The First-Year Experience focuses on the development and transition of the student through intentional opportunities for engagement. We are committed to promoting belonging and resilience while identifying development and growth mindset throughout the first year at URI and beyond. Our program is designed to encourage exploration and excitement around academic work, to develop student cohorts and teamwork, and to introduce students to the rigor of college level work. 

Our First-Year Experience Program encompasses: 

URI 101 is a 13-week course facilitated by a URI faculty or staff member and a student mentor during the first semester at URI. With small classes and hands-on-activities, URI 101 encourages self-exploration, active engagement, and understanding of life as a college student.

Phi Eta Sigma (PES) is the nation’s oldest and largest honor society for first-year students in all disciplines who earn a GPA of 3.5 or higher in their first semester. Founded in 1923 at the University of Illinois, Phi Eta Sigma encourages and rewards academic excellence among freshmen in institutions of higher learning. The organization is an outward recognition of personal accomplishment and serves as an incentive for continued high scholarship. The organization also provides freshmen honorees the opportunity to meet other scholars from all academic disciplines on campus and to join in the promotion of academic excellence. There are more than 300 chapters and 550,000 members in the United States.