The heart of the FYP are the first-year foundations seminars (CC100: Critical Inquiry Seminar & CC120: First-Year Writing Seminar), which each student takes during their first semester at Colorado College. This course sequence provides a rigorous introduction to disciplinary scholarship, the nature of the liberal arts, and learning on the block. In the first block (CC100), students begin to understand the liberal arts as a specific kind of community comprised of various epistemological and methodological cultures. The second block (CC120) builds on the outcomes of CC100 to engage students in understanding the relationship between disciplinary practices and writing.

The FYP also reaches outside the curriculum and across each student's entire first year through the FY mentor program. From their first day on campus, incoming students are linked to a first-year student cohort led by an experienced student mentor. FY mentors are trained to support students throughout their first year, help them develop a sense of belonging on campus, and provoke students' thinking about their intellectual goals.

At its heart, the FYP seeks to give new students the permission to be exhilarated, animated, and inspired by what they study and the possibilities inherent in a dynamic liberal arts education.