Freshmen Summer Intitute teaches more than academics
Students attend the Freshman Summer Institute (FSI) to get a head start in their college careers but also learn important social skills and friendships throughout.
“Since it is such a small group of people, we have gotten a lot closer in a month than a lot of people do in a year,” Sarah Gelvin, FSI participant, said. “You spend so much time together that you really get to know people and you can’t be fake around each other and put on a front because you are here so much with all of them that [the front] all kind of goes away and you get to know the real person.”
FSI, which costs $2,100 for in-state students and $3,500 for out-of-state, is a one month pre-college experience where incoming freshman take five credit hours of an Orientation Seminar and a chosen class while living in the residence halls.
Though students go to class every day, much of the learning happens outside of the classroom setting.
“The biggest social adjustment comes in the residence halls; living with each other, being around people on the floor, figuring out what that means and the different personalities,” Diann Burright, FSI coordinator, said.
Participants live with at least one more person on the 6th and 7th floors of Lewis Hall. They are required to do community service, such as cleaning a park, and attend weekly meetings.
But most of the student’s time is spent doing homework, making late-night runs to a fast food restaurant or hanging out with each other.
Because participants spend so much time together, strong friendships develop during FSI.
“I’ve met quite a good group of people,” Carlo Ramirez, a FSI participant said. “Some people are just seasons in my life which will just come and go but I think I met a couple of people here that I see myself hanging out with especially during the school year.”
Ramirez said he decided to leave California to attend KU because he wanted to get a full college experience in a town where the college would be a main part of it.
He said that his first few weeks in Kansas were hard because coming from California to Kansas was a big culture shock in terms of the difference in diversity.
Interacting with people involved and through other with FSI has changed Ramirez’s perspective.
“I come from a pretty strong Mexican background and most of my friends are Mexican and coming here was so hard because it is pretty much all white,” Ramirez said. “But you just learn to see the good in everyone, I guess, you don’t see race so much as a big factor, you see people for who they are.”
FSI not only helps students meet new people but it also lets students get familiar with the campus, bus routes, and dining halls.
Burright, who is also a freshman advisor, said that most incoming freshman worry about whether they will have any friends or if they will look silly more than what college classes will be like.
“We’ve been here for three weeks and we already feel miles ahead of the freshman we see walking around during orientation.” Alex Pugh, a member of the FSI, said.
Though, Burright said that most students really enjoy the program, only 80 freshmen out of the 3,885 expected for fall semester attended either one of the two sessions.
Burright sees the institute as mainly an opportunity for students to get rid of the anxieties that going to college could cause.
“FSI is a great way to share an experience with people who are in the same boat,” Burright said. “Everybody here is an incoming freshman student; everybody here doesn’t know how everything works; everybody here, hopefully, wants to do well in college so [FSI] would be a good way to kind of get a jump start on some of that.”