ACS Working Group: Cornerstone First Year Experiences

Wednesdays, July 22, 2026 to August 5, 2026
10:00 am – 11:00 am EDT / 9:00 am – 10:00 am CDT (Virtual)
Please register below.

This three-part virtual working group series is designed for faculty, staff, and administrators interested in exploring the Teagle Foundation’s Cornerstone model and its potential for their campus. Facilitated by Michelle Hite, Honors Program Director and International Fellowships and Scholarships Director at Spelman College, the sessions will combine conversation among participants with insights from colleagues who have experience developing and implementing Cornerstone programs. The series will explore how shared texts can strengthen the first-year experience, foster meaningful dialogue across difference, and deepen student engagement with the humanities. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from peers, examine a range of campus approaches, and consider possibilities for their own institutional context.

The final session will feature a conversation between Hite and Roosevelt Montás, Professor of Liberal Education and Civic Life at Bard College and member of the Teagle Foundation Board of Directors, who will offer reflections on institutional readiness, proposal development, and the conditions that enable transformative first-year experiences.

Click here to learn about the facilitator for this workshop.

Michelle S. Hite, Ph.D., has been a faculty member at Spelman College since 2004. She is an associate professor in the Department of Literature, Media and Writing; Director of the Ethel Waddell Githii Honors Program; Director of International Fellowships and Scholarships; and President of the Toni Morrison Society. She also directs Spelman’s First-Year Experience (FYE), where she has developed a curriculum centered on the Habits of Mind for Intellectual Sovereignty, integrating shared sisterhood journals and student-led roundtables as extensions of that work to cultivate point of view, intellectual community, and the disciplined practices of listening and exchange.

Session Topics

Session 1: Understanding the Landscape
Interpreting the Landscape: From Institutional Structures to Institutional Readiness
Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Facilitated by Michelle Hite (Spelman College), this interactive conversation will help ACS colleagues make sense of results and themes from ACS’s First-Year Experience and General Education landscape survey. Together, participants will explore how existing programs, partnerships, and educational practices across their campuses contribute to student formation and where opportunities exist for deeper integration. Through structured dialogue with peers across the consortium, attendees will gain greater clarity about their institution’s strengths, readiness, and next steps for Cornerstone work.

Session 2: Building the Ecosystem
Building the Ecosystem: Lessons from Cornerstone Campuses
Wednesday, July 29, 2026

What does it take to build the relationships, partnerships, and shared vision necessary for a meaningful first-year experience? In this facilitated panel conversation, Michelle Hite will engage leaders from three institutions that have participated in Teagle Cornerstone initiatives, drawing out practical lessons about planning, implementation, and sustaining momentum. Participants will have opportunities to exchange ideas with panelists and peers while gathering strategies they can adapt to their own campus contexts.

Session 3: A Conversation with Roosevelt Montás
From Vision to Implementation: A Conversation with Roosevelt Montás
Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Join Michelle Hite in conversation with Roosevelt Montás, Professor of Liberal Education and Civic Life at Bard College and member of the Teagle Foundation Board of Directors, for a discussion about the possibilities and practical realities of Cornerstone education. Drawing on his work as a scholar, educator, and national leader in liberal education, Montás will reflect on institutional readiness, proposal development, and the conditions that enable transformative first-year experiences. Participants will be invited into the conversation, bringing their own questions and challenges as they consider how Cornerstone principles can be adapted to their institutional mission and context.

Please register below. Contact workshops@acsouth.edu with questions.

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