PSYC 1020

When you enroll in the course, you are separated into smaller groups of roughly 10 other students and you meet weekly with 2 upperclassmen facilitators. Each week there are different topics to discuss and activities planned, and the material gets deeper every week as group members get to know each other better. The goal of the group is basically to show up, be yourself, and learn about your other group members. I am a current facilitator for Hoos Connected and I have nothing but amazing things to say about my time with this program! Leading my Hoos Connected group is always the highlight of my week and I've learned so much about myself and the UVA community through it. Alison Nagel is also very supportive and she does an excellent job supervising the facilitators to keep the program running smoothly. There's really no other course like this at UVA, so if you have the space to take it, I would highly recommend it!

Hoos Connected used to be extracurricular but now you can get a credit for the same exact thing! It's a really unique course. You get put into small groups of 10 that you meet with each week, and your group is led by two upperclass student facilitators. If you're a 1st year, your group is created based on dorms, so it ends up being a group of people who live nearby you or in your same dorm. If you're a Transfer, I think it's groups of other transfers. You start out just getting to know one another and chatting and playing games, and each week the topics build on one another so that you get to some deeper discussions towards the end. I liked that talking was always voluntary, so I never felt like I had to share (though I wanted to talk once I got to know my group members). The whole experience felt really valuable. And there was no outside work, so it was an easy credit!

A friend of mine started calling this class group therapy and that's essentially what this course is. This class only meets once a week for an hour and fifteen minutes which is very nice schedule wise. My class met Mondays from 5:30-6:45 PM. You get a maximum of three days you are able to miss in order to get credit for this course. The only downside to this course is having friends do things the same time as this course and not being able to join them. This year lighting of the lawn started at 7 PM and you'd be a fool to think I was going to miss it for this class. At the beginning of the semester meetings are extremely awkward and they still are towards the end of the course regardless of the facilitators trying to keep the conversation going. When I mentioned it was like group therapy it was honestly ranting and trauma dumping which was very therapeutic. I'm not sure I would recommend this course, it really wasn't horrible but it did at times feel like a waste. On the bright side, you get a free T-shirt! You probably won't find your best friend in this course, but you will make acquaintances that you'll see around grounds and maybe wave and do the white person in an airport smile.

I hated this class. It is supposed to help you meet people and make friends, but I can't even remember the names of half the kids in my group. This class sometimes felt like group therapy. If you really are struggling to meet people, this class will not help. I had thought it would be more unstructured, just like a dedicated time to talk to other students and hang out. Instead, we had to do weekly activities and only really got to know the other students through speed friending at the beginning of class. This class is just a waste of time.

Like the other reviews said, this class is group therapy under a catchy name. The class is structured by having 2-3 bonding activities. There's not much room for actual conversation, but there is no homework or outside class time obligations to this class. This class touts its ability to make genuine and deep connections, but, after several weeks, I left feeling that we hadn't really made any connections beyond ones that felt superficial and/or no more than acquaintance-like. There were 2-3 weeks dedicated to "trauma dumping" as one other review adequately described, but because the connections weren't very deep, it's as uncomfortable as a practical stranger dumping their deepest and darkest trauma for you to deal with. To say something positive, my two facilitators were nice, genuinely seemed to care about each one of us, and put effort into our weekly bonding activities. Otherwise, I would not recommend this class other than taking it as a free and *very* easy 1 credit class.

This class really all depends on your group members and facilitators. I LOVED my facilitators, which made the class much more enjoyable and liked most of the others kids in my group as well. Like everyone else has said, it really is like group therapy, which is nice if you're someone like me, who likes to talk. Although it wasn't as unstructured as I had hoped it would be, I did like a lot of the activities, especially the one where we had to go around and say what we really liked about each other without interrupting the person who is talking by saying "thank you", "that's so sweet" , etc. Overall, I really did look forward to the class!

Hoos Connected is definitely a really fun class and its an easy credit. That said, your experience is entierly dependent on what group you are placed in and how well that group meshes. If you get a group of outgoing social people, like I did, the class is great, but if the group is a little more hesitant to connect and relate to one another, it can definitely be awkward. However, the class is entirely what you make of it. If you and other group members really try to relate to eachother and get to know eachother, it is a wonderful time! There are a bunch of different weekly topics that are discussed and they can be pretty insightful into how other people are feeling. Overall, I think the class is definitely something people should try out even if it is just to have an easy credit and social class!

hoos connected has is a great class to be a part of. it is a class where it allows you to unwind and talk to other people outside of your friend group, allowing you to make deep connections. personally, I had great facillitators that made the class dynamic and enjoyable and because of that, this class was always something I was looking forward to in every week.

My hoos connected class was only transfer students. We met once a week for an hour. I absolutely loved this course. We did all sorts of activities and exercises to work on ourselves and connect with others. There was no homework outside of class. I left this class with real friendships and feeling more at place in the UVA community.

I LOVED this class!!! I completely recommend taking it if you're thinking about it. You basically are put in a small group and meet with them weekly to talk and get closer over time. I had so much fun with my group, and loved the class so much I decided to become a Hoos Connected facilitator myself! No outside work, just meeting with your group every week. The only downfall was the meetings were mostly in new dorms, so you will most likely have a far walk if you aren't a first year.