This course focuses on building community in a variety of settings. Students study community building in a variety of contexts through academic and popular press articles, podcasts, videos and by building community on campus. In small teams, students help build community with a campus club. Questions examined include: Why do people behave in certain ways? What helps and what detracts from building meaningful community? In what ways can community enhance our lives? Students read, listen, watch, observe, interact, question, write, converse, and experiment.
Building community helps students integrate into campus life and enriches their lifetime community building skills. In the course's progression, students also build the intellectual and personal skills for college success, from time management and goalsetting, to building curiosity and framing questions, to building interpersonal connection and resilience. In addition, the classroom community strives to be a safe and enjoyable setting to put concepts into action and build a community of scholars.