You can spot the Freshmen

Jan's teaching assignment involves oral English instruction with freshmen students.   For the next few weeks, it's kinda easy to tell them apart from other students.   Freshmen education begins not with classes but with a four week stint in military training.   From early morning to late evening, they can be found throughout the campus dressed in fatigues and practicing drill.

Designed both to emphasize patriotic responsibility and instill discipline, students here generally view the experience positively.   On American campuses new students sometimes become lost amidst a newly found freedom.   So much so that freshmen student retention has become a major focus at many US universities.

For Jan, this time allows a chance to prepare well for classes starting in October.    For me, it allow some much needed help as I prepare for 4 weekly sections contiaining, in total, about 225 students.  Sure will be a lot of names to learn and remember!