Summer Reading Series Introduces First-Year Students to VCU Experience

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When Maani Stewart arrived at VCU as a first-year student in 2007, he recognized some of the awkwardness and uncertainty among his fellow students that can be expected when thousands of newcomers suddenly descend on campus, poised to live and learn together. However, a conversation starter was on hand to help. The class was the second in VCU’s history to be assigned a summer reading book, and that year’s selection, “Nickel and Dimed,” by Barbara Ehrenreich, sparked discussion from the beginning.

“I think it really gave the freshmen some sense of unity,” said Stewart, who is now a graduate student in non-profit management at VCU. “It gave us something that we all had in common and could talk about. It was like an icebreaker for the freshman class.”

Since its launch in 2006, the Summer Reading Program has become an integral part of the first-year experience at VCU. The program involves the selection of a single book to be read by the entire incoming first-year class. Students receive a copy of the book when they attend orientation in the summer. This year’s selection, “Full Body Burden,” by Kristen Iversen, received a special printing with “VCU Summer Reading Program” on the cover and a letter inside to the class of 2016.

The Summer Reading Program has grown steadily since its inception, and it is now counted among the largest and most successful programs of its kind in the country.

“It’s been institutionalized,” said Daphne Rankin, Ph.D., associate vice provost for instruction and student success at VCU, who coordinates the program. “It’s become part of the VCU culture.”

When first-year students arrive for Welcome Week at the outset of the academic year, they attend discussion groups about that summer’s selection in the residence halls and the University College. Faculty, staff, administrators and members of the Board of Visitors lead the discussions, aiming to shepherd an open, lively conversation that touches on a wide range of aspects of the book.

The book then is incorporated into Focused Inquiry, a two-semester sequence of courses required of all first-year students. In fact, Rankin said the selection committee that chooses the summer selection always ensures that the book fits into the current Focused Inquiry theme, which this year is “Evolving Ideas.”

“Full Body Burden” promises to be a thought-provoking pick. The book, which is subtitled “Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats,” is a hybrid memoir/journalistic investigation that integrates Iversen’s childhood in small-town Colorado with an accounting of Rocky Flats, the nearby secret manufacturing facility that later was revealed to be a nuclear weapons plant that was releasing dangerous levels of plutonium. The book, which was published this month, has received strong early reviews and advanced praise from such accomplished writers as Richard Bausch, Bobbie Ann Mason, Rebecca Skloot and Bill McKibben.

(VCU Libraries has built a digital resource for “Full Body Burden” with links to interviews, related articles and other resources – http://guides.library.vcu.edu/summer-reading.)

Rankin said the book was a hit with the selection committee that chooses the featured work each year, and it will serve as an ideal first college text for students. In particular, the book does a memorable job of placing individual characters – with all of their preoccupations and personal tragedies and aspirations – in the context of a larger event with far-reaching consequences.

“It shows how we’re all so locked in to our own little worlds that we can easily miss what’s happening in the world around us,” Rankin said.

Author participation has become part of the Summer Reading Program. Several past featured authors have visited campus at the opening of the academic year to speak about the book and to visit with students. Last year, for instance, Wes Moore, author of “The Other Wes Moore,” joined one of the student discussion groups, offering firsthand insight into his work.

Iverson will be the featured speaker at this year’s New Student Convocation on Aug. 21 at 4 p.m. in the Siegel Center. She also will participate in smaller group discussions with students and will conduct a workshop with Focused Inquiry faculty.

The primary goal of the Summer Reading Program is to make incoming students feel connected to the VCU environment and to help them with the eye-opening transition from high school to college. This difference is apparent even in the language VCU uses when assigning the summer reading book to freshmen. The newcomers are not told that they are required to read the book. They are told that they are expected to read the book.

That should be enough, Rankin said.

“We want them to understand what’s expected of them as a college student,” Rankin said. “It’s about wanting them to start that college experience before they even come to campus.”

Kirsten Goodale, a junior at VCU, said the Summer Reading Program provided a stirring introduction to VCU her first year, when the selected book was “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot. The book explores the case of Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cells were taken from a sample of her cancerous tissue without her knowledge and then replicated, leading to a series of major medical discoveries that continued long after her premature death.

Goodale said the book covered a subject unfamiliar to her and one that she never would have chosen to read about on her own. But the book and the events it detailed left her awestruck and deeply engaged.

“It was such a great way to introduce me to the university,” Goodale said. “It opened my eyes to something that I didn’t know about but that I felt like I should know about. That got me really excited to come to VCU.”

VCU searches for books with evident hooks that attract students. Richard S. Lucidi, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is a member of the Summer Reading selection committee. He’s led discussions of books the past two years and will lead another one this August. He said selection committee members do not eye controversy for controversy’s sake, but they recognize the value of topics that stoke strong opinions and do more than simply result in straightforward, black-and-white conclusions.

“These books provide a lot of area for discussion without leading to right and wrong answers,” Lucidi said.

Lucidi first volunteered to lead a discussion group because the highlighted book, “Henrietta Lacks,” concerned topics critical to his professional and research interests. He’s continued to participate in the program because of the enjoyment he received talking with those new undergraduates.

“I was very impressed with their insight,” Lucidi said. “They saw some things in the book that I hadn’t noticed. It was a very intelligent conversation.”

Rankin said the books are designed to be demanding.

“We don’t want these books to be easy,” Rankin said. “We want them to be intellectually challenging but also to be something that the students can relate to and find interesting. We want them to talk about this.”

Goodale said the books serve that role, while preparing students for the wealth of choices that they have at VCU. She said her experience with “Henrietta Lacks” taught her to enter new classes, even those that seemed unpromising, with an open mind, ready to be surprised and to be taught something unexpected.

“That’s really what you look for when you go to a university,” she said.