For more than 100 years, Meredith has been educating women to excel. But in the modern world, our collective knowledge is accumulating faster than at any other time in history. In order to succeed while at Meredith and beyond, our students must be challenged to deepen their understanding of how to learn. They must be able to synthesize new knowledge and ways of knowing in order to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

The 2010-11 campus theme, Critical Thinking for Critical Times, invites the entire community to explore complex problems through discussion, reading and hands-on experiences; to reflect on our own thinking and biases; and to open our minds to other points of view. Class work, campus activities and even service-learning opportunities will relate to this theme as together we deepen our understanding and practice of what it means to think critically.

Here are some ways for you to participate in our campus theme:

• The Summer Reading Program kicks off our campus theme each year. 2011 is “Enrique’s Journey”by Sonia Nazario. The book, which began as a Pulitzer Prize-winning story for The Los Angeles Times and was later expanded into a book, presents a Honduran boy’s perilous quest to locate his mother in the United States.
  
  
• The Presidential Lecture Series, Tony and Emmy Award winner Twyla Tharp will present the 2011 Woman of Achievement Lecture. Tharp has choreographed more than 125 dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed two Broadway shows and written two books. In addition to two Emmys and one Tony Award, she is the recipient of the 2004 National Medal of the Arts.
  
  
• This year’s theme will be supported with the introduction of a new campus initiative, the PRISM Experience. PRISM seeks to improve students’ critical thinking skills throughout their four-years at Meredith.