About FYF Innis One
FYF Innis One: The Creative City is an exciting program designed expressly for first-year students in the Faculty of Arts & Science, regardless of which college you’re affiliated with.
These courses encourage you to explore your relationship with urban life, specifically how your own experiences, passions, and history intersect with the civic and social justice issues, stories, and incredible creative landscape that make up Toronto.
You’ll find influences from the three academic programs housed at Innis College: Cinema Studies, Urban Studies, and Writing & Rhetoric.
What is the FYF Innis One Program?
FYF Innis One: The Creative City is an Innis-designed First-Year Foundations (FYF) thematic program comprised of four half-credit (0.5 FCE) courses. It’s one of seven unique FYF “Ones” programs, each hosted by a specific U of T college under the Faculty of Arts & Science umbrella. As long as you are an Arts & Science student, you can register for any of the college FYF Ones programs, regardless of your college affiliation.
You can also register for FYF@Innis seminars; also designed for first-year students, these are individual, small-group courses that will pique your curiosity about a wide range of provocative issues and topics. Learn more about FYF@Innis seminars.
Why should I choose the FYF Innis One Program?
As a first-year student you have so many program and course options to choose from; that can be overwhelming, especially when some of your courses take place in large lecture halls with many students. FYF Innis One: The Creative City offers you both experiential-based learning and the following unique opportunities:
- Develop and enhance creative methods of personal expression, important skills that will offer you a unique perspective well beyond first year.
- Build a community. This is especially important to starting off your university years on the right foot.
- Get to know your instructor. The small-group setting encourages close contact between students and their instructors, as well as lively discussion.
- Explore your current interests, and more importantly, find a new interest, passion, or even a future career direction. Based on their positive experience with Innis One, some students go on to more in-depth academic exploration of course themes.
- Develop intellectual independence and critical thinking skills. Learning how to thoughtfully question the status quo, and persuasively present your own point of view are vital academic, career, and life skills that you’ll develop and enhance during the Innis One Program.
What will I learn?
What is the format?
Get ready to step out of the classroom: within the four courses that comprise Innis One: The Creative City, you’ll be with the same small group of no more than 25 students and a passionate professor ready to engage in dynamic discussions:
- Explore the city on field trips Listen to interesting guest lecturers.
- Watch and critique films.
- Express yourself through creative writing assignments, articles, blogs, and multi-media presentations.
Meet the program coordinator
Jannie Chien
Program Coordinator
Jannie provides extensive administrative support to the FYF Innis One, Urban Studies, and Writing & Rhetoric programs. She is an alumna of Innis College and graduated in 2017 with double majors in sociology and human geography. Previously, she worked as the front-line advisor at the Innis Registrar’s Office for two years.
Contact FYF Innis One
Need more info about FYF Innis One? Not sure which courses are right for you? Innis College’s academic program coordinator, Rima Oassey, can help!
Learn more about FYF Innis One
Explore all of the FYF Innis One Courses!
Browse through the course listings to see what you’re interested in, and then visit the individual course pages for more information.
Learn the difference between FYF Innis One and FYF@Innis seminars
Their names are similar, and both programs come under the First-Year Foundations (FYF) umbrella, but each offers different options.
Find research info for FYF Innis One Program
Find time-saving research tips and resources specific to FYF Innis One Program in the FYF Innis One: The Creative City Getting Started Guide.