Frankenstein, love, basketball, friends, careers, the whole human experience--They all come together in the Valpo Core.

This two-semester, ten-credit, interdisciplinary course is required of all first-year students not enrolled in the freshman honors program. Subtitled "The Human Experience," the Core course covers units on

• Creation
• Coming of Age
• Citizenship
• Love
• Vocation
• Loss

Core's texts, faculty, discussion, writing, and out-of-the-classroom activities connect you with your peers, your professors, your beliefs, your school, and the last some-odd thousand years' worth of art, poetry, great thinking, and ideas.

Most Core classes meet four times a week, with an additional hour assigned to special events, lectures, writing workshops, etc. In a class of 20 or fewer students, your professor will join you in making connections among people, ideas, feelings, times, gender, race, class, and cultures. You'll attend for-credit events like theatre and musical performances, basketball games, and art exhibits and enjoy just-for-fun gatherings like pasta dinners in your professor's home. By sharing your ideas in and out of class, attending events together, and perhaps living in the same residence hall, you'll get to know your classmates and probably even make your first college friends.