Teach in College Edge 2027
Give incoming Huskies their first UW classroom experience and design the seminar you’ve always wanted to teach.
College Edge is the College of Arts & Sciences’ four-week early-start program for new UW students. Each year, several hundred incoming students move to campus a month before Autumn quarter and take one small, five-credit Discovery Seminar taught by a UW faculty member. For many of them, your course is their first experience of what learning at UW can be, and from what we have learned from their feedback the last few years, for most of them that experience is transformative.
Why teach in College Edge?
College Edge seminars are small, limited to 25 students, and built around discussion and hands-on learning. You’ll meet students at the most formative moment of their college careers, before habits and impressions are set. Our faculty describe it as a rare chance to experiment with a course idea, use the campus and Seattle as a classroom, and connect with colleagues across disciplines.
The students are highly motivated and come from everywhere. In 2026, roughly three-quarters came from outside Washington State, about 15% were international students, and around a third were first-generation college students. Their interests spanned the sciences, social sciences, humanities, arts, and computing.
Program details
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Teaching dates: August 23 – September 17, 2027, Tuesday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
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Mandatory faculty onboarding: Monday, June 14, 2027
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Course format: One five-credit Discovery Seminar, offered as ARTSCI 160 (Arts and Humanities), ARTSCI 161 (Social Sciences), or ARTSCI 162 (Natural Sciences) with the option of offering Writing credit. Every seminar includes an experiential, place-based component.
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Compensation: $12,000 for one month of teaching. Co-taught seminars pay $6,000 per instructor.
Place-based, experiential learning
College Edge 2027 seminars will focus on course topics that include place-based, experiential learning, helping incoming students connect with the people, places, and resources that make our campus and community come alive. Whatever the course topic, we want to give students opportunities to engage the topic experientially: being somewhere, learning by doing, connecting prior experiences they bring to their learning at UW, and having a chance to reflect on what they discover.
Last year, College Edge faculty used the whole city and/or campus as their classroom. One seminar did ethnographic research at Woodland Park Zoo. Another explored the archive of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair in UW Special Collections. Students made art with AI in the DXARTS lab, followed the traces of Cold War history in a scavenger hunt across campus, and walked Capitol Hill to study policing and public life. Classes paddled canoes and kayaks from the Waterfront Activities Center, studied plants at the UW Botanic Gardens and the Biology Greenhouse, and visited museums from the Burke and the Henry on campus to the Wing Luke Museum, MOHAI, and the Seattle Art Museum across town.
Your seminar might visit a museum collection, a field site, an archive, a lab, or a neighborhood. It can be one signature outing or several shorter experiences across the four weeks. Choose whatever best serves your course.
We handle the logistics. Generous support is available to cover field trip costs, including admission, site fees, and materials. The College Edge team will help arrange the details, from reservations and partner coordination to introductions to campus units, collections, and community partners. Students have access to public transportation, and we can help plan transportation for destinations that need more. You bring the idea, and we’ll help make it happen.
Support you’ll receive
Beyond field experiences, the College Edge team can help with classroom supplies and other course needs, so you can focus on teaching. Faculty also receive invitations to program community events, and optional office hours on course design, classroom activities, and thoughtful use of AI in teaching (if desired).
What we ask of you
Besides teaching your seminar, you’ll attend the mandatory faculty onboarding on June 14 and a small number of required program events. Many optional events, like the welcome picnic, faculty gatherings, and campus outings, are open to you as well. You’ll also join a short faculty debrief after the program to help shape future years.
Who should apply
We welcome UW instructors from across the College of Arts & Sciences and beyond. Past seminars have been taught by faculty from Engineering, Law, Informatics, and many Arts & Sciences departments. We’re looking for a diverse array of seminars on topics that will strongly appeal to incoming students, most of whom are 18 and new to college.
Seminars can take many shapes. Some introduce students to a field they’ve never encountered. Others are an on-ramp to a specific major or course series beginning in Autumn, giving students foundational skills, key concepts, and familiarity with a department before their first quarter. We also welcome seminars that introduce students to a division or a cross-divisional perspective, including co-taught courses. If you’re interested in a co-taught seminar but don’t have a partner yet, let us know, and we’ll help you find a collaborator.
While College Edge primarily serves first-year students, a few seminars will again be open only to transfer students. If you’d enjoy working with transfer students, you can indicate that in your proposal.
Write a course students can’t wait to take
Incoming students choose their College Edge seminar based on its title and description, so these few sentences matter a great deal. We strongly encourage you to share your draft title and description with current undergraduates before you apply. Try it with students in your classes, undergraduate researchers in your lab, peer mentors, or student employees in your department, and ask them: Would you sign up for this? What’s confusing? What would make it more exciting?
A few tips for a strong description:
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A title that sparks curiosity. A question, a surprising pairing, or a vivid image will catch a new student’s attention faster than a catalog-style title.
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Plain, inviting language. Write for a curious 18-year-old who hasn’t taken a college course in your field, and save the disciplinary jargon for class.
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What students will actually do. Name the activities, projects, and places, especially your hands-on experience. “We’ll explore the 1962 World’s Fair archive” is more compelling than “students will engage with primary sources.”
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Why it matters to them. Help students see how the course connects to their lives, their questions, or the world they’re entering.
How to apply
You don’t need a finished course to apply. Early-stage ideas are welcome. Instead of a syllabus, we ask for a short, inviting snapshot, and we’ll work with you to shape your idea into a feasible, engaging seminar. Your proposal will include:
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A course title and a short, student-facing description
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One signature hands-on experience you imagine for your seminar
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The places, partners, or resources you have in mind, and any support you’d need
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Your intended designation (ARTSCI 160, 161, or 162) and whether the seminar prepares students for a particular major or course series
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Your interest in co-teaching or in teaching transfer students
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A few sentences on your experience with first-year or transfer students and with experiential learning
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Confirmation of your availability for the teaching dates and the June 14 onboarding
Proposals are due by Friday, January 8, 2027, and selected faculty will be notified by the end of January 2027. Submit a Discovery Seminar proposal: