The 2016 Freshman Celebration
Welcome to the Freshman Celebration 2016!
The Freshman Celebration is an annual event that showcases work created by first-time freshmen enrolled in University 100 at Cal State Northridge.
Visit the 2016 Celebration photo gallery on Tumblr to see photos of the projects. You can check the gallery's archive view to look for a specific on-site project. If your project is one of the three not yet represented in the gallery and you have a photo to share, please send it to and let us know the last name of your professor. This year's digital projects remain on display through Moodle.
We hosted our eleventh Celebration on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 29 & 30, 2016, with exhibits open 9:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m. each day in the USU Northridge Center. We expected over 1000 members of the CSUN community to view the various projects created by members of CSUN's fall 2016 freshman class as part of their work in University 100, the Freshman Seminar. Attendance exceeded expectations: 1,111 students filled out Celebration Reflection Forms (including an opportunity to vote for the People's Choice Award); an unknown number of other students attended from the five 8 a.m. sections of the course; and still others viewed the digital projects in the Virtual Celebration. Adding in faculty, staff, and visitors (including CSUN President Dianne Harrison), we figure that at least 1200 people stopped by. Thanks, everyone!
Digital projects were displayed on Moodle as part of the Virtual Freshman Celebration (VFC 2016). Members of the CSUN community can view the virtual projects by logging in to Moodle using their CSUN username and password, and then searching for VFC 2016:
- Log in to Moodle at http://moodle.csun.edu/
- Search for VFC 2016 in the "search for course" box; or after log in, go directly to the course: https://moodle.csun.edu/course/view.php?id=100130
The 2016 Grand Prize Winners
People's Choice Award: Crumpled Hopes through the "Hoops of Shame" (Prof. John Kubler's U100 class)
Project description: "In Ronson’s book, people saw their goodwill intentions and identities 'crumpled' by the hands of misunderstandings. Reflect on your own past hopes, dreams, and aspirations; write one down on paper, throw it through the matching hoop, and see how its goodness is crushed and destroyed while the crowd of shamers cheer!"
On-Site Project Award: My Digital Identity (Prof. Nyla Dalferes's U100 class)
Project description: "In class we reflected on how we would want to be perceived if someone came across our social media posts and the steps we have taken, or not, to maintain our digital identity. We then created images formatted like those on popular social media websites."
Virtual Celebration Project Award: Racism: An Epidemic on Social Media (Prof. Lisa Riccomini's U100 class)
Project description: "Inspired by So You've Been Publicly Shamed and the impact of TED TALKS, students created a MATTY TALK with the goal of raising awareness and urging change about significant issues related to the phenomenon of social media and public shaming. Our class voted and decided that one class project represented our goals best. This project focuses on racism in social media."
Thanks and More Thanks
In addition to the U100 students and faculty who worked so hard to create and display their class projects, the following individuals were essential to the success of this year's Celebration:
- Sharon Aronoff
- Francesca Dimaisip
- Jamie Johnson
- Kim Henige
- Hillary Kaplowitz
- Kelly Kroeker
- Ellyn Gersh Lerner
- Debbi Mercado
- Krishna Narayanamurti
- Lisa Riccomini
- Stephany Rodas
- Ellen Stohl
- April Taylor
- Movses Tokadgian
And thanks are due also to the students who volunteered to set up the exhibit space, distribute refreshments, create this year's "Welcome" sign (whiteboard with markers; always a work of art), wrangle helium balloons without letting a single one fly up to the ceiling, and stay with us on day 2 for clean-up. You're all amazing!
About the Freshman Celebration
Each fall, freshmen taking University 100 are invited to participate in a campus celebration of their first-semester academic achievements. This showcase, the Freshman Celebration, is modeled on CSUN's Undergraduate and Graduate Student Research and Creative Works Symposium. It usually includes several projects created in response to the current year's Freshman Common Reading, which in 2016-2017 was So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson.
Students who attended the 2016 Celebration were invited to cast their votes for the 2016 People's Choice Award. Additional projects were posted in the Virtual Celebration 2016 (online in Moodle). A panel of judges (CSUN faculty and staff) selected the 2016 Grand Prize winners: one on-site project and one virtual project.
The first Freshman Celebration at CSUN took place in 2006 with participation limited to Freshman Connection students. In 2007 the Celebration was opened to all students enrolled in a fall U100 class. As enrollment has continued to grow, so has the Celebration.