The Nature of Life Program helps CBS undergraduate students build community, create connections, and develop the skills, self-awareness, and habits of mind that research shows contribute to success in college and beyond. Our mission is to help students discover and become the best version of themselves.
Established in 2001, the Nature of Life (NOL) Program is a signature experience in CBS, required for all CBS students. NOL starts even before students arrive on campus, and their journey in the program will lead them across three semesters.
Though they are distinct from one another, all elements of the Nature of Life program share these important core principles:
- An emphasis on creating connections within CBS and larger University of Minnesota communities;
- Metacognition and reflective thinking as the ‘learning lever’ and primary mode of assessment
- Engagement with the "big questions" of life that guide and motivate students’ educational pursuits, e.g. “Who am I? What do I value? Who do I want to become? How will I get there?”
Nature of Life at Itasca – Incoming Summer
CBS first-year students launch their college careers by completing a summer experience prior to arriving on campus. four-day trip to the University of Minnesota’s Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories (IBSL) in mid-summer prior to the start of their first semester. NOL@Itasca introduces students to college through completing two immersive biological science modules and several short science talks from various faculty, attending sessions about University of Minnesota traditions and history, and building connections with their new classmates, faculty, and staff.
BIOL 1805 – First Semester (Fall)
In their first Fall semester at the University of Minnesota, students take the first course of the NOL program and engage with their new CBS community through weekly in-person meetings. Students work together in small groups of their peers led by a second-year student leader and mentor who supports them in their transition to college. This academic course connects students with key campus resources, helps build relationships with their peers, and challenges students to practice metacognitive thinking to support their academic success.
CBS Guilds
Guilds overview
Starting in their first semester, all incoming CBS students become members of a Guild. Named after luminaries of the University of Minnesota who have impacted the field of biology through their work, Guilds serve as a community-within-a-community in CBS, facilitating connections between students and their peers, student leaders, and faculty and staff members in CBS.
Bergad Guild
Named for Pearl Bergad, who has been recognized with major awards for her distinguished careers in both the sciences and arts.
Boyer Guild
Named for Paul Boyer, Nobel Prize winner for discovering how ATP synthase produces ATP, which provides energy to cells of all living organisms.
Davis Guild
Named for Margaret Davis, first woman at the University of Minnesota elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Dempsey Guild
Named for Mary Dempsey who studied lipid production and maintenance in the department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics.
Gorham Guild
Named for Eville Gorham whose acid rain and nuclear fallout research led to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Lewis Guild
Named for Edward Lewis whose research in congenital defects in humans won him the 1995 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Lindeman Guild
Named for Raymond Lindeman who discovered how energy moves through an ecosystem, which launched the field of ecosystem science.
Tilden Guild
Named for Josephine Tilden, the first woman scientist at the University of Minnesota, world-renowned for her studies of Pacific algae.
BIOL 1806 – Second Semester (Spring)
In the Spring semester and the second course of the NOL program, students continue to meet in small groups of their peers each week to develop connections in CBS and skills for success. The scope of this course expands beyond what students experience in the Fall, encouraging students to explore academic and professional pathways they want to pursue in CBS and beyond. A key experience of BIOL 1806 is the Biology Saves the World (BSW) project, where students explore what biological sciences research is conducted at the University of Minnesota and connect with the researchers who make that work possible.
Biology Saves the World overview
Biology Saves the World (BSW) is a semester-long project that all students complete as part of BIOL 1806. Throughout the project, first-year students are matched with a BSW Focus Scientist, a researcher in the biological sciences at the University of Minnesota, to learn about their research and their professional path. Each student group reads a paper relevant to their Focus Scientist’s lab, meets with the Focus Scientist in person twice during the Spring semester, and develops a presentation showcasing how the Focus Scientist’s work ‘Saves the World’, which they deliver to their fellow first-year students in a conference-style poster session.
The BSW project challenges CBS’s newest undergraduates to learn about the research happening on campus, recognize the significance and broader impacts of that work, and connect with and humanize the people who are creating new scientific knowledge every day at the University of Minnesota.
BIOL 1807 – Third Semester (Fall or Spring)
Unique to the College of Biological Sciences, the Nature of Life program also provides critical support to second-year students during the ‘sophomore slump’. Second-year students experience new and unique challenges as they set off on their individual pathways through CBS, and BIOL 1807 is designed to give students increased autonomy while providing individualized support. This course is online and asynchronous, and the assignments are meant to be open-ended enough to accommodate a wide range of goals and to help students no matter where they are on the road to those goals. Students can take the course in either Fall or Spring semester of their second year, and there is an emphasis on self-direction, refinement of personal, academic, and career goals, and strategic use of campus resources.
Student Leadership in Nature of Life
Student leadership plays an integral role in the Nature of Life Program. In every experience in the Nature of Life series, we rely on near-peer student leaders and mentors drawn from the current student body to work closely with a small group of students. We are always looking for dedicated, compassionate, and insightful students who wish to give back to their CBS community while building key leadership skills and professional connections.
Peer Mentors – NOL@Itasca
During NOL@Itasca, all students are grouped with a Peer Mentor, who not only guides them through the activities in the program but also leads discussions and answers questions about student life, academics, and professional connections.
If you are a current CBS student or a student who works closely with CBS faculty and staff, you can apply to be a Peer Mentor during the summer!
Guild Leaders – Academic Year
Within each CBS Guild are Guild Leaders. Sophomore Guild Leaders (SGLs) work with a group of 10-12 students each semester during class to facilitate discussions, provide direct and individualized feedback, and support students’ growth and development in CBS. We rely on Junior Guild Leaders (JGLs), SGLs who apply to continue working closely with the NOL team, to train the SGLs and help develop course materials and activities. Graders support student progress in BIOL 1807.
Applications for Guild Leader positions typically open in Spring and are available only through the Nature of Life courses.