Many students spend their first year of college figuring out how to navigate new environments and discover who they are. But first-year students in Christof Teuscher’s freshman inquiry class tackled an additional challenge: embracing failure — and becoming published authors along the way.
The year-long course, co-designed by former PSU students and Teuscher, centered on the idea that failure was something to embrace and learn from, not fear.
Early on in the term, Teuscher gave students an unusual assignment. He asked them to set a goal they were likely to fail at and document the process.
Some students set goals that tested their physical or mental endurance. This meant challenging themselves to a new activity like rock climbing or confronting a fear like rejection. Some students set goals around things they thought they couldn’t accomplish; one student even set out to access the rooftop of a luxury apartment building, knowing full well the odds were slim.
The point of the assignment wasn’t success. It was to help students confront failure and reshape their understanding of their own limits.
As the class progressed, students continued to document their failures, growth and other campus life experiences through weekly blog posts. Those reflections formed the foundation for the chapters that would later become a published book, written by students for students.
Titled "Fear to Flourish: A PSU Guide to Personal and Academic Success," the book offers tips on navigating dorm life, mental health, being a first-generation student, study strategies, finances, public transportation and more.
Putting together a book from start to finish taught the class more than just writing skills. From project management to editing to marketing, each student played a role in the process and authored a few chapters of the book.
Harlo Haynes explored addiction and mental health in his chapters — topics he tackled through both research and personal reflection on his own experiences.
“It was a cool combination of independent work and being able to do a lot of research and then bringing that all together at the end,” he says.
Haynes also took the lead on the book's website, applying his web development skills in a real-world context.
"I learned a lot through this experience, being with the same cohort for a year and navigating personality differences," he says. "Tackling it from the perspective of knowing that everyone's different and I'm not always going to agree with everything, but I have to take all the positives I can. I really had to figure out how to put those things aside so I could come to class every day looking for what I could learn and how I could be better."
Haynes says this lesson will benefit him throughout his academic journey and into the workplace post-graduation — as will his new definition of what it means to fail.
“Looking at it through the lens of what can I learn from this rather than this is something that defines me,” Haynes says.
Julia Hollenbach, a public health major on the pre-nursing track, says the process of publishing the book and hearing the experiences of the guest speakers in the class helped her become more comfortable with the possibility of failure. She began to see it as something to learn from, not fear.
"Everyone has their own set of struggles and failures that get them to where they are," she says. “That helps me know it's okay to fail and not know exactly what I need to be doing because I can still figure it out."
This set the foundation for the chapters she wrote for the book, which helped her as much as they will help future readers. Hollenbach explored topics such as navigating dorming, mental health and public transportation — aspects of college life she says she wishes she’d had a guide to when she first started.
Teuscher designed the year-long course to build intentionally across each quarter — from blog writing to revision to full-scale production. This, he says, is what sets freshman inquiry classes apart from other courses on campus.
“You don’t just have until the end of the quarter. You come back next quarter, and the following and keep going,” Teuscher says. “It’s a cohort experience. This is a course where they can make friends for life.”
The published book is being sold to raise funds for Pueblo Unido PDX, a nonprofit organization that the students in the class chose as the beneficiary for the funds. The organization connects individuals with vulnerable immigration status to resources and services.
With more than $200 raised so far, the students’ work continues to make an impact on their community in Portland, even as they move into their sophomore year.
Learn more about this project and purchase a copy of "Fear to Flourish" HERE.