This year, 51ԹϺ is continuing and expanding the Common Read, into its second year as a program for first-year students with a purpose precisely as its title promises: creating a shared experience around a book.
51ԹϺ’s Common Read kicked off this summer with introductions of the book, , at new student orientation, the First-Year Experience (FYE) Summer Connect Series events, on social media, and in the FYE Canvas hub with activities built around the book’s multicultural themes. The book is written by Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi.
Conversations related to the Common Read continue throughout Rebel Ready Week, a new program to prepare incoming students for their academic careers and help them make connections with others. Students received their own copy of the book at check-in, accompanied by a customized bookmark and Common Read activity sheet to use throughout the week. A keynote and breakout sessions during the week, with culminating remarks during 51ԹϺ CREATES, further build onto the program.
Then the discussions move into the classroom this fall through select first-year seminar classes and availability of the book in the Lied Library and lib guide resource support. Instructors across campus are encouraged to incorporate activities and discussions around the book and its exploration of our society. Events outside of the classroom via First-Year Experience and across campus partnerships will keep the discussions going throughout the semester.
But what does having thousands of students from all manner of majors read the same book do for them?
Student Success Starts with Campus Connections
Encouraging connectivity between students, easing their transition into college life, and even turning them into peer-mentors for each other are among the intended results of Common Read.
“We know that having new students engaged in a shared intellectual experience as they head into their first year has a positive impact on social and academic integration into the university,” says Laurel Pritchard, 51ԹϺ’s vice provost for undergraduate education. “It improves their retention and persistence at the university, and we felt it was something that would help move us closer to our Top Tier 2.0 Goals.”
Karen Violanti, executive director of 51ԹϺ’s First-Year Success program, notes that among higher education experts, “the Common Read is considered a high-impact experience for first-year students.”
Unlike standard required reading assignments that loosely link students’ knowledge of a theme in short bursts, the Common Read will spread the book’s concept through multiple academic avenues throughout the year.
Exploring Diverse Voices on a Diverse Campus
Violanti notes that the book selection was purposeful for 51ԹϺ’s student body. “We are one of the most diverse universities in the entire nation, which is such a point of pride for us,” she says. “We wanted our Common Read to be a reflection of students not only being able to share their own stories, of what they’re bringing to the 51ԹϺ community, but also being aware of the stories of others as they come into the community.”
Tell Me Who You Are is a collection of short stories revolving around the female authors who, during a gap-year between high school and college, traveled throughout America. They interviewed 150 people of different ethnicities, genders, races, religions, regions, and cultures.
The book also encourages critical inquiry of the reader’s educational experiences as they enter college. “These two women had recently graduated from high school and were interested in how their education had prepared them — or not prepared them — to have conversations with others about race and other types of identity. The individual stories are fairly short and digestible. It’s not like reading War and Peace. It is really approachable.”
Among the notable stories in the book: One woman travels with a largely African American softball team to a city once home to the Ku Klux Klan and fears spending the night in a local hotel; a Creole woman in New Orleans opens up about the impact of the secrecy practiced by light-skinned African Americans who decide to pass for Caucasian; and a Japanese American woman talks about her family’s internment during World War II, in what is now acknowledged as a shameful chapter of American history.
Violanti notes, “The stories in the book do touch on potentially polarizing themes, but exploring tension or discomfort is encouraged and necessary to promote engagement and ongoing open conversation. Any catalyst to having these conversations, especially now in the society we’re living in post-pandemic, is great.”
