Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:49 PM CDT
Subject of first-year reading program at Eastern aims to make transition to college a little easier
By LISA BARTELT, Staff Writer
lbartelt@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON --Besides being first-year students at Eastern Illinois University, this year’s incoming freshman class had something else in common: the book “A Hope in the Unseen.”
Freshmen were asked to read the book this summer in preparation for discussion groups and other fall semester activities as part of the inaugural Eastern Reads program.
Bonnie Irwin, dean of the Honors College, said the idea began with a small group of colleagues who wanted to enhance the academic culture on campus.
Last spring, the group approached Provost Blair Lord about forming a committee and selecting a book for the program, Irwin said. The committee consulted other universities’ freshman reading programs and decided on “A Hope in the Unseen” by Ron Suskind.
The book tells the story of Cedric Jennings’ adjustment from a high school student in Washington, D.C., to a college student at Brown University. The book follows Jennings from his junior year of high school to his sophomore year of college.
Irwin said the committee thought students could relate to Jennings’ struggles and adjustments to college.
During their summer orientation, students were given a copy of the book and seven questions to answer in written form. The day after their arrival on campus last week, the freshmen were placed in discussion groups led by faculty and staff.
In the coming months, the students will have the opportunity to attend several more discussion groups about topics related to the book, such as diversity, education and philosophy/religion.
Bob Augustine, dean of the graduate school, said he was impressed with the students in his group.
“They discussed it so effectively,” he said. “It was very rewarding as a professor. They demonstrated they are serious scholars.”
In addition to placing an emphasis on academics early in the school year, the program also aimed to foster community between students and faculty and staff, Irwin said.
“One key to students’ success in college is to form relationships with faculty and staff, not just in the classroom,” she said. “Eastern prides itself on relationships, and this project helps us do that.”
For Augustine, it was a chance to interact with students he normally would not meet.
“One of the most rewarding things is these freshmen may be the graduate students of the future,” he said. “I felt so connected to the students on the first day.”
Plans already are in the works for next year’s program. Irwin said the next book will be announced in about six weeks.
“When you embark on a project of this scale, you have hopes about how it will go,” Irwin said. “It succeeded beyond our wildest dreams as to how many were there and read the book and answered the questions. We feel we’ve taken a major step in the future of this university.”
Contact Lisa Bartelt at lbartelt@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
