Welcome back for a busy spring semester!
All Pericleans,
I hope that your Winter Term was productive, engaging and that you were able to get some good family time in over the breaks since the end of Fall term. I suspect you share my enthusiasm to get the current semester started and to move forward on all things Periclean.
Here are some updates and reminders:
1. The Mentors are scheduled to meet on Tuesdays every fortnight beginning next week. Pass on to your Mentor any ideas/concerns, etc.
2. Steering Committee will meet also every other week on Thursdays at 4:00 inn Global Commons 210 beginning Thursday, February 12th. Please make sure that your Class has two representatives that can attend Steering Committee. This spring there will be some important work happening on the Steering Committee and I am looking forward to a productive semester!
3. The Induction Ceremony for the Class of 2018 is scheduled for 4:30PM Thursday, April 16th. Please mark your calendars now. Kevin Trapani, CEO and founder of the Redwoods Group will be our featured speaker. In line with past tradition, each Class will have one or two representatives that will give a short charge to the incoming Class. The Class of 2017 is organizing this event and someone from that Class will need the name(s) of your speaker in the coming weeks.
4. Each Class needs to have a syllabus in to me no later than Friday, February 20th. Associate Director and 2016 Mentor April Post and I are working on template syllabi for all Periclean Classes and will get a draft out to all Mentors by the end of the week. Attached is a very early draft that you are welcome to use as a starting point for your Class discussion. In short, in addition to basic information on reading, research and writing assignments, all syllabi need to list anticipated learning outcomes and these should reflect select AAC&U VALUE Rubrics relevant to Periclean.
5. Keep in mind as you consider drop/add and/ long term academic career planning that beginning Winter term 2016 GST445 “Global Partnership Through Service” will be offered by your Mentor. This class satisfies one of your advanced studies requirements. This Class may or may not include a travel component depending upon Elon and State Department travel restrictions related to your country of focus. [See below for the course description. This is a recommended, not required course for all Pericleans.]
6. As with past semesters please make sure that someone in your Class is responsible for posting on our blog each week an update (with photos, if possible, even if it is “just” a short of your Class in session) on the blog. These weekly updates are, cumulatively, your Class resume which needs to be posted at the end of each semester.
Please know that my door (GC 210) is always open and you are welcome to stop by and chat or share some ideas/concerns about our program.
Best,
Tom Arcaro
Director
GST 445 Global Partnership Through Service 4 s.h.
This course serves as a capstone experience for students in the Periclean Scholars program, focusing on development in a country or region that has been chosen prior to the course by the students. The goals of the course are to collaborate effectively in order to continue to learn about a variety of aspects about this country or region. These will include: politics, culture, history, language, social issues, and the country’s relations within the larger world. Students in this class will continue to develop partnerships in the country or region of choice in order to work toward improvements on an issue affecting the people of this area. An overarching theme of this course is to require the students to demonstrate command of the theoretical and methodological tool sets that they have learned in prior courses, includinggeneral studies courses, classes in their major, and all prior Periclean classes to communicate these perspectives to their cohort, and to effectively use these skills to meaningfully contribute to the various class projects and goals. Students will also be discussing issues related to grant writing, humanitarian aid, and sustainable program development. This course is writing intensive. Open to senior Periclean Scholars (or others with permission).
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