Welcome to the Freshman Academy Webpage for Parents and Families!

This is an exciting time for your family as your son or daughter leaves home and starts school at BYU, but you no doubt have many questions and concerns.

The Freshman Academy learning communities program is designed to help ease the transition of first-year students from high school to the university, and from dependence to independence. Although this transition includes a separation process, it does not mean a lack of connection. The first-year student’s most important, most frequently consulted advisors are still his or her parents, siblings, and extended family.

The challenge, of course, is to give your son or daughter help whenever necessary and proper, but also to encourage and promote traits of independence, resilience, discipline, and responsibility.

Freshman Academy cultivates these traits in students by enrolling them in learning communities. Essentially, a group of students attends the same set of three or more classes together, and with the help and guidance of a peer mentor, group members organize and participate in activities outside of class, such as study groups, meals with faculty members, service projects, and recreational or cultural events.

The Freshman Academy Webpage for Parents and Families suggests some ways you can be helpful to your son or daughter enrolled in the Freshman Academy learning communities program at BYU. For more general questions, there are two other excellent BYU websites for parents:  the Alumni and Friends Parent’s Program and the website of the Office of First-year Experience.

If you can’t find the answers or information you seek, call the Freshman Academy office at 801.422.8176 or toll-free 1.877.890.5451. As we work together as partners, your son or daughter will have a memorable and fruitful first-year experience, establishing a solid foundation for their university education and a life of service thereafter.

Pat Esplin, Director
Freshman Academy