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This course is a freshman seminar in which students provide English language tutoring and arrange interpretation/translation services for schools that serve the children of immigrant communities in Williamsburg. Students learn how to be effective cross-cultural advocates as they study and write about Latino and other immigrant cultures, learn to analyze representations of those cultures, and apply literacy and teaching theory as they write about their work for children and community partners. Knowledge of Spanish is valuable, but not required.
INTR 150W: Perspectives on Citizenship and Community
Joel Schwartz, Dean of Interdisciplinary and Honors Studies, Charles Center Director
In a recent nation-wide survey of college freshmen, fully 80% of the respondents reported having engaged in some form of community service during the previous year. (In contrast, of the college freshmen who had been eligible to vote for at least one election, fewer than 20% actually voted.) What explains why community service is so popular with college freshmen and how does this trend fit in with the broader patterns in civic engagement in the United States? To what extent is service linked with a duty that we have, as individuals, to meet the most pressing needs of other people? Is community service an effective way to meet these needs? To build community? To invigorate democratic habits and institutions? In what ways is service (charity, volunteering) similar to or different from other types of civic engagement in a democracy? This is a writing-intensive freshman seminar. In the fall term, all students will begin doing volunteer work at local elementary schools. As the term progresses, students will be organized into groups to undertake school-based projects, which will continue into the spring term.