have come to realize that sleep is a key factor. Let’s face it, in college, sleep is sent way back in our priorities list; it becomes a burden. It took me several inevitable all-nighters and many 5-hours sleep nights to finally realize that the less I sleep, the more time I waste, the less productive I am and most importantly, the more stressed out I get. Not sleeping, I realized, clouds my brain, which leads to me not being able to organize my thoughts. So, to manage stress, the first thing I make sure I do is sleep! Getting to know my body and my limits, especially when it came down to sleeping was crucial. However, of course, not all stress goes away with sleep. So, what do I do in those situations? I bake, I cook and I run; three things that I really enjoy doing and clear my mind of ugly, stressful thoughts. Allowing me to have those little moments of peace, then, boosts my productivity and makes me even less stressed, a win-win situation.

-Triana Tello Gerez

Feeling stressed about midterms, papers, homework, and other aspects of college life? Stress is a completely normal part of college, but it's important that you find ways to deal with that stress and turn it into something positive. This week each of our peer advisors will write about how they deal with stress. We also want to hear how you cope with stress- send us an email at caspeeradvisors@american.edu telling us about your stress relief tactics. We will enter everyone who sends their ideas into a prize drawing, and we'll also publish the submissions on the blog. Please email us your ideas by Friday, November 4th to be entered in the prize drawing. We look forward to hearing from you, and we hope that our suggestions help!
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There’s no way to avoid it: at some point, the semester gets stressful. When class work seems overwhelming, I escape to Katzen. Playing my viola allows me to escape from the pressures of other classes and focus on the music I’m making in the moment. It’s a great way to clear my mind and focus on something other than homework. I also make sure to take time to be social and have fun. Whether it’s spending the day at an event downtown or having Monday night parties to watch Castle (my favorite tv show) these little breaks offer some much-needed relaxation and help me return to work recharged. College is a continuous exercise in balance and time management, and it’s important to find a happy mix of work and fun!

-Emma Morgan

The Supplemental Instruction Program

The Supplemental Instruction (SI) Program offers free weekly group tutoring sessions for classes that students often find challenging including macro and microeconomics, financial and managerial accounting, physics, chemistry, applied calculus, and statistics. Sessions are led by undergraduate students who have already taken the course at AU and done well. SI leaders attend class and hold 2 weekly hour-long review sessions. These sessions are a chance to ask clarification questions and work on problems in a much smaller group. While an intro macro class may have 300 people, SI sessions usually have fewer than 20. Not only is it easier to learn in a smaller group, but asking for help from another student can be less daunting than going to office hours, paying for private tutoring, or struggling through things on your own. SI is also a great resource if you don’t have specific questions, but just want some extra review time going over material. Often before exams, SI leaders hold longer review sessions, and some leaders even make study guides or practice quizzes.

SI leaders are knowledgeable about the subjects they work with, and they want to help people during their sessions. I was the applied calc SI for 3 semesters and have many friends who are leaders, and we would all agree that it’s always better when we have students to work with! Adjusting to your college course load can be challenging, but SI is a completely free resource to help you succeed!

To view the SI schedule or learn more about the program, visit http://www.american.edu/ocl/asc/

Supplemental-Instruction-Homepage.cfm.

If you’re currently doing well in a class that participates in the SI program, you may have a future as an SI leader! Visit the SI website for more information.

--Emma Morgan