First Year Experience
The programs and activities in your First-Year Experience are designed to help you grow, learn, and develop as a student.
In your first year at the University of Louisville, you’ll be supported in achieving five key goals:
Grow in your understanding of who you are and where you’re headed at UofL and beyond.
Developing a better understanding of who you are: your values, talents and interests; and examining how your background, identity and social context influence your perspectives and experiences
Developing a better understanding of where you’re headed at UofL and beyond: your personal and career goals; how your goals, interests and major choice work together to support career readiness
Working to align your goals for yourself with the choices you’re making every day
Practicing well-being and resiliency in a way that supports your success in college and in life
Take charge of your educational experience.
Taking care of university business by stated deadlines
Managing your finances
Effectively navigating university policies and procedures
Recognizing when you need support and knowing how to reach your Student Success Team and other campus resources
Achieve academic success and make progress toward your UofL degree.
Developing and applying college-level learning strategies, academic skills and critical thinking skills
Practicing time-management and priority setting
Identifying and utilizing appropriate support resources to address personal and academic challenges which may affect your progress
Developing fluency in university and course-specific technologies
Understanding how to develop and follow an academic plan that meets
Engage with campus to make the most of UofL opportunities and make it your home.
Developing interpersonal skills and building your network of support with peers, staff and faculty
Participating in opportunities to connect: campus events, community spaces, instructor office hours and clubs/organizations
Utilizing campus resources relevant to you and your goals
Become an active member of the Cardinal Community of Care.
Learning more about and appreciating others’ diverse and intersecting backgrounds, identities and experiences, and the ways in which these influence your interactions
Examining how you engage in and support an inclusive and anti-racist community
Understanding and owning your rights and responsibilities as a student
Learning and living the Cardinal Principles to the best of your ability
Annual Signature Events
Welcome Week
Get ready to make some of the best friends and memories of your UofL experience! Welcome Week is an exciting five days of events and activities that help first year, transfer, and returning students get the fall semester started off right.
Majors Fair
Looking for a major? A minor? Want to switch majors? Then you're in the right spot. Attend the Majors Fair to meet faculty, advisors, and students from your area of interest and learn more about their programs and experiences. For more information, click the link below.
Family Weekend
Family Weekend is full of tradition and excitement and is a wonderful time for parents and families to reconnect with their student, allow students to share favorite campus places and activities with their family, and meet other Cardinal families. There are exciting programs and events to explore and enjoy the vibrant Cardinal community.
Finals Countdown
When the fall and spring semesters wind down, look for the Student Success Center and First Year Experience, Student Activities Board, the Office of Health Promotion and REACH to help get you geared up to ace your final exams.
What We Do
The programs and activities that are part of your First Year Experience are designed to help you grow, learn and develop as a student.
We promote new student engagement and success at UofL by providing enriching curricular and co-curricular opportunities that help students develop fundamental skills, knowledge and personal connections essential from their first year through graduation.
Why We Do It
If you haven’t already discovered it, you will soon: you have almost endless opportunities and choices ahead of you here at UofL. The experience truly is what you make of it, and First Year Experience is all about helping you make it a great one. A fantastic college experience happens inside and outside of the classroom, and there are elements to each that are different from your previous high school or university.
To assist new students with the transition to UofL and through the first year as you grow and develop civically, academically, personally, and socially, First Year Experience provides programs and services centered on these five key aspects of your UofL experience: Community, Academics, Responsibility, Diversity and Service (CARDS).
Community
Facilitate each student’s connection and contribution to the richly diverse University of Louisville and surrounding communities.
Academics
Acclimate each student to the traditions, expectations and opportunities that boost academic experiences and promote key linkages from classrooms to real-world applications.
Responsibility
Provide programs and resources that support students in taking ownership of their wellbeing, personal development and collegiate experiences to increase their capacity for resilience.
Diversity
Introduce students to the wide array of opportunities available for involvement, support, exploration and understanding of individual ways of thinking and being.
Service
Enhance students’ ability to give back to the university, the community at large and their academic and career fields through service, leadership and research.
New Cards Navigator FAQ
This series of three learning modules are an important part of your first year academic orientation course, which is called something different depending on which academic unit in which you are enrolled (Arts & Sciences: GEN-101 or GEN-100; Education-Teacher Preparation: EDTP-101; Business: CAMP-100; Dental Hygiene: DHED-101; Engineering: ENGR-110; Health and Sport Sciences: HSS-181; Honors: HON-202; Music: MUS-100; Nursing: NURS-101; Public Health: PHUN-100; Social Work: SW-101). You'll find New Cards Navigator within the Blackboard component of your academic orientation course. (See below for additional information.)
You will complete the three modules in order to learn information that will be important to your success as a UofL student. Each module includes both new and review information in addition to quiz questions throughout the module to test what you've learned. Once you have successfully completed the module, you will be able to view and download your personalized completion certificate and follow directions to submit it within your academic orientation course New Cards Navigator assignment as proof of completion.
These modules, in tandem with your other first year experiences, will ease your college transition and help you to understand the academic policies, procedures, and opportunities that will make your time at the university as successful as possible. Being a student at UofL will be a lot different than high school or any other college or university you may have attended before now, so it’s important that you’ve got support on your path to earning your degree at UofL. New Cards Navigator is one of the ways that UofL can support you as you begin your academic journey.
New Cards Navigator can be accessed via your orientation course in Blackboard. (Arts & Sciences: GEN-101 or GEN-100; Education-Teacher Preparation: EDTP-101; Business: CAMP-100; Dental Hygiene: DHED-101; Engineering: ENGR-110; Health and Sport Sciences: HSS-181; Honors: HON-202; Music: MUS-100; Nursing: NURS-101; Public Health: PHUN-100; Social Work: SW-101).
Once you have logged into Blackboard, look under “Courses” for your orientation course link. After you’ve clicked on the link to enter the course, look for the “New Cards Navigator” content tile.
You will need to view the modules using a high speed Internet connection. If you don’t have a high speed connection at home, try a public library or UofL computer lab.
Blackboard is the Web-based course delivery system used at the University of Louisville to teach fully online courses and to supplement face-to-face courses. Faculty can post their syllabus, lectures, assignments and tests on the system as well as use collaborative tools such as discussion boards and chat rooms to interact with students. Blackboard may be accessed by going to: http://blackboard.louisville.edu
You may check the University of Louisville Blackboard Help information before or after you have logged into Blackboard. The help option will appear as a “Help” tab in the upper right corner of your screen.
You can log in to Blackboard by going to http://blackboard.louisville.edu. Bookmark this page for future reference. Important announcements about the system are reported on this page.
Find the login box where you will enter your user name and password. (These are the same as you would use to log into other University of Louisville network systems such as ULink and your UofL email account). You will then have access to Blackboard. If you are having trouble logging into Blackboard, contact the IT HelpDesk.
To view the modules, go to a location that offers high-speed Internet access. All incoming and current students can use UofL computers, or you can check with a local library or your high school to see if their computers meet the system requirements.
The university libraries as well as the IT computer labs around campus will have the system requirements you need to view the modules. At most labs you will need to use your own or lab-provided headsets to listen to the audio for each module. Check out this list of the locations of UofL computer labs.
It is important to know that any time you change sections of a course and you already have grades recorded in the Blackboard grade book, those grades will not automatically be transferred to your new section. So, if you complete one or more of the New Cards Navigator modules but then decide to change sections of your academic orientation course, log back into the module(s) you completed using the links in Blackboard, and you can proceed to the end of the module to access your completion certificate. Upload the certificate in your new course section, just as you did the first time.
The modules are accessible to all students. Students with hearing impairments will note that all modules are Closed Captioned. Attempts have been made to make these modules accessible to all users. If you use assistive technology and would be willing to share your feedback, it will help us make your and other students' experiences as smooth as possible. Please contact the Disability Resource Center (askdrc@louisville.edu or 502-852-6938) if you need additional support completing this module.