What is ALA 171?
Channel: Matthew Demaio
Date: 15/06/2018

What are you hoping to gain from your time at Michigan? To take advantage of your experience, ALA 171: Making the Most of Michigan is a 7-week course designed to help students present themselves to the world at large. 

Students in the course engage with resources across the university campus, understand social identities and build important communication skills across differences, create online portfolios that detail their goals, aspirations, and key experiences, and grow as leaders in our diverse campus community.

Offered in residence halls and facilitated by upper-level students, this course creates a comfortable environment for students to speak openly. This course is recommended for all first-year students. Ultimately, making the most of Michigan is making Michigan yours! Students will create an electronic portfolio that will be useful as students apply for research, study abroad, internship, scholarship, employment and advanced study opportunities.

In ALA 171, you will learn how to answer the questions needed to Make the Most of Michigan:

1. Who am I?
2. Where am I going?
3. How can I work and connect with others?
4. How can I showcase what I have learned?
5. How can I continue to ask these questions as I learn in my college career?

In addition, you will develop crucial skills throughout ALA 171, including:

1. Becoming an intentional, self-directed learner.
2. Understanding what social identities are and their importance.
3. Listening to and communicating with others.
4. Demonstrating in an MPortfolio what you are learning in and out of the classroom. 
5. Connecting goals to social identity and experiences.
6. Increasing leadership skills.

For more information, please visit the ALA 171 LSA Course Guide page at https://www.lsa.umich.edu/cg/cg_detail.aspx?content=2210ALA171001&termArray=f_18_2210 or email ala171teachingteam@umich.edu. We look forward to working with you in class!