Here are five of the driving ideas. Identity originates in alliances, not the individual. Identity derives from what students borrow from others, and how they differentiate from others, not from how they become like others. Many freshman-year experience programs homogenize, sometimes deliberately but often inadvertently, by raising the overarching group to the highest status. All have similar successes, but each is quite differently achieved.
Experiences are instrumental.
For example, one group wanted to work with deaf children. One option, easily done but the wrong one, we believe, would be to set up internships for them at the local schools for the deaf. This would have made the service-learning experience the goal. Internships could certainly follow from this, but they would be the last option, not the first. This allows students to see immediately how an individual s academic training gets translated into personal practice.