At UNC Asheville, the intimidating first year of college is made easier with first-year experience courses that help you lay the groundwork for the rest of your career. First Year Seminars teach intriguing, interdisciplinary topics, spanning departments like Languages, Environmental Studies, Anthropology, and Art History. These are combined with Academic Writing and Critical Inquiry courses (where you'll learn how to read and write like a college student) and the first Humanities course (the foundation of your UNC Asheville liberal arts education).
Students also have the opportunity to complete creative projects – which have ranged from collages to epic poetry to story maps – and present them at the First Year Showcase at the end of each semester.
Below are just a few of the wonderful projects presented at the Spring 2023 showcase:
In a podcast episode, Abby Martin discusses the commonalities between the Iliad and famous songs, like “Cassandra” by ABBA, or “Better than Revenge” by Taylor Swift.
Listen to the podcast here.
Jamie Nale created this piece of artwork to reflect their deep connection to nature, and to celebrate the beauty and wisdom they found while walking through forests in Pennsylvania.
Inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the hero’s feelings of grief and loss over his best friend Enkidu, Evren Centeno wrote an original song for his Humanities class. While using the text for a basis, Centeno crafted original lyrics as a retelling of the famous epic.
Listen to the song here.
For her project, Mia Nyguen chose to illustrate scenes from The Popol Vuh. The Mayan creation myth inspired Nyguen from the moment she read it for Humanities, pushing her to create pieces of art representing the mythical relationship between humans, nature, and gods.
A collaborative Spotify playlist from Leslee Johnson’s Humanities 124 class features songs chosen by students, representing countless different genres and backgrounds, along with a range of emotions. In the end, most students reflected on the vast amounts of songs representing love, loss, and the dynamic between them.
Explore the playlist here.
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