First-year seminars in the Patrick Leahy Honors College
First-year Patrick Leahy Honors College students take two-courses, one in the fall (HCOL 1000) and one in the spring (HCOL 1500). Seminars during the fall semester engage with a wide variety of contemporary social and ecological challenges; all seminars share a focus on writing and information literacy. The spring semester seminars build on skills and knowledge formed in the fall and introduce students to collaborative group work and public speaking.
Through these first-year courses, students become well-acquainted with each other and the PLHC faculty. By living with fellow honors students and attending social hours and other events, they create together an exciting intellectual community.
Summer reading and writing
Every summer, incoming first-year students read a book that is distributed to the entire cohort and complete an essay that is due on the first day of their section of HCOL 1000 in the fall. While the various sections of HCOL 1000 differ in content, engaging with summer read is an experiences that all new PLHC students share.
Summer 2026 assignment
The selection for the Patrick Leahy Honors College (PLHC) is Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond.
Please read this book over the summer and then write a brief reflection essay on it before you come to campus. You will hand in this essay to your HCOL 1000 instructor on the first day of class. This draft of your essay will not be graded, but you will receive suggestions for revision, and you will then submit a revised version of your essay later in the semester for a letter grade.
The essay question is as follows:
In his introduction to Evicted, Matthew Desmond writes that “we have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty.” Considering the specific examples he provides in the book, how well do you think Desmond supports this claim about the relationship between housing and social inequality?
We are looking for you to make an argument and support it based on a close reading of Evicted in this essay. You will bring a hard copy of your essay to the first day of your HCOL 1000 seminar. Your finished paper should be no more than 750 words (two to three pages, double spaced). It should be titled and marked with page numbers. Please note that no outside research is expected for this assignment. The use of generative AI is not permitted for any part of your essay.
Common Hour
The entire first-year cohort has Wednesday evenings from 5:05 to 6:20 p.m. open on their schedules so that they can attend workshops and events related to academic advising and the first-year experience. This is additionally a time when Patrick Leahy Honors College students all know that they are available to study together or collaborate on group assignments.