Twenty students in “The Bard: The Books and the Board,” one of 33 first-year seminars, listened intently as Katie Ridgeway ’10 recites a Shakespearean monologue.

“It was nerve wracking but exciting,” Ridgeway says of her first performance since high school.

Team-taught by English Professor LeRoy Panek and Theatre Arts Assistant Professor Elizabeth van den Berg, the interdisciplinary course examines “Henry IV, Part I,” “As You Like It” and “Macbeth,” both on the page and stage.

 “The Bard: The Books and the Board,” is one of dozens of seminars intended for first-year students. Others include “Eureka! Revolutionary Moments in Science,” “The Ghost Story Tradition,” and “Africa from Book to Film.”

 “When you see what you’re reading being performed, it’s easier to understand,” says Megan Balladarsch ’10.

All first-year students take a seminar course during their first semester. While topics cover a range of subjects, all the courses are designed to ease students’ transition to college and promote cooperation. Professors serve as academic advisers for the year, and an upperclassman attends every first-year seminar. Known as peer mentors, they are assigned to each class to help new students engage in all aspects of college life.

“The freshmen are so much fun because they have a great new perspective and I enjoy seeing the subject through their eyes,” says peer mentor Megan Carlton ’08, an English and Theatre double major.

The course will culminate in scene performances and a trip to Baltimore to see “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged),” presented at the Elizabethan Theatre at St. Mary’s as part of the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival.