First-Year Experience Seminar
FYES is a class all first time in college students take at UIW. The instructor is a certified FLIGHT Mentor. The class content is designed to help students be successful in their first year and beyond. A FLIGHT Peer Mentor is assigned to each FYES class and will be waiting for first-year students when they attend class. Students receive 2 credit hours for attending the First-Year Experience course.
Reasons to Get Involved
- Guidance and Support: FLIGHT Mentors provide interpersonal guidance to help students navigate academic challenges, career decisions, and personal growth. The experiences and insights are invaluable and offer a great resource to the first-year student.
- Social Connection: Feeling connected to a FLIGHT Mentor and a FLIGHT Peer Mentor fosters a sense of belonging. UIW students are more likely to develop a sense of belonging and persist in graduation when they have someone who genuinely cares about their well-being.
- Accountability: FLIGHT Mentors help UIW students create long- and short-term goals. FLIGHT Mentors and FLIGHT Peer Mentors may provide regular check-ins, encouragement, and constructive feedback to motivate students to stay on track.
- Source of Information: FLIGHT Mentors and FLIGHT Peer Mentors help students make practical decisions, share UIW culture, and help students develop essential skills for holistic growth.
- Emotional Support: College life can be overwhelming. Mentors provide encouragement and share resources that can offer support during times of stress, isolation, and anxiety.
Empowering Student Success
UIW FLIGHT Mentorship is more than helping students find academic success, it’s about empowering students to make decisions that will help them thrive personally and academically from their first year to their graduation year.
FLIGHT FAQ's
Financial literacy is essential for all students, regardless of their background or future career path. Financial literacy provides knowledge and skills to understand the importance of personal finance, financial planning, and informed financial decisions necessary to achieve financial security.
FLIGHT is an acronym that stands for Financial Literacy, Integrated Guidance, and Health career Tracts. It is a program that entails three components that help students reach their goal of earning a college degree.
A FLIGHT Mentor is a faculty or an administrator who has completed training to know how to assist UIW students throughout their academic journey. You can identify FLIGHT Mentors around campus by a FLIGHT plate located outside office doors.
A FLIGHT Peer Mentor is a selected advanced student who has completed a formal training course to know how to assist their fellow students throughout their academic journey. Students can find a FLIGHT Peer Mentor in your First Year Experience Seminar (FYES) class, the academic labs, and student services offices.
The FLIGHT Mentor Center office is in the Administration Building room 208. FLIGHT Mentor Center Director Dr. Deborah Quiñones is happy to assist.
The best ways for parents to help their students is to get involved and lead by example! By being involved, parents encourage students to get involved as well. Parents, guardians, and family members are encouraged to be part of the UIW Parent and Family Association to learn more about opportunities for connection with the UIW community, so that students may feel a greater sense of belonging.
Connect with a Mentor
Contact the FLIGHT Mentorship Center
Dr. Deborah Quiñones
FLIGHT Mentor Center Director
Administration Building, Suite 212
4301 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas 78209
Phone: (210) 841-7368
Email: flightmentoring@uiwtx.edu