FYE’s 2022 Experiential Learning Workshops

These workshops give you hands-on experience in academic fields that may influence your choice of major or career. While working on projects such as creating a podcast or designing a game, you’ll have the opportunity to get to know other new students who share your interests. You’ll also meet FYE mentors in your meta-major, which is another word for a group of majors with foundational similarities like STEM or Health. The mentors are upper-level students who use the benefit of their experience at Queens College to help you feel confident about your place at college and your path towards graduation.

Sign up for an FYE workshop today! The projects are fun, the company is good, and you’re learning skills that will help you succeed in college and your career. Each workshop group meets once a month throughout the Fall & Spring semesters. We’ve organized these workshops by suggested meta-major, but you’re welcome to join a workshop that isn’t in your field… or to join more than one! The workshops are open to all freshmen and new transfer students.

Learn more and sign up by clicking each workshop by clicking below!

Living History (Social and Behavioral Sciences)

History is not something that’s just consumed–it’s made, and you can be part of this process. This workshop series will introduce you to the art of archival research and the history of student activism at CUNY, particularly spanning the years leading up to Open Admissions in 1970. Throughout this workshop series, we will explore the relationship between research and storytelling, archives and historical memory. As you all become historians and archivists for the duration of the workshop, you will also become storytellers—the archive, you will learn, is always changing in relation to how we use it; it is living.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/169017462781

Beginning C++ Through Game Design (STEM)

Do you like playing computer/video/phone games? How would you feel about creating some?  In this workshop series, you will learn the fundamentals of C++ by creating a series of simple computer games.  Aside from the first introductory one,  you will come away from each workshop with a small computer game that you can play, refine, improve, and expand upon. Overall, the goal of this series is to introduce you to the C++ language from a game programming perspective.

We will start at the very beginning of C++ and game programming and assume you have no experience in either.  This workshop is for total beginners.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/169011595231

Public and Private Lives: Behind the Scenes in Education (Education)

Many first-year students would love a toolkit for starting college, which can be an overwhelming experience–as someone interested in education, you can be part of building these resources for yourselves and others! In this workshop series, you’ll get to know each other and the college while investigating the field of Education. Together, you’ll meet fellow students, explore the school’s resources, and begin thinking about future careers in teaching. As future educators new to Queens College, your perspective is invaluable in understanding the student needs that educational institutions are always adapting to meet, and so we’ll use our time together to reflect on our own experiences while building an archive of resources for next year’s cohort of incoming freshmen. Students will leave this workshop series with an understanding of common college resources that will be useful during your years at Queens College and when you lead classrooms of your own.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/169018245121

Shaping Your QC Story (Business)

A big part of the college experience centers around a student’s personal story, their family story, their community story, the stories of the people who inspire them, and the stories of people who support them along the way. The overarching goal of this workshop series is to empower you to think about these narratives and decide what kind of story you want to tell as a Queens College student and beyond. Along the way, you’ll develop storytelling skills useful in Business-related fields by creating a final product of your choice, which might include a personal TED Talk, social media account/grouping of posts (e.g. Tik Tok, IG), series of journal entries, storyboard for a movie, play, documentary, etc., or another storytelling idea.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/169018846921

Interview to Podcast (Health and Human Services)

Have you ever thought you’d like to start your own podcast? This workshop series considers the art of the interview, which may be of particular interest to budding journalists as well as students in health and human services majors whose jobs will require knowing how to ask the right questions. Over the course of the year, you’ll be both an interviewer and an interviewee, which means you’ll learn how to prepare for, conduct, and produce an interview podcast. You’ll also learn how to prepare to be interviewed yourself. Students will finish the workshop series with a completed podcast interview, a strong understanding of ethical questions connected to the interviewing process, and the technical know-how to create your own podcast.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/169157961015

Workshopping Wikipedia (Languages and Cultural Studies)

Ever thought you could write a better Wikipedia article than the one you’re reading? In this workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to become a genuine contributor to the world’s largest online encyclopedia, otherwise known as Wikipedia. Along the way, you’ll have a chance to engage meaningfully with a series of topic areas first by editing Wikipedia articles of your choice before developing one of your own in cooperation with a group of your peers. With each workshop you participate in, you’ll also have plenty of low-key opportunities to work on your college-level reading, writing, and research skills, all in support of equity and diversity on Wikipedia.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/169022377481

Multimedia Documentary Storytelling and Playmaking for Social Justice (Arts, Humanities, Communication, and Design)

Do you love art that fights for change? In this workshop series, you’ll experiment with personal and community storytelling techniques. You’ll learn interviewing techniques, live performance techniques, and develop a body of writing and visual art. You’ll have the opportunity to wear many different hats including performer, director, photographer, filmmaker, and designer. By doing so, you’ll develop their own personal creative voice and learn from stories shared by community members. You’ll also have the opportunity to do a deep dive into pressing socio-political issues in your communities and think about how art and media can be used to promote social justice and change.The workshop series culminates in a final showcase of the creative work accomplished over the year.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/169022786705