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                                                      College of Liberal Arts  

CoLA Weekly

  April 6, 2018    

For the last several months I've been talking to people about a curricular idea called Change the World. The Change the World initiative is designed to turn students into activists, to give them the confidence and the tools to change their world. It is targeted to Wright State's typical student: often first-generation, modest, in need of empowerment and hungry for a purpose beyond simply acquiring a job. The methodology involves three phases: Spark, Train and Act, leading to the reinvention of tomorrow. Change the World would begin with a team-taught, interdisciplinary course--the spark. This course would be broken into units taught by faculty from diverse areas across the university, all relating to how the discipline changes the world.
 
The second part of the initiative would focus on giving students the tools they need to have an impact. These tools could span a variety of areas, including social media, marketing, budgeting, writing, organizing, etc. This is the train part of the Spark-Train-Act equation. The final component of the initiative involves the action: the doing of something. This would be an experiential learning course that would culminate in a capstone project. A key part of the course would be an assessment of the impact of the undertaking. We have identified a small pool of donor funding to launch a pilot project next year, so stay tuned!
   
Congratulations to our Model UN Team who returned from the National Model United Nations Conference in New York City with the top award of Outstanding Delegation. This is the 39th straight year that Wright State has won a delegation award at NMUN. The team had the challenging task of representing the Republic of Turkey, which included a briefing in New York by the Turkish mission to the United Nations. Our team also brought home six outstanding position paper awards for the following committees and students:
  • Sarah Upton and Karli Riviello - Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
  • Autumn Kern and Salha El-Shwehdi - International Organization for Migration
  • Allyson Clark and Jackson Cornwell - General Assembly, 1st Committee
  • Csongor Bajnoczki and Jacob Manser - General Assembly, 2nd Committee
  • Dan Bowman and Dalton Throckmorton - Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
  • Stephanie Patino-Garfias and Lana Jones - World Health Organization


Two pairs of WSU delegates also won peer awards for outstanding delegates in committee: Stephanie Patino-Garfias and Lana Jones, and Jakob Puckett and Tanner Rowe. Kudos to advisors Vaughn Shannon and Liam Anderson, SPIA, and head delegates Amanda Baker and Crystal Burns, ICP, for leading the team to another year of resounding successes.
 
 

Stop by the Millett Atrium today from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. for Favorite Poems Friday: Modern Languages. As a part of National Poetry Month, come hear Modern Languages faculty and students share their favorite poems in the original language and in translation. 
 
Next Thursday CoLA will host its second annual Internship Partners Expo from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. in Millett Atrium. Over 30 participants representing a wide variety of organizations will be on hand to show our students the many ways they can use their degrees in the real world. Internships provide our students with opportunities to test-drive professions that may prove to be launching pads for their careers, so it's wonderful for them to have the chance to connect with so many area organizations at this event. A BIG thank-you to Wayne Stark, Director of CLASS Workforce Development, for his hard work in putting together this expo, and to the many organization participants.  
   

Jenna Coulombe, a criminal justice and political science major, has been mentored by Travis Greenwood, president of the Wright State Foundation Board. (Photo by Erin Pence)  
 
There will also be a booth at the Expo dedicated to promoting CoLA's new Professional Mentoring Program.  You can learn more about the success of this spring's pilot program by reading this article that appeared in the WSU Newsroom this morning.  Mentee Applications for next year's program are due April 20.  Please encourage your students to apply and to stop by the booth at the Expo on April 12 if they have any questions.   
 
I hope you caught Christopher Oldstone-Moore's recent op-ed - Donald Trump, Mustache Lover at Heart, in the New York Times. It's always great to see our faculty gain national reach with their articles.
Linda Caron
Dean    
 
   
   
CoLA Talks with Vaughn Shannon, Political Science & Social Science Education:  Role-Play Simulations and Perceptions of the Other: Model UN, Model Arab League and American Views of the Arab and Muslim World, Friday, April 6, 3:30 p.m., Millett 286 
    
CoLA Talks with Nenad Jovanovic, Motion Pictures: Rope, Dogville, and Mukařovský's Space-as-Meaning , Friday, April 13, 3:30 p.m., 004 Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures
    
Opera Theatre presents The Mikado: Saturday, April 14, 8:00 - 9:30 p.m., Schuster Hall
    
University Symphony Orchestra, Tuesday, April 17, 8:00 - 9:30 p.m., Schuster Hall
    
Women's Chorale, Wednesday, April 18, 8:00 - 9:30 p.m., Schuster Hall
    
Will Schutt Poetry Reading, Thursday, April 19, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m., Stein Galleries
    
Jazz Ensemble, Thursday, April 19, 8:00 - 9:30 p.m., Schuster Hall
    
Men's Chorale Alumni & University Chorus, Friday, April 20, 8:00 - 9:30 p.m., Schuster Hall
    
Collegiate Chorale, Sunday, April 22, 3:00 - 4:30 p.m., Schuster Hall   


CLASS Corner
      
Tuesday, April 10 - First year on the job success - 3:30 - 4:30 p.m., Millett 106

Thursday, April 12 - 2nd Annual Internship Partners Expo - 2:00 - 5:00 p.m., Millett Atrium

Wednesday, April 18 - Career "to-do's" catch-up evening hours - 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Millett 161 (Multicultural Lounge)