By Kylie Lancaster//
Hood College’s Heart, Mind and Hands core curriculum for undergraduates began this fall to enhance the undergraduate experience.
This core still contains aspects of the previous curriculum, but has new elements, such as high-impact practices, service-learning experiences and the first-year experience (FYE).
The high-impact practices, such as internships, study abroad and undergraduate research, are often already incorporated into undergraduate majors; however, the new core expands on these practices.
“With the Heart, Mind, and Hand Core Curriculum we are purposefully scaffolding high-impact practices into the entire four years of the curriculum for a student who is with us at Hood for all four years,” Provost Paige Eager said.
The new core also requires first-year students to participate in service-learning in the spring semester. The service-learning program is coordinated by professor Amy Kilpatrick.
The most notable change in the core curriculum for first-year students is the switch from first-year seminar (FYS) to FYE.
FYS was a required fall semester course for all first-year students that was used to acclimate new students to campus and the City of Frederick.
FYE links two classes in the fall and spring semesters, with the same group of students taking both classes together.
“The same cohort of students will take the fall and spring linked courses around a common theme with two different instructors. For example, I am teaching ‘Democracy and Disinformation’ in the fall semester to 16 first-year students. Then, the same group of students will take Professor Alan Goldenbach’s ‘Art of Skepticism’ course in the spring semester of 2026,” Eager said.
Other examples of FYE classes are Wealth and Society, American Culture in 10 Albums and Photography Through Lyrics.
The FYE has already proven to be beneficial for students. Emily Wernick, first-year student from Taneytown said she is enjoying the fall section of her FYE, “Local Lore and Legends.”
“My FYE has taught me a lot about the history of Frederick, from Revolutionary War to the Civil War and slavery. I’ve also learned a lot about downtown and historical buildings in Frederick,” Wernick said. “FYE promotes a lot of on-campus events, which has helped me get involved on campus. I’ve also learned a lot about the history of the buildings on campus and some fun facts.”
It is too early to tell whether the new core curriculum will provide better academic results than the previous one, however, the college will be collecting data to assess the success of the Heart, Mind and Hands core.
“We will start collecting assessment data at the individual course level for the Heart and Mind courses by the end of the fall semester,” Eager said. “This will give us at least one semester’s worth of data by that point. Assessment is an ongoing process, though.”
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