First-Year Experience


Promoting Student Success

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Our Mission

We meet students where they are in the learning process and empower them to achieve academic success.

Register for your University 1101 Course

Navigating your college success while finding your community!

UNIV 1101- Find Your Community

UNIV 1101 introduces students to campus resources, teaches valuable student skills, and helps students make connections with peers who have similar interests and/or majors through Bearkat Learning Communities.

This course will enhance your college experience and set you up for success in the semesters to come.

Open to ALL incoming freshmen and transfer students with less than 60 hours.

See more information about our Bearkat Learning Communities and decide which section of UNIV 1101 is right for you.

UNIV 1101 Bearkat Learning Communities and Further Information

Find Support in One of Our Programs

First-Year Learning Communities.
A learning community is simply a group of students with the same interests who take classes together.

First-Year Learning Communities
National Honor Society for First Year Success.
Alpha Lambda Delta, also known as ALD, is a national honor society for first-year college students.

NHS for First-Year Success
Peer Mentoring.
Seasoned Bearkats who help students navigate campus to take advantage of university resources and services.

Peer Mentoring
New Student Convocation.
Please join us as Dr. Alisa White, president of Sam Houston State University, along with faculty and staff welcome our newest Bearkats!

New Student Convocation
Common Reader Program.
The SHSU Common Reader program supports faculty and staff with a robust framework of options to bring the book to life for students.

Common Reader Program
Forward Program.
Empowering former foster youth, orphans, and wards of the court or homeless students to transition smoothly through college.

FORWARD Program