PSYC 1020

Like the other reviews said, this class is group therapy under a catchy name. The class is structured by having 2-3 bonding activities. There's not much room for actual conversation, but there is no homework or outside class time obligations to this class. This class touts its ability to make genuine and deep connections, but, after several weeks, I left feeling that we hadn't really made any connections beyond ones that felt superficial and/or no more than acquaintance-like. There were 2-3 weeks dedicated to "trauma dumping" as one other review adequately described, but because the connections weren't very deep, it's as uncomfortable as a practical stranger dumping their deepest and darkest trauma for you to deal with. To say something positive, my two facilitators were nice, genuinely seemed to care about each one of us, and put effort into our weekly bonding activities. Otherwise, I would not recommend this class other than taking it as a free and *very* easy 1 credit class.

I hated this class. It is supposed to help you meet people and make friends, but I can't even remember the names of half the kids in my group. This class sometimes felt like group therapy. If you really are struggling to meet people, this class will not help. I had thought it would be more unstructured, just like a dedicated time to talk to other students and hang out. Instead, we had to do weekly activities and only really got to know the other students through speed friending at the beginning of class. This class is just a waste of time.

A friend of mine started calling this class group therapy and that's essentially what this course is. This class only meets once a week for an hour and fifteen minutes which is very nice schedule wise. My class met Mondays from 5:30-6:45 PM. You get a maximum of three days you are able to miss in order to get credit for this course. The only downside to this course is having friends do things the same time as this course and not being able to join them. This year lighting of the lawn started at 7 PM and you'd be a fool to think I was going to miss it for this class. At the beginning of the semester meetings are extremely awkward and they still are towards the end of the course regardless of the facilitators trying to keep the conversation going. When I mentioned it was like group therapy it was honestly ranting and trauma dumping which was very therapeutic. I'm not sure I would recommend this course, it really wasn't horrible but it did at times feel like a waste. On the bright side, you get a free T-shirt! You probably won't find your best friend in this course, but you will make acquaintances that you'll see around grounds and maybe wave and do the white person in an airport smile.

Hoos Connected used to be extracurricular but now you can get a credit for the same exact thing! It's a really unique course. You get put into small groups of 10 that you meet with each week, and your group is led by two upperclass student facilitators. If you're a 1st year, your group is created based on dorms, so it ends up being a group of people who live nearby you or in your same dorm. If you're a Transfer, I think it's groups of other transfers. You start out just getting to know one another and chatting and playing games, and each week the topics build on one another so that you get to some deeper discussions towards the end. I liked that talking was always voluntary, so I never felt like I had to share (though I wanted to talk once I got to know my group members). The whole experience felt really valuable. And there was no outside work, so it was an easy credit!

When you enroll in the course, you are separated into smaller groups of roughly 10 other students and you meet weekly with 2 upperclassmen facilitators. Each week there are different topics to discuss and activities planned, and the material gets deeper every week as group members get to know each other better. The goal of the group is basically to show up, be yourself, and learn about your other group members. I am a current facilitator for Hoos Connected and I have nothing but amazing things to say about my time with this program! Leading my Hoos Connected group is always the highlight of my week and I've learned so much about myself and the UVA community through it. Alison Nagel is also very supportive and she does an excellent job supervising the facilitators to keep the program running smoothly. There's really no other course like this at UVA, so if you have the space to take it, I would highly recommend it!