August term is a three-week academic and cocurricular program for entering first-year students. Its purpose is to prepare new students for academic success and personal growth during their Transylvania years. Transylvania University is a community of scholars—August term is the gateway to that community.
August term students take a single course, a seminar titled First Engagements: Enculturation into a Scholarly Community. Basic texts are common to all students, while professors teaching the various sections of the course supplement their class with materials from their own academic disciplines. Each year, a faculty committee selects an overall academic theme for that particular August term.
The seminar meets for three hours each day, Monday-Friday, from 9 a.m.-noon. Each section consists of approximately 16 students and a professor. In addition, an August term scholar—a current junior or senior student—is a part of the class and provides advice for first-year students both in and out of the classroom. Successful completion of First Engagements results in one course unit of credit.
The cocurricular component of August term includes both academic and student-life programs. The academic aspect may include films, small group discussions, and book lectures that complement the First Engagements learning theme for that year. The student-life program includes traditional new-student orientation sessions on alcohol awareness, academic integrity, the Green Dot program for sexual assault awareness, and other topics.
Each day of the week, Monday-Friday from 1-2:30 p.m., is set aside for required cocurricular events that have an academic focus. Optional activities are offered for the remainder of the afternoon, which also allows student-athletes practice time.
First-year students completing the First Engagements course gain confidence in their critical reading and thinking abilities, which are core skills in a liberal education. They have taken an important first step in defining their role as active participants in the intellectual life of the college by learning how to ask the large questions inherent to the liberal arts.
At the end of August term, first-year students have enjoyed a three-week period of immersion into the life of Transylvania University that leaves them well prepared for the rigors of fall term with its greatly expanded course load and multiple student-life options. They have also completed all of the traditional new student orientation events and are ready for the first day of fall term classes.
Transylvania University admits students regardless of age, race, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, national origin, or any other classification protected by federal or state law or local ordinance.
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