The Writing and Academic Mentor for First-Year Seminars (FYSM) serves as a mentor and writing tutor for first-year students, assisting them with writing and oral presentation skills, and some time and project management. The Mentor can work with students individually or in groups, either during class time or outside of class, for up to 60 hours over the course of the semester.

The following are goals that, by consensus of the Faculty, all First Year Seminars should provide students with the opportunity to achieve:

1. to learn what is expected intellectually and ethically for college-level work in the Liberal Arts;

2. to engage seriously with the topic to which one’s seminar is devoted;

3. to develop skills in widely accessible yet scholarly presentation (written and oral), involving observation, analysis, argumentation, research, and the use of sources;

The First Year Seminar is Middlebury's gateway to education in the liberal arts, using intensive engagement between professors and students to facilitate the transition from high school to college.  All first-year students take a seminar in their first semester.