Rebekah, a college professor, decides she wants to research the difficulties of an incoming freshman into college. She is accepted into the same college she taught at off of her high school transcripts alone. She doesn’t want anyone to play favorites for her so she enrolls as a new freshman. Rebekah goes through a lot of changes from dorm life to simple tasks like talking to students. I think she is trying to hard to make friends, but I understand she has to, to make her book interesting somewhat.
Vocabulary By, Emma Carlson
Replete- Full or abundently provided or filled
Pseudonym-A ficticious name
Pedagogy-The art, science, or profession of teaching
Nietzsche-A german philosopher
Sabbatical Year- A leave of absence, often with pay
formidable- causing fear, dread, or apprehension
Accredited- to give official authoritization or approval
Presaged- to give an omen of warning of: foreshadow
Contingent- likely but not certain to happen
Purview-the range or limit of authority
Summarizer by David Loukidis
This first chapter was a brief description of what the author is going to look for research as an undergraduate freshman. She explains how she will look at the ethnography of incoming undergraduate freshman at the college in which she is a professor. She explains the difficulty in her research and anonymity involved in it because she wants to learn as much about the culture and life of freshman by being one of them. She is a fifty-year-old professor who decides to stay in the dorms, get involved in freshman activities, and sit in classes as an active student. The tone is very informal but informative as she tells the reader how she will be conducting her research and the issues that arise within her research. Also, the author compares her experiences of learning about freshman with her experience in as an anthropologist studying other cultures in different countries.
Discussion Leader by Jessica Dulli
Why would the author decide to enroll at her own university instead of one where no one would know her?
Because Nathan is so familiar with the college atmosphere at AnyU, it makes sense that she would choose to examine student life at the same campus instead of at an entirely new settting. She is used to seeing college life as a professor, so by attending her own university as a student, she can better understand the factors that contribute to the behavior of the students she encounters in the classroom every day. She is able to see if her perspective of the university changes just by becoming a freshman in the same setting.
Would students ever really see her as a fellow student?
In the classroom, it is very possible to see her as a fellow student, because she has the same status and classroom requirements as everyone else. Outside of class, however, it would be harder to see her as a college student because she is so much older than the typical freshman. She does not share the same college culture as the younger, stereotypical freshman, because fellow students do not automatically assume that she has the same status as them.
Would her past experience with being a college student and a professor at the same university prevent her from getting the true freshman experience?
Her past experiences would prevent this, because she has been exposed to college life from many different angles, whereas the typical freshman is experiencing everything for the first time. She is put in a position that she has already been in, which forces her to compare that experience with her first college experience and the bits of college culture she witnesses every day. Also, she enrolls as a freshman to research the culture, not to further her education, which gives her a different mindset as every other freshman.
Does her age prevent her from having the freshman experience, considering how most of the incoming freshman are 18 or 19 years old?
Her age does prevent her from having the freshman experience, because people do not see her as a fellow freshman. As far as her interactions with other freshman go, she is seen as a peer strictly in the classroom. Not many freshmen would invite her to hang out with them because of the significant age difference; many students would find it difficult to relate to her because they come from different generations. While she may experience what it feels like to be a freshman academically, she will never truly be able to participate in the social aspects of what it means to be a freshman.
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