Vanderbilt Visions is a one-semester, university core program, whose subject is the social, academic, cognitive, and cultural transitions first-year undergraduates experience as they begin their first semester in the rich and challenging environment of a private research university. Vanderbilt Visions aims to:
- create student peer networks spanning all four undergraduate schools;
- lay the foundation, developed further by your formal courses of study and your Faculty Heads of House in The Commons, for building the habits of mind that support academic and cognitive excellence at Vanderbilt;
- increase your knowledge of university norms and resources;
- strengthen connections outside the classroom to faculty members and their diverse perspectives;
- encounter new opportunities for mentoring by faculty and peers.
A Vanderbilt faculty member and an undergraduate peer mentor recruited by the student organization VUcept partner to lead each Vanderbilt Visions group. Faculty and Student VUceptors mentor small groups of first-year students selected from across all ten Houses of The Commons. Vanderbilt Visions groups meet during CommonVU week, and on Mondays and Tuesdays during the semester. A syllabus organizes hour-long, small-group discussions and activities, and also provides each group significant autonomy in charting its semester. Faculty Heads of House will attend Visions group meetings as guests, participants, and mentors.
Section changes resulting from a conflict with an academic course must be requested before the end of the Registration Change period by contacting the Executive Administrator of Vanderbilt Visions at nina.warnke@vanderbilt.edu.