First-Year Experience is a collaborative effort at Regis, with a wide variety of programs and initiatives designed to ease the transition from high school to college, build community, and foster student engagement and success.
For the newest members of our undergraduate community - both first-year and transfer students - the journey begins with Orientation. Students meet classmates, choose roommates, participate in social activities, learn about campus life, and register for classes.
Each year a text is selected by a committee to encourage thoughtful dialogue and a intellectual stimulation for the entire Regis community. The text is read by all first-year and transfer students over the summer and in the fall students will discuss the book as part of First-Year Seminar. Learn More about the Common Reading Program.
Convocation is an annual celebration at which students and faculty gather to celebrate the official opening of the academic year and new students are welcomed into the community.
First-Year Seminar is a three-credit course offered to all incoming students during the fall semester. During FYS, new students are introduced to collegiate life, Regis history and heritage, build their academic and social skills, and engage in a variety of co-curricular experiences.
Learning communities are groups of students who take a common set of courses together or share a common experience around their academics. Participants in a learning community develop a deeper understanding of the courses’ subject matter while they build relationships and learn together outside of the classroom. In most learning communities, students are enrolled in one or two required general education courses as well as a First-Year Seminar.
Our Orientation Leaders (OLs) are a dedicated group of upper-level students who provide guidance to first-year students in order to support the transition from high school to college. Our OLs help incoming students learn about the importance of becoming involved in the campus community during New Student Orientation and throughout First-Year Seminar. They model how students can grow academically, spiritually, and socially while promoting service to others, universal respect, and unity through diversity in keeping with the values of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston.
