Advising and Registration
Pre-Register NowRegistration for new students, both freshman and transfer, is now open. The first step in beginning the registration process is to select your themes for English and CORE 101 courses. The course descriptions below will give you the information needed to make your decision.
ENGL 101: Freshman Composition is the Freshman English course. All students at SNC are required to take two semesters of English coursework. Transfer students may be waived out of one or more sections of English if they have taken this course at a previous institution which meets catalog requirements for transfer courses. Transfer credit acceptance will be determined during your meeting with the faculty advisor.
CORE 101: SNC Experience is the common intellectual experience shared by all Sierra Nevada College students, employing variable topics grounded in the social sciences (economics, psychology, political science, anthropology and sociology). Topics are selected from areas within art, business, humanities and science to engage entering students while developing the critical skills necessary for a successful and stimulating college career. The learning objectives of the course will develop the abilities central to active, engaged learning. Those abilities include critical thinking, problem solving, creativity/innovation, oral communication, teamwork, peer critique, self-reflection, higher-order questioning and active discussion. Students will rank their preference of CORE 101 topics in the pre-registration form.
Once you have ranked your English and CORE 101 topics, you can submit your selections via the pre-registration form. This form will then be sent to the Director of Academic Support Services, Henry Conover, who will introduce you to your faculty advisor. Both Henry and your faculty advisor will be contacting you via your SNC Email address. If you have not yet set up your SNC Email, you can find instructions on how to do this at this link: http://www.sierranevada.edu/assets/Student-Email-Policy.pdf
If you have questions regarding the pre-registration form, you can contact Henry Conover at hconover@sierranevada.edu.
CORE 101 Topics
Food, Nutrition, Agriculture, and Humanity
For tens of thousands of years, humans have modified their environment and the species around them with the goal of creating food. This complex relationship created new structures of society and molded humans themselves. Now, food supplies still mold society, both though personal excess and societal shortage. This course considers the key role of food in societal and personal sustainability. It will include personal diet studies, preparation of historical food types, and service to the community in local nutrition.
Time, Identity and Storytelling
Storytelling is a basic human impulse. We have used it to convey important messages about morality, to remember our own history, to transmit knowledge, to warn of danger and to create common culture from the earliest days of human civilization. In this course, students will learn the value of a good story – how it can be used to influence, to persuade and to communicate. Students will focus on learning to tell stories that convey their identity and allow people to get to know them at a deeper level, facilitating human connection. As part of this course, guest storytellers will share their own stories of identity. The course will be framed by the idea that the stories we tell are a method for framing the meaning of the present moment and building personal histories.
Visual Communication
Human beings are very visual creatures, and the visual component of communication can often overwhelm its other dimensions. This class looks at a variety of ways that people and organizations use visual media to communicate and persuade, training students to make their own visual communication more effective. We will address questions such as: How can text and image be used together to tell a story? How can you illustrate an idea? What’s the difference between information and propaganda? Students will critique and create photographs, diagrams, infographics, illustrations, presentations, and video. Through this process, they will develop a greater understanding of the ways in which visual media are used to inform us and to manipulate us.
Land, Labor and Capital
This version of CORE 101 supplements the common topics with an examination of how different economic systems (traditional, market-based, socialistic, communistic) vary in their approach to the treatment of the fundamental factors of production/value creation: land, labor and capital.
ENGLISH 101
The Individual and Society
This course explores the dynamic relationship between individuals and the society in which they live, with attention to the resulting connections, conflicts and compromises that occur. Examination of themes and techniques in assigned reading is emphasized to develop evaluation, analysis, synthesis and critical thinking skills. Weekly written work, in class discussions, essays, research writing and a portfolio documenting revisions are required.
The Creative Process
This course explores the creative process through reading and writing in a variety of genres including creative non-fiction, short fiction, literary criticism, and poetry with an emphasis on imaginative approaches. Examination of themes and techniques in assigned reading is emphasized to develop evaluation, analysis, synthesis and critical thinking skills. Weekly written work, in class discussions, essays, research writing and a portfolio documenting revisions are required.
Contemporary Literature
This focuses on contemporary fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry. Students examine and analyze creative writing paying careful attention to issues of theme and style, while writing in a variety of modes. Students are required to conduct both primary and secondary research, synthesize and integrate researched material into original works, and present individual research in papers and projects.