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First Year Seminar

The General Studies 100 University Seminar course is one component of a series of academic and student services programs that have been designed to support your success as a first year student. This one unit course will support your transition to college life through a series of course activities and resources that allow you to examine your personal goals, determine if your need to sharpen your study skills and time management practices, and encourage you to reflect about some of the choices you have already made in terms of your major, career goals, and student activities. Ultimately, we want you to make the needed adjustments to successfully transition to this new stage of your personal and academic life.

GENS 100 is offered in three formats.

A. GENS 100 A- University Seminar: A stand alone option for first year students. Most students participate in this option. It offers a lot of flexibility in your scheduling.

B. GENS 100 B- Learning in Communities- The seminar course linked with a G.E. or academic course such as, Political Science 100 , Economics 101, Psychology 100. This enables students to take an academic course along with students in two or three other seminars supporting your ability to network with additional students. The academic course and seminar instructors work together to support your learning. 

C. GENS 100 C- Living Learning Communities: The seminar course is linked with a G.E. or academic course, a course in your major, and/or theme or affinity based learning community. These seminars are open to residential students (living on campus). This seminar offers students extensive opportunities to build connections and relationships with students that go beyond the course meeting times as they are integrated with your residence hall floor or theme based living experience.

A number of students will be able to participate in other courses that are equivalents to the GENS 100 University Seminar. These options include Business Administration 100, ARPE Leadership 100, Engineering 101, Sciences 101, and General Studies 150. All of these courses have the same learning objectives to support your success, but are specially designed to support your achievements in your major or student identity center or the student services office you may be connected to such as the International Student Center for new students from abroad.

Student Learning Outcomes

For the Fall 2022 semester, you will review through Canvas (online course management system) the syllabus faculty have developed for each of your classes. Each syllabus has a number of similar features including student office hours, class reading schedule and dates for midterms and major assignments. You will also find a listing of specific skills, capacities, and subject matter content you will learn as part of each course; these will be listed as Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs).

The SLOs for the General Studies 100 University Seminar or similar courses include:


Student Learning Outcomes for Fall 2022 GEN S 100 University Seminar*

  • Self-Learning and Development: Explain how taking responsibility for self-learning and development by earning an academic degree is integral to the lives we would love living and the communities we would love to create and strengthen (MICs: Positive Future Self, Planning) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4)
  • Leadership: Identify our leadership style and cultural strengths and explain how they are relevant to the vision we have for the lives we would love living and the communities we would love to create and strengthen (MICs: Positive Future Self; Conscientiousness, Reflective Learning, Yosso Cultural Wealth; Cultural Mis-Match) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4)
  • Help Seeking: Describe the importance of the role of the academic advisor(s), student success coaches, and other academic and student support mentors to my academic success and identify two strategies for leveraging the expertise of the people in those roles (MICs: Academic Self-Efficacy, Persistence, Reflective Learning, Deliberate Problem Solving, Planning) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4)
  • Academic Success Strategies: Explain how we have implemented six academic success skills (reading comprehension, note-taking, activity management (aka time management), academic honesty, credible source identification, and test preparation) into our day-to-day SDSU living (MICs: Academic Self-Efficacy, Persistence, Reflective Learning, Deliberate Problem Solving, Planning) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4).
  • University Engagement: Describe how we our engaging academically, socially, and responsibly with the SDSU community and the resources  (e.g., academic advisors, mentors if applicable, Writing Center, Math Center, Calpulli, Health Promotions, etc.) it offers is integral to our being able to live the lives we would love living (MICs: Engagement; Responsible utilization of campus resources, Sense of Belonging; Ethnic Identity Development; Planning, Persistence, Self-Control, Reflective Learning) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4)
  • Well-Being: Identify well-being strategies that can reduce the natural stress and anxiety that emerges during transitions and when learning new strategies in a new learning environment. (MICs: Psychological Well-Being; Compassion; Resilience) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4)


*Adapted from 2020 Publication: Bresciani Ludvik, M., Schellenberg, S.A., Potter, N., Kahn, S., Timm, R., Monzon, R., Becerra Songolo, R., Baza, O., Henline, J., Schwab, C., and Gates, L., Gonzalez, M, Villasenor, J., Harmata, R., and Montero-Adams, C. Revised and Resubmitted. Connecting Authentic Student Voice to Equity-Driven Malleable Intrapersonal Competency Performance Indicators to Close Achievement Gaps. Journal of College Student Development.