The First-Year Success Program

First-Year Success (FYS) is a year-long immersion program for degree-seeking students at The American University of Paris. It provides you with the skills, confidence and information necessary to adjust to life in a diverse, multicultural city and plan your trajectory through AUP, while building a sense of community among you and your peers.

FYS consists of several key elements:

• a mentorship program
• an orientation event
• a common read project
• a series of group-based workshops
• other events and trips.

The first-year mentor is a staff or faculty advisor who guides you through your first year at AUP, offering a listening ear and providing information and advice on how to adapt to life in Paris.

Prior to arrival at AUP, you are asked to fill out a survey about your hobbies and interests. The answers to this survey are used to assign you to a group of about 10 to 15 students; you all then have the same first-year mentor. The first-year mentor co-leads the FYS workshops alongside the group’s student advisor.

The first-year mentor forms part of a trio of support personnel—along with the student advisor and FirstBridge academic advisor—that you can go to for advice while adjusting to your first year at AUP.

The FYS program kicks off during Orientation with the Welcome Day. Designed specifically for first-year degree seeking students, this day-long event series welcomes you to the University and sets time aside for you to meet and bond with your peers and advisors for the coming year.

The day includes a cultural excursion to the Chateau de Vincennes—a former royal residence on the eastern side of Paris in the beautiful Vincennes Park—where you will take part in a team-based scavenger hunt.

There are also two additional workshops held at Orientation:

• Safety and Consent: You will work with counsellors to familiarize yourselves with the University’s safety and consent guidelines, ensuring all community members understand how to create safe, respectful environment for everyone on campus.
   
• The Liberal Arts: Professor Russell Williams leads this workshop on the liberal arts as an umbrella concept, welcoming you into the academic culture in which you will work for the next four years.

The FYS Tote Bag

You will also be provided with a class-based gift: a fully customizable tote-bag emblazoned with your class year. Additional patches can be picked up at events and study trips throughout your time at AUP, so no two bags will be the same by the time you reach graduation.

The Common Read is a class-wide project in which all incoming students read and discuss the same text, chosen to coincide thematically with your experiences of arriving in a new city and culture. The text engages with themes common to AUP’s global liberal arts curriculum, encouraging you to begin to see the world through AUP’s academic lens.

For this inaugural Common Read, the FYS Program has selected James Baldwin’s Encounter on the Seine. Baldwin moved to Paris from the United States, meaning his work reflects the idea of an expat finding his way in a new community. As an African American gay man, his work also ties into conversations about diversity and confrontation between cultures—both common themes in the AUP classroom.

First year students are provided with a free hardback copy of Baldwin’s text during Orientation. In November, you are invited to a guest speaker event in discussion of the text, as well as a group-based book club allowing you to express your own thoughts on Baldwin’s work with your peers.

These workshops, which take place throughout the Fall semester, are scheduled to alternate with your FirstBridge reflective seminars. They are also attended by each group’s first-year mentor and student advisor:

• At Home at AUP: This workshop checks in with you a few weeks into your time at AUP, giving you a chance to discuss how you feel about your housing and giving mentors and advisors opportunities to share some initial advice about adjusting to the city.
   
• World’s Fair Planning: The World’s Fair is a long-running AUP tradition consisting of a food and culture festival that brings together culinary traditions from across the world in a single shared meal celebration. This session allows each FYS group to pick a country from any of the 102 represented by AUP’s diverse student body, before planning your own table for the annual World’s Fair event.
   
• Time Management: This workshop acts as a check-in on how students are doing midway through the semester. It offers mentors a chance to have one-on-one discussions with mentees and provides a space for you to have conversations about how you are organizing yourselves and your work in the run up to midterms.
   
• The Wellness Fair: Less a workshop and more a celebration of self-care, the Wellness Fair is a whole-of-class de-stressing event designed to give you room to breathe before midterms begin. You can pick up a wellness kit, enjoy freshly made smoothies and even engage in some canine therapy at our much-loved puppy play event!
   
• Diversity at AUP: Designed in collaboration with AUP’s Diversity Council, this workshop consolidates resources for you around diversity and inclusion and encourages group conversations about an important topic for anyone studying as a part of AUP’s international community.
   
• Design Your AUP: This workshop—the first in AUP’s flagship, co-curricular Global Professional Skills (GPS) Program—helps you strategically plan your time at AUP and make connections between your personal values and your academic objectives during your university experience.

The cultural excursion to the Loire Valley provides you with a mid-semester community-building opportunity to expand your friendship circles by meeting new people on an overnight stay in one of France’s most beautiful regions. You will tour some of the country’s most famous chateaux, while enjoying social activities, fine food and the beauty of the French countryside. The cost of the trip is €50, which includes all travel, castle entry, food and accommodation.

The Fall semester culminates in a community-wide FYS celebration in December, where you are invited to celebrate your successes together and end your first semester in style!

The conversation about settling into Paris and AUP and planning individual pathways through higher education continues into the Spring semester. Additional events, including an additional class excursion, further dialogue surrounding the Common Read and an introductory session about the Sophomore Mentoring Program are among plans for the second semester of FYS.