First Year Journey Course Descriptions

Spring 2025

FYJ 0101.011 Sound Off in the Comments: Political Argument in the Era of Social Media
Professor Wyatt Hermansen
MWF 10:25-11:15 a.m. (Wednesday hybrid)

In this FYJ: Academic Inquiry course, students will explore the reasons that our country has become so politically polarized and discuss ways we can begin to heal the divide. Students will learn about how to investigate local, regional, and national issues; how to participate in conversations about these issues; and how they can use the skills and knowledge they develop at WSU to have tough conversations in a fair and open way and to encourage others to do the same. 

Play video: First-Year Journey!

FYJ 0101.005 Everyday Monsters: Contemporary Horror and College Life
Professor Matthew Shand
MWF 10:25-11:15

Why do we love horror? Students in this class will explore the horror genre, its history, monsters and the “monstrous” and their impact and importance on contemporary culture. Using contemporary horror films and fiction as the foundation of our interrogation, students will unpack why horror matters—and why we love it. Students will apply reflection, critical analysis, and academic and creative writing skills to understand what these texts symbolize and mean in their everyday college contexts. Using contemporary theories around abjection, aesthetics, race, culture, class, psychology, and the environment, students analyze and apply their understanding through High Impact Practices (weekly writing, group presentation, one research-based essay, and a collaborative creative work (a horror film treatment) with other First Year Owls.

This course fulfills the First Year Journey: Academic Inquiry requirement in the general education at Westfield. These courses help you develop college-level academic skills as you engage deeply in a particular question from multiple perspectives. With assistance from the professor and student support services on campus, you will develop critical reading, thinking, writing and other skills to help you gain confidence as a scholar, take risks, collaborate with other students, and develop a vision both for your journey through Westfield State University and your journey as a citizen.

FYJ 0101.008 Arts & Owl-Crafts
Professor Beverly St. Pierre
MWF 12:25-1:25 p.m.

Arts and crafts have been a part of the human experience for centuries. Arts & Owl-Crafts is a First Year Journey course that uses arts and crafts to facilitate student learning about academic life, community, and lifelong learning. Throughout the semester, students will engage in a variety of arts and crafts to discover a curiosity for academic inquiry and develop skills necessary for college-level learning. No matter if you are a novice to crafts or an influencer in the arts, this course welcomes you.

FYJ 0101.007 Found Beauty: Seeing Art in Your Surroundings
Professor Michael Antoinetti
MWF 3:10- 4:00, Friday asynchronously

Have you ever noticed something beautiful hidden in your backyard? Did you feel like the world was showing you something only you could see? This course invites students to use their powers of observation to document, collect, record, and create from the raw materials of their environment. From Marcel Duchamps’s “Readymades” to J Dilla’s Donuts, students will learn about pathways to creation by recycling objects, images, sounds, and words to make something new. Course topics will include collage, street art, sampling in music, erasure poems, and other forms of found art. Students will wrestle with the questions “What is art?” and “Who gets to decide?”  In collecting observations, students will explore campus, utilize academic, social, and emotional resources, engage in academic inquiry, research, discussion, and self-reflection. No previous art experience is necessary. 

FYJ 0101.009 Welcome to Your Podcast
Professor Mark Nimkoff
MW 1:40-2:55 p.m.

This First Year Journey course focuses on podcasting. Students will collaborate with peers to record, edit, and distribute podcasts. No prior experience is necessary.

FYJ 0101.010 A Better Tomorrow: Planning Resilient Communities
Professor Alexandra Smialek
MW 3:10-4:25

How can we face a changing climate? We may find ourselves wanting to build and plan for a better tomorrow. In planning, we can put knowledge and tools into action. Through climate adaptation strategies, hazard mitigation efforts, and environmental justice prioritization, our communities will become resilient and equitable. We will learn how to plan for such communities and look at WSU’s sustainability efforts. This course will also aim to improve student success by helping students become familiar with WSU, academic skills, and available resources on campus. Students will work to identify their passion and build confidence as individuals and scholars.

FYJ 0101.001 “I’ll Be There For You”: The One Where We Talk About F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
Professor Nicole West
TR 8:15-9:30

“So, no one told you life was gonna be this way? Your jobs a joke, you're broke, your love life’s DOA?” What if you could learn more about the importance of the relationships in your life and the instinct for us all to be social, all through the lens of the celebrated sitcom FRIENDS! We will break down the relationship between siblings like Ross and Monica or Phoebe and her twin Ursula. Discover how we take friendship to the next level like Rachel and Ross. Learn how to handle conflict with loved ones like Rachel and Monica or Ross and Carol. Study the impact our parents play in our lives like Phoebe and her estranged parents or Chandler and his two moms. We will spend time in Central Perk to dig into the central focus of all of our lives, our relationships with others. How do we find a friend and turn them into a forever friend? We’ll also talk about toxic friends and the ending of friendships.

FYJ 0101.003 Is This a Cult?
Professor Amy Deni
TR 8:15-9:30

Description:  What is a cult? Are you in a cult? What makes people join a cult? Are there aspects of cults that are similar to other groups, and what makes them different? In this course we will explore what psychological tendencies (toward ingroup conformity, decision making, and rationalizations) are magnified. What do cults reveal about the profound power of our social environment? How do group(s) manipulate biases, the need for social conformity, sleep/food deprivation and/or how do they control members in a way that makes them dependent on the cult for resources such as food, shelter, money, community? Are there aspects of cults that pertain to other groups such as influencers, which reusable water bottle you choose, music, true crime, exercise, and MLMs? What is the difference between a cult and a trend?

FYJ 0101.006 Democracy at Risk: Why All Democracies are Fragile and How Some Fail
Professor Marsha Marotta
TR 9:45-11:00 

Should we be worried about democracy failing? What kind of government and society do you think is best, and what role can you play in making that a reality? Using democracy as a case study, we will explore:

• strategies used individually and collectively to build and preserve healthy political communities
• activities that support democracies such as free speech, fair and free elections and equal protection under the law
• threats to democracies such as by undermining institutions, reducing rights and choices, and scapegoating the most vulnerable people

In the past, democracies around the world have tended to collapse under violence from military-backed coups. Today, the landscape of demise for democracies tends to be from a slow transition to authoritarian leadership that undermines democratic values and institutions, often through legal means. The democratic citizenry sometimes does not even notice, yet the results are as serious and potentially devastating as a coup. In this course you will research all of these activities in a variety of locations, including the United States, to engage deeply in the concept of democracy and examine how well democracy in practice meets democracy in theory, and why. The final assignment will be a reflection paper on applying what you have learned to consider what you think makes the best political community.

FYJ 0101.002 History of Baseball
Professor John Dempsey
TR 11:15-12:30

The games a society plays tell us a lot about that society. Scholars have long recognized that the ways a people entertain themselves reveal the fundamental beliefs and assumptions of that people about themselves and life in general. Sport is a serious business on all levels of play. Who gets to play an organized athletic event and how they play matter; and anyone who thinks Sport doesn’t matter in contemporary America needs to check out the most watched events on TV and the internet on a yearly basis. Most of them are athletic events of one kind or another. It is equally true that as a society evolves so do the rules of its Sports and Pastimes. In some instances, changes in the way athletes compete contribute significantly to a society’s evolution.

In our course, we will examine the origins and development of the sport of Baseball as a means of studying American History as a whole. Baseball will serve as a mirror of the larger American Experience from the 1840s to the Present. We will attempt to establish a dialogue of sorts between developments in American society and developments on the field of play. Students will learn to appreciate that a “game” such as Baseball is much more than mere entertainment. Baseball was and still is serious business in America. We will look at the careers of various players, managers, and executives. This course should lead us to think more seriously about the American experience from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

FYJ 0101.004 Everyday Monsters: Contemporary Horror and College Life
Professor Matthew Shand
TR 3:45-5:00

Why do we love horror? Students in this class will explore the horror genre, its history, monsters and the “monstrous” and their impact and importance on contemporary culture. Using contemporary horror films and fiction as the foundation of our interrogation, students will unpack why horror matters—and why we love it. Students will apply reflection, critical analysis, and academic and creative writing skills to understand what these texts symbolize and mean in their everyday college contexts. Using contemporary theories around abjection, aesthetics, race, culture, class, psychology, and the environment, students analyze and apply their understanding through High Impact Practices (weekly writing, group presentation, one research-based essay, and a collaborative creative work (a horror film treatment) with other First Year Owls.

This course fulfills the First Year Journey: Academic Inquiry requirement in the general education at Westfield. These courses help you develop college-level academic skills as you engage deeply in a particular question from multiple perspectives. With assistance from the professor and student support services on campus, you will develop critical reading, thinking, writing and other skills to help you gain confidence as a scholar, take risks, collaborate with other students, and develop a vision both for your journey through Westfield State University and your journey as a citizen.