Most everyone faces typical freshman hardships, but not all freshmen bring back a school mascot and score a winning class project.

Andrew White and Sandy Cox’s University Foundations class produced a winning product with “Our Freshman Experience.”

“Our class divided into groups and each group took pictures around campus corresponding to their category,” White, an assistant math professor said.

Categories included academics, student services and recreation, White said.

White and Cox’s class then put the pictures into a slide show and wrote a script that told the stories about their first year of college so far.

This class’s freshman year included a community service project that raised funds to bring Eastern’s mascot, Billy the Panther, back to sporting events.

“This project had a lot of good effects with our class,” White said. “The class became a close-knit group and all took on substantial responsibilities.”

White said that while he knew his project was good and had a good chance of winning, he thought that the class’s teamwork was of more significance.

“I knew our project was good, but Sandy (Cox) and I thought that it was more important that everyone participated rather than us just winning without everyone’s input,” he said.

Cox, a member of the Counseling Center’s faculty, said that she thought the project was excellent after seeing the final product.

“The kids were so excited about it,” Cox said. “They took big risks; they danced and rapped in front of their peers while showing their project, which took a lot of guts.”

Cox also mentioned that the group was “more than a class” and actually met together after their class was over.

“In December, they came over to the Counseling Center and we had a Christmas party,” she said. “It was great.”

Each University Foundations class was required to produce a project about the freshman perspective, White said. The classes were able to choose an individual theme and had to present it to other classes.

Finalists for the Best Class Project for University Foundations were determined by the students participating in the University Foundations class, White said.

The 20 sections were divided into five groups on University Foundations Day in December, and in these divisions, each class project was presented in front of four other classes, White said.

Students voted on the focus, organization, clarity of presentation, transmission of information, creativity, appropriate use of genre or media and audience awareness, White said.

The five winning projects were then presented to the University Foundations Advisory Board, and he said they chose the winner.

“All of the projects are kept in the University Foundations office (in Ninth Street Hall),” he said. “It hasn’t been decided as to what we will do with the winners.”

White said that he believes all five finalist projects are “good enough” to be used in future freshman orientations.

“These projects can teach future students where things are on campus and who to talk to about different things,” White said.