Ellington

Junior Almeera Anwar can still remember feeling overwhelmed as she walked into her first lecture hall and saw more than 100 faces. In that moment, Anwar felt totally alone.

“I just remember how big campus was and how many people were here,” senior Danielle Roslyn Peterson said. “It was very intimidating, at first. … There were only a few people from my high school attending UW … and it was just an extreme case of starting from scratch.”

Looking back, Peterson said, the shift from high school to college can be very difficult. It’s only when she reflects on her initial weeks at the UW that she realizes what a process she went through. That’s why Peterson and Anwar decided to become leaders of a Freshmen Interest Group (FIG).

FIGs are just one of the many first-year resources on campus to help incoming students transition into the college environment. The program was created 15 years ago to help shrink a campus of more than 40,000. While they are optional, FIGs give students with similar interests the chance to mingle.

Becky Corriell, program manager of First Year Programs (FYP), said that FIGs have always been organized around a cluster of classes.

“It used to be 17 credits, three academic courses and general studies instead of the 12 credits it is now. … As the FYP grew, the number of FIGs offered increased as well,” she said.

Peterson is a third-year FIG leader and said that serving as a mentor has helped her stay connected to the larger UW community.

“I had an excellent first year, [though] I wasn’t a very good instructor,” Peterson said, “And I went back because I wanted to improve on teaching and on acclimating [my students] to the campus, and making the class more of a significant experience as supposed to just [a place for] hanging out.”

Peterson said that her first teaching experience was absolutely terrifying.

“You walk into this classroom full of 24 students who you don’t know and are expected to be of instructor quality,” she said. “Not to mention, I was hardly a year older than them. I was shaky and fumbled over my words the entire first class, and maybe a few after that. Eventually, you get used to it, though, and can control your nerves to some extent.”

Anwar also found her first teaching experience to be a surprise.

“I remember the first time that I walked into my FIG class, and I was taking attendance and my first thought was, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m actually in charge of all these students,’” Anwar said. “Then, after the swarm of butterflies and surprise feeling of responsibility wore off, I came to realize that the last thing FIG students need is someone else who is there to just assign them work and give them credit for coming to class.”

Anwar said that as a freshman, you are often unprepared for the college experience. She, for instance, had expected to make good friends early in her college career but found that her biggest difficulty was meeting people.

“I had roommates and knew people all around but [there was] no one I was close to in the beginning,” Anwar said. “It was the little things [that were difficult], like wanting to grab something to eat last minute with someone or finding something to do.”

But Anwar said that she now feels better equipped to mentor her peers. Rather than lecturing at her 22 students, Anwar has adopted the “big sister” mind-set: “I [try] to teach them about how to be a good college student academically, socially and just as a citizen of the UW campus.”

Anwar is now a second-year FIG leader and said that as an undergraduate, she feels more in tune with her peers than most TAs or professors.

“We know how much you’re going through, and the workload you have. But also, I’ve become a lot more sympathetic towards my professors and TAs because you get their perspective,” Anwar said. “There’s times when you get frustrated, and … I think I’ve become a better student because I can empathize from an instructor’s perspective.”

For senior Dean Kirkpatrick, this fall was his first year as a FIG leader.

“I didn’t really like my freshman year that much, and so I wanted to help out the younger guys,” he said. “Also, I’m in a fraternity, so I’ve always helped out the freshmen in our house, and I thought this was a good way to do that.”

Peterson said that being a FIG leader is something that definitely requires a lot of work, although she believes it’s worth the effort.

“It takes a lot of time; you don’t get paid, so you’ve really got to like what you’re doing,” Peterson said. “Not all students are going to be very good [at it]. There’s always going to be students who are too cool for school, who don’t want to participate.”

Dealing with students who are only a year or two younger than their FIG leaders has its benefits and challenges. Anwar said that there are times when she has to scold her students or remind them to do their work: “No one really wants to tell people off, but you’ve got your responsibilities as an instructor.”

For Kirkpatrick, serving as an authority figure among his peers can be difficult.

“The line between peer and instructor could get really blurry,” Kirkpatrick said. “On one hand, you want to be their friend, but on the other hand, you have to grade their work and take control.”

However, the FIG program uses undergraduates precisely because of the close age difference.

“FIG leaders have a unique ability to share their own experiences as undergrads that is reliable and approachable to the incoming freshmen,’” Corriel said. “FIG leaders, being students themselves, are uniquely poised to deliver different aspects of college experience, not just institutional knowledge.”

Although Anwar recognizes that her students don’t always appreciate the opportunities available to them in a FIG, many remember the experience later on.

Junior Dylan Yu, also a first-year FIG leader, said that it wasn’t what he did within his FIG his freshman year, but the friends he made and the relationships he forged.

“When I was in a FIG, I used to be like, ‘What are we doing here? I just want to get out of here,’” Yu said. “While I didn’t really like it while I was in it … a year or two later, looking back, I was very glad that I did [it] because of the friends that I made, and the things that I learned.”

Anwar’s experience was similar to Yu’s.

“If I had it my way,” she said, “I’d make being in a FIG mandatory because it gives you a glimpse of all the pockets of little communities here. It’s not just how to be a student but more than that.”

Reach reporter So Hyoung An at lifestyles@dailyuw.com.