Academic Team:
Jamie Bufalino (bufalino@uoregon.edu)
First-Year Experience Seminar Instructor
Silvina Sousa-Ransford (silvina@uoregon.edu)
First-Year Experience Seminar Instructor
Nate Wilkerson (natewilk@uoregon.edu)
First-Year Experience Seminar Instructor
Corinne Crabel (crabill@uoregon.edu)
Peer Assistant
Daniel Corzo Mendez (ccor@uoregon.edu)
Peer Assistant
Eno Ntekpere (enomfonn@uoregon.edu)
Peer Assistant
Makenna Phillips (maph@uoregon.edu)
Peer Assistant
Sophie Piatti (spiatti@uoregon.edu)
Peer Assistant
5 credits
Trailblazing Schedule 1:
CAS 199 First-Year Experience Seminar - 1 credit
CRN: 16455, T: 6:00pm-7:20pm, UNTH 204
BI 170 Happiness: A Neuroscience & Psychology Perspective - 4 credits
CRN: 10761, MW: 12:00pm-1:20pm, STB 156 +DIS: CRN 10764, F: 11:00am-11:50am, UNTH 264
Trailblazing Schedule 2:
CAS 199 First-Year Experience Seminar - 1 credit
CRN: 16456, T: 6:00pm-7:20pm, UNTH 204
BI 170 Happiness: A Neuroscience & Psychology Perspective - 4 credits
CRN: 10761, MW: 12:00pm-1:20pm, STB 156 +DIS: CRN 10769, R: 11:00am-11:50am, UNTH 264
Trailblazing Schedule 3:
CAS 199 First-Year Experience Seminar - 1 credit
CRN: 16457, T: 6:00pm-7:20pm, UNTH 204
BI 170 Happiness: A Neuroscience & Psychology Perspective - 4 credits
CRN: 10761, MW: 12:00pm-1:20pm, STB 156 +DIS: CRN 10769, R: 1:00pm-1:50pm, UNTH 264
About the Seminar:
Start your college experience off right by developing a support network that includes other first-year students, advanced undergrads, advisors, and faculty. Together, we will explore resources and opportunities across campus, share the trials and triumphs of your first term in college, and map out your path to an impactful college experience.
This seminar is led by the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences, two brilliant advisors, and five amazing undergraduate student leaders. We meet on Monday evenings in the Unthank Residence Hall. Join us to reflect on your own strengths and values; pursue your interests and goals; and learn to thrive in college.
Aimed at first-generation college students and anyone looking to find your way on campus. FREE field trips!
The CAS 199 Seminar meets in Unthank 204
In addition to this 1-credit seminar, students will be enrolled in BI 170. This creates a cohort model where tangible academic tools can be explored within the context of a shared core education course.
BI 170 Happiness: A Neuroscience & Psychology Perspective- CoreEd or major satisfying course
Welcome to happiness: a neuroscience and psychology perspective! This course examines research in positive psychology and neuroscience that reveal the behavioral activities and mindsets that promote positive life engagement and the neural circuits that influence this. The course will examine the evidence that happiness is significantly influenced by genetics and mindset, with only a small component arising from life circumstances. Studies in positive psychology that reveal important factors in mental mindset, such as quality of interpersonal relationships, biases, resilience, growth vs. fixed mindset, self-esteem formation, etc. will be critically evaluated and discussed. The neural pathways underlying the fight/flight/freeze response, stress/anxiety, attention, reward/pleasure/addiction, conditioned fear, learning and memory, parent/child and romantic relationship bonding, compassion/empathy, and habit formation will be reviewed and critically evaluated. Methods for altering these neural pathways and their associated cognitive states, such as pharmacological, behavioral, meditative, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, will be demonstrated and discussed. The course will encourage students to critically evaluate and assess their assumptions about positive life engagement in their own situations and to explore, through critical discussion and final projects/papers, mechanisms that may facilitate their own understanding of the psychological/neuroscience factors involved in their unique situation and how to put practices into place that provide positive growth potential.