4 thoughts on “Final Takeaways

  1. Thanks for everything this semester, especially for being flexible with my injury and sickness throughout the three months. I have learned a lot from the readings and discussions about many interesting topics such as sexuality, and masculinity, and in many ways my own borders were challenged.

  2. I could not have hoped for a better first year seminar. This course was thought provoking, engaging, interesting, and fun. Everything we read for the class I could say was my favorite because they were all so interesting in their own way. We the animals was precise, with perfect metaphor and word choice; Sula brought me into the story with a strange intimacy; Giovanni’s Room had powerful narrative storytelling that left me in tears; Borderlands looked at the world from a whole new perspective; Fun home was an expertly crafted blend of precise wording, metaphor, and images; and Citizen was the most powerful piece of artwork I have ever experienced. The poetry section was amazing and I especially liked the poems by Naomi Shihab Nye. I feel like I learned a great deal to help develop my writing skills but also a ton about the world and myself. I will definitely not be returning any of these books for buyback because I plan to read each one again. Thank you Professor Cassarino!

  3. I really wish I wasn’t as sick as I was this semester, because the discussions that we have had in this class throughout the semester have been incredible. I do wish we had more time towards the end to talk about the books we were reading, as well as some more time to go over the films we watched and talk about how they connected to the books and the theme of the class. I thought the dinner at your house was super fun, thank you so much for catering Mad Taco! It was a great way to end the semester.

  4. I really loved our first section on poetry especially all of the readings we did. My favorite book was We The Animals and our final essay was my favorite paper to write, although the research section challenged me. I feel like this class helped me unlearn writing standard “college board” essays and allowed me to rethink analysis in a more creative way. Thank you for a fantastic FYS Professor Cassarino!

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