Welcome to life as a college student! Right from the first day, First Year Seminar helps you meet other students, connect with faculty members, and become part of the Elms community.

First Year Seminar (FYS) will empower you to make the most of your education here at Elms. With your instructor as a guide and mentor, you and your peers will explore important topics, frame critical questions and seek just solutions. Through special programming, in-class discussions, and campus-wide events, you will become an active member of the Elms College community.


The Aim of First Year Seminar is to develop

  • Critical and innovative thinking
  • Close reading of a text
  • Analysis and open discussion
  • Clear written and oral communication
  • Appreciation of diversity and different viewpoints
  • Intellectual and global curiosity

Introducing First Year Seminar’s
Common Read for 2023-2024:

They Called Us Enemy

“They Called Us Enemy,” a graphic novel by George Takei, has been selected as the Common Read for the 2023-2024 academic year.

The Common Read is an integral part of the First Year Seminar because it gives all new first-year students a shared academic experience centered on a theme from the Catholic Social Teachings (CST). This year’s theme is “Call to Family, Community and Participation.”

In this book, Takei, an author, activist, and actor most famous for his role in the “Star Trek” television series, recounts his experiences as a small boy growing up in Japanese internment camps during World War II. He and his family were among the estimated 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry on the Pacific Coast who were forcibly rounded up by the federal government and sent to interior “relocation centers,” under orders from President Roosevelt following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration
of war.

The story shows, through the eyes of a child, the racism and anti-Japanese hostility leading up to internment, and how Takei’s parents kept him and his brother safe during stays at camps in Arkansas and northern California. Takei also describes the lasting emotional and economic damage to Takei’s father, a business owner before the war, who struggled to provide for his family following their release from internment at the end of the war. The U.S. government would formally apologize in 1988 and agree to pay reparations to survivors. The apology, however, would come too late for Takei’s father, who died a decade earlier.

“They Call Us Enemy” aligns with this year’s CST theme by demonstrating how societies that are organized through economics, politics, and the law have the potential to impact human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in a community. It also shows that being morally responsible means valuing others and seeking the common good, especially for the vulnerable. It warns against “othering” people to justify inhumane treatment. It also stresses that in a just society, people have a right to be involved in decisions that affect their own lives.

All first-year students are required to complete the Common Read book and engage in related discussions and writing assignments during the First Year Seminar classes. In addition to the First Year Seminar, the selection is also used in upper-level courses to enrich discussion and encourage inquiry.

The book may be purchased in the Elms College bookstore.


First Year Seminar Instructors

  • Cheryl Condon, M.Ed.

    condonc@elms.edu

    Coach Cheryl R. Condon amassed the most victories among any coach in Elms College athletics history. Coach Condon is a member of the Elms College Hall of Fame, the Westfield State University Hall of Fame, the Massasoit Community College and the Rockland High School Hall of Fame.  Interesting to note, the softball field on campus was named in her honor.

    Coach Cheryl R. Condon
  • Nicole Fregeau ’18, MBA

    fregeaun@elms.edu

    Nicole Fregeau is the Assistant Director of Campus Ministry at Elms College. Prior to her time in Campus Ministry, she worked as an Admission Counselor at Elms. She also has an extensive background working for Junior Achievement of Western MA in numerous roles, and has spent time living in Thailand, where she worked as an English teacher. Nicole received a B.A. in Management from Elms in 2018, graduating summa cum laude. After taking a break from school, she went on to receive her MBA from Elms in 2023. Nicole serves as a staff representative on the Institutional Diversity Committee, and as Co-Chair of the Intersectional Initiatives Sub-Committee. She has also served on the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield’s Justice and Peace Committee, and volunteers as a Big Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County. Nicole is passionate about improving access to education, inclusive ministry, and helping students find opportunities to serve the “Dear Neighbor.”

    Nicole Fregeau
  • Amanda Garcia, MSA, CPA, CFP

    garciaamanda@elms.edu

    Amanda Garcia is the Director of Graduate Business Programs and the MBA, she also serves as Co-Chair to the undergraduate business division and associate professor of accounting and finance at Elms College. Amanda earned her B.A. in accounting from Elms College and her master of science in accounting from Western New England University. She teaches in the disciplines of accounting, finance, economics and entrepreneurship. She has owned a tax and consulting business for over 15 years, specializing in small business, rental properties, and tax planning for individuals with investments. Amanda is the treasurer for the IACBE Board of Directors. She is a 2010 Business West 40 under 40 awardee and volunteers with Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, Young Professionals of Greater Springfield, and the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the MSCPA.

  • Jennifer L. Granger Sullivan, Ed.D.

    grangersullivanj@elms.edu

    Jennifer L. Granger Sullivan, Ed.D. is the Director of the Dolores Donlin Noonan ’39 Experiential Learning Program at Elms College, where she has been working to coordinate, expand and enhance opportunities for community engagement since Fall 2021. She is also the Co-Director of the First Year Seminar and serves as an instructor for one of the sections. Jennifer is also a Visiting Assistant Professor at Salem State University, teaching in their Higher Education in Student Affairs graduate program. Previously, as Director of Student Activities and Orientation at Lasell University, she taught a First Year Seminar course on leadership, and grew the Office of Student Activities and Orientation that focused on student leadership development, new student, transfer, and family orientation programming, student clubs and organization, and campus activities and traditions. Jennifer also served as the Assistant Director of Student Activities at Lasell University. She was awarded the Lasell University Thomas E.J. de Witt Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership in 2012. Jennifer has a doctorate in higher education administration from Northeastern University, a Master in Education with a focus on higher education and student affairs administration, and a B.A. in History from UMass Dartmouth. She spent over a decade serving on the UMass Dartmouth Alumni Board of Directors, including serving as President and Vice President. In 2019, Jennifer was awarded the UMass Dartmouth Outstanding Alumni Service Award. Additionally, Jennifer was a leader within the Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention – NODA for over a decade, being a regional conference host, annual conference committee member, regional conference committee member, national Small College Network chair. She was awarded the Regional Outstanding Professional Presentation, Regional Outstanding Professional, and the Regional New Professional.

  • Breanna Marcyoniak

    marcyoniakb@elms.edu

    Bre Marcyoniak serves as the Assistant Athletic Director for Facilities Programming and Management where she is an active representative of the Massachusetts Association for Recreational Sports. She received her bachelor’s degree from UMass Dartmouth in 2014 and earned her master’s degree in sports management and athletic administration from Southern New Hampshire University in 2017. In addition to her athletic department work, she serves as an academic coach with the Center for Student Success. Prior to Elms, she worked as a Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Technician and a softball coach to various levels of play.

    Photo of Bre Marcyoniak
  • Laura McNeil, Ph.D.

    mcneill@elms.edu

    Laura McNeil is the director of the Honors Scholar Program and a professor of history at Elms College. She received her B.A. from Hampshire College and her Ph.D. in history from Boston College. She offers survey courses in European and world history, and upper-level courses in her areas of specialization, modern Ireland and Britain. She enjoys travel and good food. As such, she has led study-abroad trips to Ireland and Italy, and enjoys offering unusual experiential-learning classes, most notably HIS250: “A Taste of Freedom,” a historical and culinary exploration of the American immigration experience.

    Laura McNeil, professor, Elms College
  • Damien Murray, Ph.D.

    murraydamien@elms.edu

    Damien Murray is the Director of Faculty Development and a professor of history at Elms College. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Maynooth University in Ireland, and his Ph.D. in history from Boston College. He teaches courses in American history, including surveys and upper-level courses. He specializes in immigration, Irish-America, the progressive era, and transnational history. He also enjoys developing experiential learning opportunities for students.

    Damien Murray, professor, teacher, elms college
  • Pamela Cote-Hammarlof, Ph.D.

    cote-hammarlofp@elms.edu

    Dr. Cote-Hammarlof’s research focuses on how organisms can evolve adaptation to stress at both the molecular and biochemical level. She uses the baker’s yeast model system to study how mutations to chaperone proteins, like heat shock protein 90 can promote yeast adaptation to environmental stress. Before coming to Elms Professor Cote-Hammarlof studied the cell cycle in yeast as a post-doctoral research associate in the lab of Dr. Jennifer Benanti at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and taught various classes as a visiting Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the College of the Holy Cross and Assumption University. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, hiking, running and going on adventures with her family.

    Dr. Cote-Hammarlof
  • Michelle Proulx

    proulxm@elms.edu

    Michelle Proulx serves as the Associate Director of Admissions at Elms College. She earned her Master’s in Sport Leadership and Coaching from Western New England University and her Bachelor’s in English with a Writing concentration and minor in Coaching from Elms College. Prior to working in Admissions, she worked in Athletics as the Associate Director of Athletics and Head Women’s Basketball Coach.  As part of her responsibilities in Athletics, she oversaw Scheduling, Officials Assigning, served as the Advisor for the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, was the Chapter Director for Chi Alpha Sigma and the liaison to Admissions.

  • Jennifer Shoaff, Ph.D.

    shoaffj@elms.edu

    Dr. Jennifer Shoaff holds a doctorate degree in anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies from San Diego State University. Prior to coming to Elms, Shoaff was an Assistant Professor in Gender and Race Studies at the University of Alabama where she taught transnational feminism, Afro-Latinx studies, Border Studies and social justice movements to undergraduate and graduate students. Shoaff’s book Bordering on Visibility: Haitian Migrant Women and the Dominican Nation-State is one of the first manuscripts to study gendered experiences of race, mobility and migration among Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic.

    Jennifer Shoaff portrait
  • Rob Southall

    southallr@elms.edu

    Rob Southall serves as the assistant athletic director and head men’s basketball coach at Elms College. He earned his master’s in physical education and bachelor’s in movement studies from Springfield College. He currently serves as the national chair representative for the New England NCAA basketball regional advisory committee. Prior to his employment at Elms, he served as a lecturer of physical education at Springfield College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

    Staff photo of Rob Southall, MPE
  • Michael Wysocki

    wysockim@elms.edu

    Mike Wysocki is the head coach of the men’s soccer team and teaches sports management at Elms College. He received his bachelor’s in business administration from Western New England University (WNEU) in 2013 and earned his juris doctor with a business law concentration from the WNEU School of Law. He holds a USSF D license and served as the assistant coach to the women’s soccer team at Elms prior to becoming the men’s soccer head coach in 2017. He also works with the Center for Student Success as an academic coach to help many students achieve their academic potential here at the college.

    Portrait of Michael Wysocki