Welcome to Freshman Seminar!
This course will introduce students to academic life at the university and help them become a part of our community at St. Edward’s. Although the seminars are focused on very different topics, they all share a common goal: students join a community of learners and actively engage in academic and co-curricular exploration. As they do so, they will develop the critical thinking skills necessary to become successful students and lifelong learners by meaningfully confronting questions of social justice through the course materials and co-curricular experiences.
What is Freshman Seminar?
Freshman Seminars are not lecture courses, but are instead classes where students and faculty actively engage with one another as they discuss course materials. In addition, students and faculty will participate in a variety of co-curricular experiences over the course of the semester where they leave the classroom. For example, a seminar might go to an art opening, attend a book festival, or work on a service project with a local non-profit organization.
What is unique about Freshman Seminar?
Something that makes these seminars different from other classes you will take at St. Edward’s is that they are each part of a group of seminars clustered around a particular topic; for example, Sustainability, Social Justice, or Global Engagement. Students will attend co-curricular events with others from these Learning Communities.
Common Theme
Every year, St. Edward’s chooses a Common Theme that guides programming and discussions across campus. You will discuss the theme in your Freshman Seminars and some of the events you and your classmates attend will be related to the theme. For Fall 2026 we're excited to announce that the theme is Spur a Virtuous Cycle and our incoming students will read Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. You will receive a copy of the book of your choice at Orientation.
For more information, contact Emma Woelk, Sr. Director of Academic Initiatives.
Everything is Tuberculosis
Have you ever had something capture your attention so fully that you found connections to it everywhere? This is the kind of obsessive interest that led John Green to write this book, from which you’ll learn what tuberculosis has to do with the Adirondack chair, New Mexico’s statehood, and the Beatles. His interest is infectious not only because he connects the history of tuberculosis and its treatment to so many fields, but also because he so convincingly argues that understanding this history is so important to improving the world around us.
Green uses the story of tuberculosis, still responsible for more than a million deaths a year, to expose both global inequality and the potential power we all hold to help make a difference. Green acknowledges that human choices have led to a world that is deeply divided, plagued by crippling inequality and the climate crisis. “But,” he writes, “we can choose a different world. In fact, we will choose a different world. The world will be different a generation from now. The question is whether we will look back in gratitude at the virtuous cycles or in horror at the vicious ones.”
We invite you to join us in our Common Theme for 2026-2027, Spur a Virtuous Cycle, inspired by John Green’s term for acts large and small that inspire positive change in the world around us. Everything is Tuberculosis makes clear that there is room for all of us in the quest for a better world. We need writers, influencers, biologists, doctors, sociologists, philanthropists, business owners, lawyers, architects, engineers, readers, thinkers, just to name a few.
All incoming freshmen will receive a copy of Everything is Tuberculosis at their orientation this summer. We are so excited for you to find your way into the stories Green weaves together. We hope you are looking forward to your next big adventure at St. Edward’s University, including joining us for conversations, events, activities, and service projects related to the Common Theme through your Freshman Seminar courses starting in August. We will choose a better world, together.
For more information, contact Emma Woelk, Sr. Director of Academic Initiatives, with any questions about the common texts or the Freshman Seminar. And again, welcome to St. Edward's.
2025-2026: Home & Shelter
Book(s): Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua, eds. and Making Room: Three Decades of Fighting for Beds, Belonging, and a Safe Space for LGBTQ Youth (Carl Siciliano)
2024-2025: Defending Democracy
Book: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
2023–2024: Accessibility
Book: Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century by Alice Wong
2022–2023: Reckoning with History
Book: How The Word is Passed by Clint Smith
2021–2022: Stamped
Book: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds
Speaker: Jason Reynolds
2020–2021: Data & Justice
Book: Hello World by Hannah Fry
2019–2020: Immigration
Book: Dear America: Notes From an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas
Speaker: Jose Antonio Vargas
2018–2019: Identity
Book: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Speaker: Eli Kimaro
2017–2018: Immigrant Voices
Book: Detained & Deported: Stories of Immigrant Families Under Fire by Margaret Regan
Speaker: Erika Andiola
2016–2017: Food Justice
Book: Where Am I Eating? by Kelsey Timmerman
Speaker: Kelsey Timmerman
Trip: Costa Rica
Students explore the Common Theme in Just Food
2015–2016: Justice
Book: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Speaker: Bryan Stevenson
Trip: 28 students and three faculty members traveled to South Africa to explore justice, mercy and how these issues relate to race.
2014–2015: Hearts and Minds: Changing the Conversation about Mental Health
Book: Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
Speaker: Susannah Cahalan
Trip: London
2013–2014: Expanding Human Rights
Book: Half the Sky by Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Speaker: Jackson Katz
Trip: Three students built on their Common Theme trip to Bangladesh by continuing to stand up for human rights.
2012–2013: How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: Dystopias and Sustainability
Book: World War Z by Max Brooks
Speaker: Max Brooks