First-Year Odyssey Seminars with IDM
“A Field Guide to Resilience” with Michelle Ritchie
What does nature mean to you? In this engaging FYO seminar, students will explore their environmental ethics and impacts and learn to foster their resilience. Through hands-on activities, discussions, and field-based experiences, students will explore their connections to the natural world — from UGA’s campus to the deepest depths of the oceans! This FYO seminar is designed as an experiential learning companion to Braiding Sweetgrass, a best-selling non-fiction book written by distinguished professor Robin Wall Kimmerer of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Dr. Kimmerer captivatingly blends scientific and Indigenous knowledge in a series of ecological essays that ask us to (re)consider the relationship between humans and the non-human world.
“College Survival Guide: Preparing for Disasters” with Curt Harris
Disasters can strike at any time and without warning. Do you know what you should do if you were to find yourself in one? This seminar will focus on introducing students to the world of personal and community emergency preparedness. We will start with discussing what exactly are disasters and which ones you could face on and off campus. This seminar will then seek to help you develop the knowledge and skills that you can use to help protect yourself and those around you. The lessons are engaging, interactive, and practical. You will also have the opportunity to meet and hear from leaders on this campus who work to keep us safe. Students who complete this seminar will leave better prepared to face disasters in college and in the world beyond.
“Surviving Disasters” with Kelli McCarthy
Reading through Amanda Ripley’s “The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why”, we will explore various disasters, how humans react to disasters, who tends to survive these events, and dive into why. Disasters discussed will be of varying types – natural, technological, and terroristic. These discussions will allow students to self-examine what their response may be when faced with a disaster.
First-Year Odyssey Events with the IDM
Ready, Set, Go-Bags!
Students from each FYO meet and present their go-bags during a social event hosted at the IDM. During this event, students also tour IDM facilities, talk with current faculty, staff, and students, and learn about campus and career opportunities in disaster management.
