Imagine your first year at Cal Poly Humboldt:
You live near the Pacific Ocean, ancient coast redwoods—the world’s tallest trees—mountains, dunes, and marshes. These landscapes are home to several Tribal Nations and an array of ecosystems. You venture into the forest to study animals, identify ferns, and examine the soil. In class, you learn broad scientific perspectives and approaches to studying topics ranging from ecosystems to gene expression underlying disease.
Welcome to Among Giants, one of Humboldt’s Place-Based Learning Communities. As a first-year student majoring in the Biological Sciences (Biology, Botany, or Zoology), you will automatically join this year-long program to learn biology by being a biologist. And you’ll build connections with students who are as passionate as you about life in all its diversity.
As part of the program, you will:
Join a community of first-year students who are engaged and excited about studying Biology, Botany, or Zoology.
Enroll in program-specific sections of major and general education (GE) courses. These courses will demonstrate the link between the three majors as well as relate them to the place where you are choosing to live and study for the next four years.
Participate in Among Giants courses that will introduce you to the university, your major, and what it means to be a biologist.
Take a Native American Studies course that will connect western science with Indigenous cultures, values, and environmental knowledges.
Have the option to live on campus with other Among Giants students.
Participate in the Among Giants' Humboldt Immersion to discover biodiversity in animals, plants, and microbes in the local environment.
Get to know the faculty, staff, Humboldt students, and other marine professionals in the community who will help you grow personally and academically.
Learn that solving the biggest social and environmental probelms require good science, critical thinking, a commitment to social justice, and effective communication.