Connecting the classroom to Chattanooga with “A Moc’s First Year”

Dr. Tammy Garland’s “Introduction to Community Engagement” class brought first-year students to the Dodds Avenue YMCA on Sept. 17, 2024. Photo by Angela Foster.

“A Moc’s First Year” officially launched during the fall semester at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and first-time, first-year students explored what the city of Chattanooga has to offer.

UTC initiated the new program with the intention of building learning communities to ease the transition of first-time students into college while creating a community with fellow students.

Dr. Delight Yokley, the assistant provost for student success, joined UTC in 2023 to lead AMFY efforts and is already seeing exciting results with the different first-year experiences available.

“It’s way more exciting just listening to what’s happening in the classrooms and how excited the faculty members are,” Yokley said. “I guess in your mind, you picture a first-year experience because I’ve run so many. There’s a way to do a first-year experience, and normally, everyone does the same thing, right? But we didn’t do it that way this year.”

Faculty at UTC were given the freedom to design their courses, she said.

“We ended up seeing really exciting ways that faculty are amazing people,” Yokley said, “and they’re very creative. If you give them the freedom, the things that they come up with are incredible.”

The initial semester of “A Moc’s First Year” included:

986 first-year UTC students participating in the first-year experience
95 faculty and staff instructors
43 unique topics and 51 sections
dozens of opportunities to engage with the Chattanooga community

Courtesy of Dr. Delight Yokley

One example of creative design is Department of Communication Associate Professor Chad Harriss’s “Experiencing Chattanooga’s Live Entertainment” course, where students explored Chattanooga’s music scene.

In this course, students were tasked to create and organize a concert at Cherry Street Tavern.

“I think the primary purpose of this program is to introduce students to the community here in Chattanooga, to encourage them to reflect on the experiences that they have, and most importantly, to have fun,” Harriss said.

For freshman Walter Staszewski, the class offered a unique opportunity to explore his passion for music.

A bass player and singer for the local band I before E, Staszewski was able to bring the course’s final project to fruition. On Nov. 13, I before E performed at Cherry Street Tavern with another local artist, Sunny War. It was a near sellout.

It wasn’t the first time Staszewski played with Harriss in the crowd. Before they met in the first-year experience course, Harriss watched the band play at another Chattanooga venue, Dark Roast.

“(Harriss) just loves music and loves the scene,” Staszewski said. “It’s a pretty cool connection to make early on to know that he has heard of us. It’s always really rewarding when you are recognized by people or they’ve heard you before.”

Dr. Niky Tejero’s “The First Year Experience: Cuisine of Latin America” course made sauces and salsa during a Sept. 25, 2024, class in the Metro Building.

Dr. Niky Tejero, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, created a course titled “The Cuisine of Latin America” in which first-year students explored the Chattanooga area through local cuisine.

Freshman Arthur Williams helps run a family restaurant in Cleveland, Tennessee, called Spoonys. He said he enjoyed learning how to prepare dishes from different cultures.

“My favorite thing about the class is that I just get to experience more cultures and take my skills from home, especially in this class,” Williams said. “I like to learn new cooking techniques and just food I haven’t experienced because it’s Latin American food.”

Not all learning communities took place off campus, as the Challenger STEM Learning Center was the host for some AMFY courses.

Rob Lein, an exploration specialist at the Challenger Center, said he was excited about the first-year experience program’s growth and what that means for the center.

“I think just tightening those connections to the school is very important,” Lein said. “Coming in and doing a mission with freshmen, that’s a good bonding experience. We also have team-building activities that we’re doing with them as well, and it is great for them and their relationship. I think it’s great for their relationship with their school.”

Staszewski and Williams recommend potential first-year students join one of these learning communities and experience what AMFY offers.

“I think anyone interested in those opportunities should definitely join sooner rather than later and they should come into it as soon as possible,” Staszewski said. “It’s only going to get bigger from here.”

“I most definitely would recommend classes such as these because I feel like there’s just no better experience getting the feel of college,” Williams said.

Yokley said she is excited about students experiencing and connecting with material they are passionate about in a less controlled environment outside the classroom.

“Students are incorporating that ‘outside the classroom’ piece and are learning something in their three-hour class and then actually visually seeing it in their one-hour class, and that to me is so cool,” Yokley said.