UF honors students have started a blog to provide guidance to incoming freshmen.
The blog, “Swamp Survival,” is the brainchild of Melissa Johnson, assistant director of the Honors Program.
Ten sophomores from Johnson’s course, Professional Development 3: Community Outreach, will write blog posts focusing on a different aspect of the first-year college experience.
“Acclimating to university life can be a huge change, and there are many missteps that can be easily avoided with a little advice,” said Lauren Hundley, a sophomore pre-pharmacy student who contributes to the blog.
The blog, which can be found at www.swampsurvival.wordpress.com, has topics including how to take advantage of the Career Showcase and how to get the best letter of recommendation from a professor.
The blog also uploads video posts every Friday.
One of the students, Daniel Collotte, a sophomore electrical engineering major, is assisting his classmates with filming and editing these videos.
“I’ve already seen my leadership skills reinforced by the fact that we’re thinking about bringing them to other people, teaching them to other people,” Collotte said.
Johnson said that hearing advice from older students can be more useful for first-year students than hearing the same things from advisers or professors. Older students also offer a unique perspective on the first-year experience, being only a few months removed from it themselves.
“We thought back to what kind of questions we had when we were going to first attend ... and we wanted to present those answers in an entertaining, easy-to-access format,” Collotte said.
