Virtual Tour
CRN: 41039
Tuesdays & Fridays 9:55-11:35 am
Instructor: Duane Boutte
In any field, self-assurance can contribute to success. While complete confidence doesn’t come overnight, its foundational habits can be employed in an instant. This course will help you develop an ongoing practice of turning information and instinct into action, taking informed initiative with a willingness to risk making mistakes. Through performance exercises, we will explore how confidence requires humility, how creativity requires risk, how collaboration is itself a creative act, and how creative approaches may be beneficial in any discipline. We will also strengthen written communication skills and explore how the use of footnotes and citations relates to collaborative creativity.
Peer Facilitators
CRN: 41040
Tuesdays & Fridays 9:55-11:35 am
Instructor: Neel Scott
In this section of First Year Seminar, students will explore the coming of age film, and how movies have depicted the transition to adulthood in a variety of world cultures, including those from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South America. Students will view and engage with these films, and learn how to analyze and discuss their narrative structures, formal elements, and themes.
As students will discover, coming of age films are not only the story of an individual and their development of self and identity, but are also vehicles for addressing broader issues of racial and ethnic identity, gender, sexual orientation, nationalism, historical memory, and community and belonging, among many other things. As part of our study of these films, we will situate them within relevant political, social and cultural contexts as a way of deepening our understanding and appreciation of their stories and the issues they explore, and we will investigate cross-cultural connections that may inform our interpretation of our own traditions, upbringings, identities, and coming of age narratives.
Peer Facilitator
CRN: 41071
Tuesdays & Fridays 11:50-1:30 pm
Instructor: Yvette Kisor
This course considers fairy tales from two perspectives: traditional and modern. We will look at traditional fairy tales from practitioners like Perrault and the Grimms as well as versions from around the world. However, we will also consider how modern practitioners of the fairy tale reinvent the genre. The course will culminate in a final project in which students will write their own modern version of a fairy tale.
Peer Facilitator
CRN: 41072
Tuesdays & Fridays 11:50-1:30 pm
Instructor: James Todhunter
Traditional approaches used to encourage cooperation and manage conflict in international affairs are increasingly thought to be unsuitable in light of new challenges posed by globalization, technological advances, and climate change. This course will introduce students to concepts in political science, history, and economics to critically evaluate contemporary international problems such as violent conflict, resource scarcity, and human rights with the goal of advancing novel ideas about how a modern, globalized society can confront them.
Peer Facilitator
CRN: 41073
Tuesdays & Fridays 11:50-1:30 pm
Instructor: Gregory Mihalik
Why do history’s greatest periods of innovation, optimism, and rapid wealth creation so often end in sudden, dramatic collapse? Bubbles and Blow-ups introduces first-year students to the recurring patterns behind financial manias, market crashes, and historic fund failures. Rather than focusing solely on textbook financial theory, this course shifts the lens toward the human element by exploring how psychology, leverage, incentives, and crowd behavior push markets to their breaking points. Through case studies ranging from historic events like Tulip Mania and the 1929 crash to modern phenomena like GameStop and FTX, students will dissect why smart people make catastrophic financial decisions. This course aims to sharpen critical thinking and risk-evaluation skills, empowering students to recognize market euphoria, make informed choices, and navigate the unpredictable financial world. Throughout the semester, students will manage a portfolio. The goal of this course is to give students, no matter what major or career aspirations they leave with an understanding of how the stock market works.
Peer Facilitator
CRN: 41074
Tuesdays & Fridays 11:50-1:30 pm
Instructor: Mark Caselli
This first-year seminar course, Issues in Healthcare, is designed for students who may be interested in pursuing a career as a medical professional. It will explore the many facets of the road to becoming a health care provider or manager and an advocate for global health. We will examine the political, ethical, moral, cultural, educational, and financial issues that affect the delivery of health care both in the United States and in many other countries in the world. Aspects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, physician assisted suicide, the opioid epidemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, current vaccination issues, and the social and cultural determinants of health will be explored with emphasis on how they affect our nation’s healthcare and the practice of medicine. This course will utilize lectures, student presentations, specially selected readings, and documentaries to assist in class discussions on medical and healthcare issues.
Peer Facilitator
CRN: 41075
Tuesdays & Fridays 1:45-3:25 pm
Instructor: Dean Chen
This section of FYS focuses on current affairs, national & global security, international political economy and specifically the high-tech/digital competition among major powers and actors. How states, institutions, private individuals and entities interact in shaping (or being transformed by) these dynamics will be assessed. Students must get into the regular routine of keeping abreast of world news and current events; being informed by facts, thinking about these issues critically and analytically, and presenting their views while engaging in class discussions and group activities, including, though not limited to oral presentations and simulation exercises.
Follow Ramapo