First Year Experience (FYE)

The First-Year Experience (FYE) is a year-long orientation program designed to assist EOP freshmen with the transition to college life. FYE participants benefit from the Summer Bridge program and are offered the opportunity to live in an on or off-campus residence hall. The program is comprised of specialized advising services, a course link program, educational workshops, and social programs.

Advising Services - The EOP FYE advising staff is composed of full-time advisors and several paraprofessional advisors. The paraprofessional advisors, or “parapros,” are upper-division students trained to offer advice on academic, personal, and financial issues. Every EOP freshmen is required to see a parapro at least twice a month throughout their first academic year. Parapros monitor their students' academic progress and engage in discussions on topics such as course selection, problems with transitioning from high school to college, and time management skills.

Course Link - A course link is a collection of classes, each of which is attended by the same group of students. The EOP FYE course links may vary from year to year but remain a requirement for EOP first year students and any considerations to be exempt from the course link must be approved by the FYE coordinator.

Educational Programs - Throughout their college careers, Chico State students are given the opportunity to participate in a number of educational programs. We encourage, and sometimes require, attendance at these programs for our EOP FYE students. The programs include:

EOP workshops focus on such topics as time management, registration, goal setting, getting involved, and self-awareness.

Study Skills Workshops focus on topics such as budgeting, note-taking, concentration, and test anxiety.

Supplemental Instruction (SI), involves weekly tutoring sessions taught by trained SI Leaders. The leaders attend every class meeting throughout the semester in order to offer customized tutoring sessions. MCGS 155 includes SI , whereas in the fall semester, a Study Skills Series is offered to our EOP FYE students.

Social Programs - Throughout EOP FYE, students are informed of social events that take place throughout the academic year including an end-of-year reception. EOP students are eligible to participate in the EOP Student Association (EOPSA) which sponsors a number of social events throughout the school year.