From Reflection to Creation: How SDSU Used Storytelling, Adobe Express, and AI to Reimagine the First-Year Experience
- Jul 17
- 4 min read
The transition from high school to higher education is one of the most significant and transformative moments in a young person’s life. For many first-year students, the biggest question isn’t: "What major should I choose?" It's something far more fundamental: “Who am I in this new place, and do I belong here?”
Research consistently tells us that students who feel a strong sense of belonging early on are more likely to persist, seek support, and succeed. Yet belonging is seldom taught. It’s assumed, hoped for, or left to chance.
At San Diego State University (SDSU), a team of educators decided not to leave it to chance. Through a purposefully designed First-Year Seminar, they created a reflective, story-driven framework that helps thousands of incoming students each year explore who they are and who they hope to become.
In a recent Adobe Academic Innovation Café session, SDSU’s First-Year Seminar team joined us to share their framework and the impact the reimagined experience has had on students.
Introducing the Life Tree Project
Rather than treating the seminar as an extension of orientation and focusing on campus resources, the team redesigned it around a bigger question: How can students begin college with a stronger sense of identity, purpose, and belonging?
At the heart of that question is the simple but powerful belief that students understand themselves more deeply when they're given opportunities to tell their own stories. Instead of asking students to focus on classes, majors, and careers, the seminar team wanted to encourage them to begin somewhere more personal - understanding where they come from, what they value, and who they want to be.
The team created the Life Tree Project, which asks students to examine three interconnected dimensions:
Roots — the family, culture, and experiences that shaped them
Core values — the beliefs guiding their decisions
Future self — the person they’re actively working to become
As students think deeply about their roots, core values, and future selves, they create a living document that will evolve alongside them throughout their journeys at SDSU.
Rebeca Navarrete, Director of the First-Year Seminar at SDSU, sees this learning experience as a scaffold that helps students make sense of the significance of university life by anchoring them in their own stories.
“The Life Tree Project aligned beautifully with our vision of helping students see themselves as capable, purposeful learners.” — Rebeca Navarrete, Director of the First Year Seminar, San Diego State University
Reflection as a tool for belonging
What makes the First-Year Seminar distinctive is not only the reflection model but also how it translates reflection into a creative experience.
Using web design and AI-powered content creation tools in Adobe Express and Adobe Firefly, students move beyond traditional written reflections and create rich digital narratives that combine text, imagery, design, and personal storytelling. The technology allows students to visualize their roots, core values, and future selves, turning reflection into something they can actively create, share, and revisit.
Instead of responding to prompts in a traditional format, students build digital experiences that connect identity, aspiration, and growth in a way that feels personal and meaningful.
The technology acts as a vehicle for expression rather than the center of attention, a distinction that matters to Stuart Voytilla, Lecturer in the School of Theater, Television and Film and Faculty Lead of the SDSU Story Lab.
Drawing from his background in storytelling and creative practice, Voytilla emphasized that preparing students for the future requires more than technical literacy.
“We are concerned about AI and AI tools, but also creative thinking, we’re looking for ways students can better express themselves individually.” — Stuart Voytilla, Lecturer, School of Theater, Television, and Film — Faculty Lead, SDSU Story Lab
The project also reflects principles of Universal Design for Learning by giving students multiple ways to express identity, meaning, and personal experience while still meeting shared learning objectives.
Building belonging and student success at scale
One of the most compelling aspects of SDSU's approach is that it works at scale. With more than 4,000 students participating in the First-Year Seminar program, the Life Tree Project is designed to be both deeply personal and broadly replicable.
When students use digital media and visual storytelling to construct their Life Trees, they’re simultaneously developing the creative communication and digital literacy skills that modern employers and graduate programs increasingly value.
For institutions looking to reimagine their own first-year programming, the SDSU model offers several transferable ideas:
Start with a story. Before asking students what they want to study, ask them who they are. Identity precedes curriculum.
Build in structured reflection. Self-knowledge doesn’t emerge spontaneously. It requires scaffolding, time, and community.
Treat creative expression as rigorous practice. Storytelling is a legitimate academic tool for meaning-making and communication.
According to Stephen Schellenberg, professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and faculty fellow for First-Year Seminar, “Adobe Express helps us provide opportunities for students to build confidence and develop transferrable skills that they can apply across any field.”
Creativity, identity, and the future of higher education
SDSU's First-Year Seminar is a reminder that some of the most transformative educational innovations happen when institutions create the conditions for students to live up to their full potential. When educators encourage genuine reflection, treat creativity as a rigorous academic practice, and build learning experiences around student identity, something shifts.
Students become more engaged. They care more about academic outcomes. And they develop the digital literacy skills to express themselves and communicate their ideas in ways the modern world demands.
Check out the full webinar to learn more about SDSU’s approach, and access the Faculty Resource Kit for tools designed to help you incorporate reflection, storytelling, and creative expression into the student experience on your campus.
Want to hear more stories about how higher education faculty are transforming their curriculum? Check out our Academic Innovation series.
