Masiel De La Cruz - Queens College
Christine Garcia - Queens College
Kishauna Givans - Queens College
Kayleah Serano - Queens College
Barbara Simerka - Queens College
Selma Škrijelj - Queens College
This roundtable explores a Freshman Seminar at Queens College, designed to foster first generation student success through course content that emphasizes anti-racism, diversity and inclusion. TA Škrijelj explains her units of the seminar, organized around readings on inequality in higher education, linked to a diversity-conscious exploration of key moments in US history. Faculty member Simerka describes the use of peer models as a tool for freshman empowerment: her units featured presentations from students in the QC Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program. Pedagogy sessions often include excerpts from student work as data. Instead, this roundtable gives voice to the students, with five brief presentations that demonstrate their mastery of and passion for topics ranging from #BLM, to linguistic discrimnation in classroom settings, to microaggression in K-12 and med school settings. The round table concludes with an analysis of the seminar’s successes and consideration of future improvements.