Learn more about the courses, course projects, and co-curricular activities/events throughout campus that offer a Scholar-Citizen experience.

Courses

Course Projects

Co-Curricular

Faculty Toolkit

Courses

1. CORE 102, Sections 15, 31, and 57, "Student Action and Social Change," Taught by Dr. Michele Ren (Sect 28) and her teaching team, Mr. Tom Gaffney (Sect 15), and Ms. Julianna Jones (Sect 57).  CORE 102 at RU is designed to develop students’ writing and speaking skills with emphasis on logic and information literacy (how to use emerging technologies, library databases, etc.). Students will learn to recognize arguments, to evaluate sources and to form/support claims. In these S-C sections of CORE 102, we will begin by analyzing various student organizations and/or movements that have tried to contribute positively to the world around us. We will then turn our attention towards how we might use the resources available to us at RU in order to do the same. Students will produce an analysis of a student movement or organization, and a researched argument about how skills learned in CORE 102 might help them to contribute to a particular local or global cause. Preliminary data about said cause will be presented in a poster session at the annual Undergraduate/Graduate Engagement Forum.
   
   
2. CORE 102, "Active Minds, Active Citizens," Taught by Dr. Frank Napolitano.  Further development of students’ writing and speaking skills with attention to applied critical thinking and information literacy.   The course will introduce students to basic elements of reasoning and critical thinking and their use in persuasive communication.  Students will develop competency in information literacy and will learn the basic mechanics of public speaking by making oral presentations. 
   
   
3. SOCY 486, "Engaging the Community" (3), Taught by Dr. Mary LaLone, TR 2:00-3:15.  Learn the most effective community-based approaches, methods, and career skills for successfully partnering with community groups to carry out applied research in community development, social services, health care, education, environmental action, heritage preservation, and more topics tailored to student interests. Includes a 3-4 week experience in which you apply your skills to assist a community organization, the Wilderness Road Regional Museum (http://www.newriverheritage.org/members-wildernessroad.htm), engaging in student-community collaborative brainstorming and problem-solving. Excellent career training and resume-building Scholar-Citizen class.
   
   
4. WMST 101, Sections and 1 & 2, Taught by Dr. Michele Ren. Study the concept of gender and its links to women's issues both at home and abroad. In addition to the required essays on course materials, which will ask students to relate feminist texts to their own experiences and perceptions, students will be asked to apply theories about women and gender learned in the classroom to at least 3 women's history month events, an interview with/profile of an older woman, and a cultural artifact (via classroom presentation plus RU women's studies blog post).
   
   
5. Honors/Scholar-Citizen CORE 202, Topics in Ethical Inquiry: Floyd County Place-Based Education Oral History Project, Taught by Dr. Melinda Wagner, R 11:00-1:45. Prepare to be a Scholar-Citizen by practicing sociological skills of observation, interviewing, and movie-making in Spring 2013 CORE 202 where you will mentor Floyd County High School students in a place-based education project focused on interviewing community elders and producing movies about their lives.
    
   
6. PHIL 366, The US, France, and Their 18th Century Revolutions:  The Citizen Scholar View, Taught by Dr. Joe Jones.  This course addresses the intellectual origins of the Constitution of the United States.  Using conservative (Forrest McDonald) and mainstream (Gordon Wood) authors, students will be given the opportunity to place the founding fathers in their social, political, historical and intellectual place in the eighteenth century.  Basic notions necessary to understand the Constitution, such as republicanism and/or freedom, will be defined, explained, and also placed in context.  Just prior to Spring Break, students will have the opportunity to visit the Anderson House in Washington, DC, home to the Society of the Cincinnati, where a guest lawyer/lecturer will explain the purpose of the society and the relationship between France and the United States during the American Revolution.
   

-Back to top-

Course Projects

• Kindergarten and First Grade Art Intervention, McHarg Elementary, Radford, VA. This project impacts over 250 local elementary school children and utilizes RU Art Education Students as mentors. The art education students travel to McHarg on Thursdays and Fridays, and each day they run (3) 45 minute sessions with 36 children.  Each student teacher is in charge of 6 elementary students.   As a pre-teaching experience, the 6 RU students work with Dr. Bay to design and implement weekly therapeutic art interventions that engage children of varying levels of psycho social and physical development and that focus on raising social skills, improving self-esteem, and developing  fine & gross motor skills.  The RU Students in their turn gain first-hand experience working with a diverse population including children of various cognitive levels as well as of diverse socio-economic backgrounds.   In addition, they gain experience in team teaching, collaborative problem-solving, and class room management.  Their journals ask them to reflect on the challenges facing public schools and the role of art education, as well as the ethical and practical dimensions of relationships between universities and local school programs.
  
• Dance 311 students participate in an evening of reflection and diialogue about the role of the arts in grappling with public trauma. Students are invited to remember and reflect on our challenging current events at a video presentation of Empty Sky: The  Rising, a dance/theatre experience choreographed in 2005 by RU Assistant Professor of Dance Bob Boross.  A high quality video of the evening length piece, which is danced to a score of twelve songs by rock composer Bruce Springsteen, will be shown in the Bonnie Auditorium on Tuesday, January 29, 2012, from 7-9pm.  The piece explores hardships endured by many as a result of the events of September 11, but its theme of loss and longing is relevant to the questioning of faith that results from any catastrophic event.  The showing will be followed by a question and answer session with Professor Boross.
  
• "Count Me in Math Night":  This fun, shared experience will promote family involvement in math. RU student teachers from 3 Roanoke elementary schools will plan and implement a family math night to familiarize parents with the math curriculum, provide ideas and activities for supporting math skills of their students, and to build strong school-family partnerships. RU Student Teachers participating in Count Me In will explore and reflect on issues regarding family-school partnerships as well as develop professional skills to support their future work in developing family connections. The planning and implementation of Count Me In Family Math Night is designed to help prepare RU students to engage in positive and effective home/school/community partnerships. 
• Painting for Public Spaces:  A studio course in which students will make paintings that will engage the public civically, socially, or otherwise- both in content and context.  We will critically examine contemporary public art practices as we develop individual and collaborative art projects for and about the specific time and place in which we live.

-Back to top-

Co-Curricular

• March 29, 30, & 31, 2013 (7:00 p.m.- 8:30): Vagina Monologues. In collaboration with the Women’s Studies Club and the Women’s Studies Faculty Committee, the SCI will bring a professional director to direct and promote the Vagina Monologues as a part of the RU V-Day 2013 programming. This marks the fifth anniversary of an all-student and faculty production of VM at RU, the purpose of which is to raise awareness about sexual violence against women.  Donations raised as a result of the production will be given to the Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley (90%) and to the V-Day Spotlight Organization (10%).  Since 2007, approximately 2500 faculty, students and community members have attended RU VM productions and approximately $2000 in donations have been collected on behalf of the Women’s Resource Center.  The event will be held in Hurlburt Auditorium.
• April 4, 2013: RU's Annual Literary Festival with Nikki Giovanni, George Singleton, John Pipkin, and Jeanne Larsen as moderator
• April 25th and 26th: The Shadow Waltz.  A dance/theatre piece inspired by oral histories of coal mining in Appalachia and of coal miners with black lung disease.  This interdisciplinary dance/theatre piece weaves miners’ stories with dance, music, and text to reflect the history and mysterious pull of Appalachian coal mining.

-Back to top-

-Back to top-