Welcome to the Freshman Celebration 2019!
The Freshman Celebration is an annual CSUN event that showcases work created by first-time freshmen enrolled in University 100 during the fall semester at Cal State Northridge. The eent has a dual format with traditional projects displayed on-site at the showcase and digital projects displayed online using Portfolium. Portfolium is a digital portfolio network that students can use throughout their college career and beyond to showcase their work, projects, and activities.
The 14th Freshman Celebration will be on December 4 and 5 (Wednesday and Thursday) in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union from 9:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m. each day.
Photo Gallery
The photo gallery of on-site projects is available for viewing (on flickr).
Portfolium Projects
The digital projects are available for viewing (on Portfolium).
2019 Awards
Four classes received awards for their projects this year. Two panels of CSUN faculty and staff judges reviewed the projects. The judges named two Grand Prize award winners: one for a traditional on-site project and the other for a digital project (posted on Portfolium). Students who reviewed the projects voted for two People's Choice Awards: one for a traditional on-site project and the other for a digital project. The winning classes celebrated with their choice of a pizza party or breakfast-friendly fare in their classroom during the last week of classes.
Judges' Grand Prize, On-Site/Traditional Project: La Madurez Entre Nosotros (The Growth Within Us) by Professor Autumn Fabricant's class
Judges' Grand Prize, Digital/Portfolium Project: Mythbusters! Separating Fact from Fiction: Deaf & Hard of Hearing by Professor Debbi Mercado's class
People's Choice Award, On-Site/Traditional Project: The Beauty of the Monarch by Professor Tonee Sherrill's class
People's Choice Award, Digital/Portfolium Project: Our Journey by Professor Monicka Guevara's class
Grand Prize Judges' Criteria for 2019
On-site Projects
- Critical thinking (defined in the Information Competence Vocabulary list at Oviatt Library as “The process of effectively examining and questioning information in order to weigh evidence and make choices and/or take action”; see https://library.csun.edu/researchassistance/vocabulary#C)
- Including appropriate credit to sources, if applicable
- Significance and importance of content and/or meaning
- Creativity, artistry, and aesthetic value
Portfolium Projects
- Critical thinking (defined in the Information Competence Vocabulary list at Oviatt Library as “The process of effectively examining and questioning information in order to weigh evidence and make choices and/or take action”; see https://library.csun.edu/researchassistance/vocabulary#C)
- Including appropriate credit to sources, if applicable
- Significance and importance of content and/or meaning
- Creativity, artistry, and aesthetic value
- Time limit (5 minutes maximum and no more than ONE project per class).
- Accessibility: Captioned, if applicable
About the Freshman Celebration
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.
Each fall, freshmen taking University 100 are invited to participate in a campus-wide 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. The event is essentially a two-day festival, during which students and visitors come and go throughout the day between approximately 9:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. The student projects often (but not always) respond to the current year's Freshman Common Reading, which in 2019-2020 is The Far Away Brothers by Lauren Markham.
Traditional projects including posters, sculptures, and a wide range of interactive exhibits, are displayed on-site in the University Student Union during the two days of the Celebration. Digital (Portfolium) projects include videos, slideshows, blogs, and more.