When this year’s freshman went to their Summer Welcome meetings, they were expecting a lot of things like discussions on tuition and housing regulations, signing up for classes and getting a tour of campus. One thing no one was expecting was an over the summer reading assignment.
After attending a conference session in San Francisco, called The Common Reading Program, APSU representatives decided to implement a similar program for all incoming freshman in 2009.
APSU changed their previous campus wide reading program to “Peay Read” and made it a requirement for all new students.
This program would not only give all APSU 1000 classes a unifying experience regardless of a student’s major, but also create a “collaborative, integrative learning community, instilling in students habits of critical inquiry as they gain knowledge, skills, and values for life and work in a global society.”
After much deliberation, the book “An Ordinary Man” by Paul Rusesabagina was chosen. Although they weren’t aware at first, most freshmen were already familiar with the book which inspired the popular movie “Hotel Rwanda.”
The freshmen read the book over the course of the summer and have been completing activities relating to the book in their APSU 1000 classes.
One of the assignments was an essay about one of the subjects in the book. Some essay prompts were offered, but it was ultimately up to the students to pick the topic of their essay.
Mary Barczak chose to write about the topic of the power of words, such as their power to promote violence and hatred or love.
Bola Oyebade explained in her essay how a simple, ordinary man can emerge as an extraordinary hero in severe circumstances. “I explained that one knows of a true hero when one is faced with deplorable situations and rises to the occasion.
“In my view, I believe that Paul Rusesabagina did exactly that. Not only did he save the lives of over a thousand people, his heroicness was also contagious to others also living in the hotel,” said Oyebade.
Out of all of the essays read, the ten best essays were selected and awarded the opportunity to have dinner with the author.
Barczak said that she was surprised when she found out that she had been chosen as one of the 10 “Peay Read” essay winners.
“I was actually shocked when I won. I have a lot of writing experience through AP English classes and my high school newspaper and literary journal, but I thought of myself as one of a few thousand students, a good portion of whom must write better than I do,” said Barczak.
“When I got the e-mail from Chad Brooks informing me about the dinner I freaked out.”
“Meeting with Paul Rusesabagina was a great privilege and an honor,” said Oyebade.
“I discovered that [Rusesabagina] truly was an ordinary man — very gentle, polite and kind. He had an appreciating spirit and positive outlook. He was very kind to all of the essay winners and answered any questions we had for him. It was a great experience and I am very grateful to have taken part.”
The 10 students chosen — all freshman or transfer students — were Barczak, Bailey Bomar, Teresa Cunningham, Callie Hollander, Micah James, Sabrina Jones, LaShay Lovelace, Ashley Miller, Oyebade and Randy Tapp.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mary Barczak is a designer at The All State.
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