Start your college journey a step ahead so you will be Beyond Ready to excel in the workplace upon graduation. Make lifelong friends in your first year, and find a place to call home. With small class sizes and hands-on learning, you are not a student ID number - you are our future.
The FYIC is a unique business school program that sets students up for success from day one! In the FYIC, students will:
Employers are seeking employees who are “job ready.” The First Year Integrated Core curriculum was designed to help you develop critical workplace skills.
The FYIC is an eight-credit hour program comprising four classes required for all FSB students. In these classes, you'll spend the first 11 weeks of the semester building key skills that you'll need for upper-division classes and that employers expect FSB graduates to have. You'll spend the last 5 weeks of the semester applying these skills within our client challenge, through which you'll work in consulting teams. The four classes that make up the First-Year Integrated Core program are:
In business, you need critical thinking skills, collaboration skills, and cultural intelligence. BUS 101 will help you get started by delivering the skills of business. It will introduce you to the First Year Integrated Core, your classmates, and key business basics to help you get a jump start on your Farmer School experience.
BUS 102 is dedicated to business communication. You will learn foundational skills that will benefit you regardless of your major or career. In this course, you dive right into learning how to write and speak professionally. You will also have the opportunity to develop your credentials in order to land a competitive internship.
In today’s business world, understanding the complexities of computational thinking is essential. In BUS 104, you will be introduced to Python and learn the basics of coding. You will also learn how to process data in an SQL database. Gaining these skills will help you understand all aspects of business and help you approach business problems from a computational thinking lens.
Creativity and innovation are essential thinking skills of the modern business world. In ESP 103, you’ll learn important business mindsets including tolerating the ambiguity of today’s business world, stepping outside your comfort zone, and leveraging your own potential to do more with less. You’ll explore personal mastery through the creative problem-solving process to develop innovative ideas to business problems.
The First Year Integrated Core provides the opportunity for you to apply what you learn to a client challenge project. In your first year of business school, you will work for a real client to solve a real business problem. Every First Year Integrated Core business client has been incredibly impressed by the depth of solutions presented and the professionalism displayed by our students.
Chris Gorman, Chairman and CEO, KeyCorp
Students take the FYIC in cohorts of approximately 30 students, which means you'll be in class with the same 29 people eight times a week. Additionally, you'll work in a small team with the same 3-4 students throughout the majority of the semester. As a result, you'll almost immediately start to form connections with other students, which accelerates your integration into the FSB community.
A typical day in the FYIC involves a lot of active learning. Class time is largely dedicated to activities and workshops that require you to apply what you're learning; and the assignments that make up your grades in the classes are primarily application-based. You'll be guided through your learning by faculty who are committed to your success, as well as by FYIC graduates who return to support current students.
The FYIC is an experiential program. In addition to the client challenge, you'll engage in market simulations in BUS 101; you'll create a professional resume and practice interviewing in BUS 102; you'll develop creative solutions to everyday business problems in ESP 103; and you'll use Python and SQL to analyze data in BUS 104. And that's just a small sample! This approach has led to many students earning an internship after the first year.
Many freshmen FYIC students have received internships at a variety of places, including Avery Dennison, Merrill Lynch, IBM, Roush, SC Johnson and Sons, Johnson & Johnson, and CNN.
The FYIC faculty stands ready to guide and inspire students on their educational journey.