Summer
Reading Program
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Summer
Reading Program |
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Now in its seventh year, the Meredith Summer Reading Program brings together students, faculty and staff in a common reading experience, discussions and related activities. Originally focused on new freshmen, the program will now involve the whole campus, including all classes of students, in the experience of reading and discussing the book Telling Tales.
Using the links at the upper right of this page, you can learn about the book and its contexts. The reading questions will help you prepare to discuss the book with a faculty/staff leader and your fellow students. If you have questions about the book or the program, please contact Chrissie Bumgardner at bumgardner@meredith.edu/.
About Summer Reading at Meredith
Here are some comments on Summer Reading that were presented during early registration:
You’ll be hearing today about some of the ways that Meredith students engage with the world to bring hope and opportunity to those in need. Every year our students amaze us with their capacity to connect, to give, to walk in the shoes of others less fortunate or sometimes simply different from themselves.
As you visit the campus and think about your life here, your thoughts and concerns may be closer to home. Will I get the courses I need? Will the academic work be difficult? Will I get good grades?
As professors and mentors, we’ve found an interesting connection between one set of concerns and the other. We’ve found that learning and engagement work together to broaden understanding and to ground new knowledge in real life contexts. The fictional characters you read about today, for instance, model the anxieties and conflicts you’ll encounter a few years from now in a career or an organization you are chosen to lead. Repetitive lab sessions in psychology or chemistry or nutrition reveal knowledge we can use to sharpen memory of the elderly or reduce childhood obesity. Seemingly dry education theory makes so much more sense when you design it into a newsletter for teachers. As I tell my middle school son, “it’s not always about you!”
The Summer Reading Program—now in its sixth year—shows how understanding and involvement work together to create community at Meredith. In response to the theme “Our World: Our Responsibility,” we’ve chosen Telling Tales, a collection of short fiction edited by Nadine Gordimer. The authors of the stories—many of whom have won major literary awards—have given their work free of charge so that the proceeds of the book can support HIV/AIDS preventative education and treatment.
And so buying the book is an act of engagement. Reading it and discussing it with fellow students and faculty will be an act of understanding. The stories are set around the world; we’ve chosen six to create a common experience for everyone, and your discussion groups may choose others. The handout you’ve been given names the stories and points you to a web site that will be available shortly after the fourth of July. You can check it for additional background information and reading questions.
In past years we’ve invited summer reading authors to visit the campus. None of us will forget the gentle optimism of holocaust survivor and peace activist Elie Wiesel or the lively energy of National Public Radio correspondent Anne Garrels, who shared with us her detailed encounters with the people of Iraq before and after the armed conflict there. Both of these events electrified our campus and created a buzz that lasted for weeks.
Still, you may be wondering if and how this book will “count” toward your education. Will you be tested on it? Probably not. Will something bad happen if you don’t read it? Not really. The book and various parts of it will be used in courses across campus. Faculty members will work it in as they are able. But let’s focus on the positive, the real reasons you’re coming to college in the first place. Will the book broaden your understanding of the world? Will it encourage you to think about issues, from cell phones communication to political corruption? Will your opinions be listened to and respected when you arrive? Will the overall experience offer you a glimpse of a thoughtful, intellectual life and open the doors to involved learning? Those answers are easy: Yes, yes, yes, and yes.