• Culturally responsive professional and personal development support from faculty and staff who uphold intersectional feminist practices

• Access to a professor and staff who provide Coordinated Care Advising

• Learn about and be connected to college resources, including career development, study abroad, scholarship and grant writing, and internships

• Access to college navigation strategies tailored to a student's college path

• Personalized assistance through peer support from a mentor through biweekly one-to-one meetings

• Community engagement and building in the form academic, feminist, and cultural events

• Potential pathway to working and being in community in the WRC through specialized programs and events

• Courses focused on enhancing writing, reading, and overall academic proficiency 

Through the program, students will lay a strong foundation for their college career by learning how to physically and practically navigate the campus, access basic resources, study and schedule their time by focusing on the following:

• Community engagement that connects incoming students to the SDSU community

• Academic coaching and support: Students are paired with a peer-mentor with whom they will meet biweekly. Peer-mentorship in the first year has proven benefits in ensuring student retention, support, and problem solving

• Professional and personal development that builds transferable skills for future career readiness in a course that meets once a week with a professor trained in advising

Nearly all incoming first year students are required to take classes that enhance their first year experience. WAGE students have the unique opportunity to participate in courses tailored to their identities and passions. Before students arrive on campus in the Fall, they will be pre-enrolled into the following courses:

• Fall Semester: Women’s Studies 296 - Women & Gender Equity University Seminar (1 Unit)

  The WAGE USEM meets once a week for 50 minutes. Students acquire study and interpersonal skills for academic and personal success. Special sessions are offered featuring campus resources including library, advising, career, health and wellness services. A large component of this course includes being matched with a peer-mentor, whom students will need to meet with every other week. Mentors will attend the class so students have an additional touch point for their mentorship. This course fulfills required elective credits that will count towards your degree. 

  • Course Objectives
    1. Leadership: Students will identify their own leadership style and cultural strengths. They will explain how these values are relevant to the vision they have for the lives they would like to live and the communities they would like to create and strengthen (MICs: Positive Future Self; Conscientiousness, Reflective Learning, Yosso Cultural Wealth; Cultural Mis-Match) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4).
    2. Academic Success Strategies: Students will explain how they have implemented six academic success skills (reading comprehension, note-taking, activity management (aka time management), academic honesty, credible source identification, and test preparation) into our day-to-day SDSU living (MICs: Academic Self-Efficacy, Persistence, Reflective Learning, Deliberate Problem Solving, Planning) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4).
    3. University Engagement: Students will describe how they are engaging academically, socially, and responsibly with the SDSU community and the resources  (e.g., academic advisors, mentors if applicable, Writing Center, Math Center, Calpulli, Health Promotions, etc.) it offers are integral to their ability to live the lives they would love living (MICs: Engagement; Responsible utilization of campus resources, Sense of Belonging; Ethnic Identity Development; Planning, Persistence, Self-Control, Reflective Learning) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4).
    4. Well-Being: Students will identify well-being strategies that can reduce the natural stress and anxiety that emerges during transitions and when learning new strategies in a new learning environment. (MICs: Psychological Well-Being; Compassion; Resilience) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4).
    5. Social Justice Consciousness: Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society. They will recognize that people’s multiple identities interact and create unique and complex individuals. Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics. Students will recognize their own responsibility to be change makers and stand up to exclusion, prejudice and injustice. (MICs: Ethnic Identity Development, Sense of Belonging, Liberatory Outcomes, Cultural Wealth) (GE Area E Goals 2, 3, 4; GE Area F Goals 1, 3, 4). 
  • Note: Students in the WAGE program are expected to attend this course in both the fall and spring semesters.
• Fall Semester: Women’s Studies 102 - Women: Images & Ideas (3 Units, GE) This course is one of nine courses required for students that count towards the General Education Foundations. Foundations courses cultivate skills in reading, writing, research, communication, computation, information literacy, and use of technology. They furthermore introduce you to basic concepts, theories and approaches in a variety of disciplines in order to provide the intellectual breadth necessary to help you integrate the more specialized knowledge gathered in your major area of study into a broader world picture. Upon completing of this area of Foundations, you will be able to: 1) analyze written, visual, or performed texts in the humanities and fine arts with sensitivity to their diverse cultural contexts and historical moments; 2) describe various aesthetic and other value systems and the ways they are communicated across time and cultures; 3) identify issues in the humanities that have personal and global relevance; 4) demonstrate the ability to approach complex problems and ask complex questions drawing upon knowledge of the humanities.
• Spring Semester: Women’s Studies 296 - Women & Gender Equity University Seminar (1 Unit) The WAGE USEM meets once a week for 50 minutes. Students acquire study and interpersonal skills for academic and personal success. Special sessions are offered featuring campus resources including library, advising, career, health and wellness services. This course fulfills required elective credits that will count towards your degree.

*All courses satisfy degree requirements for graduation.

“I found the mentorship program really helpful to me during my freshman year. Every time I had a problem or even just needed to talk to someone I would refer back to my mentor. It was a valuable experience to be mentored by a fellow SDSU student because it felt as if she actually knew what I was going through and exactly what it's like to be an incoming freshman at SDSU.” -2021-2022 WAGE Mentee

“What I like best about WAGE is being able to live surrounded by people who share a common interest, going into college I was worried about who I'd be living around or how I'd connect with others and being able to live with those in the WAGE program helped me to not worry about it.” -2021-2022 WAGE Mentee

“The best part of the WAGE program for me is having a sense of community. from living with the women on the floor to having the same class in the mentor program. I feel like I have created a sense of community through the program” -2022-2023 WAGE Mentee

Stay tuned!