SWCC

2009 SWCC News

Southwest students are pictured in front of the Statue of Liberty on the way to Ellis Island during last year’s special seminar class. From left to right: SWCC counselor Amanda Ellis with students Jonathan Miller, Ashley Owens, Whitney Miller, and Elizabeth Blankenship.

During Fall Semester 2009, a special seminar class in the General Studies Learning Community program will offer students a unique exploration of the focus theme of the class, “A Sense of Place…and Displacement.” Learners of all ages and levels of study are welcome to enroll. This is the fourth year that students and teachers at SWCC have had the unique opportunity to participate in a learning experience that explores themes of humanity both in and out of the classroom setting. During the past three years, learners engaged in the fall semester Learning Community seminars have found themselves face-to-face with the struggles of people in America. While viewing documentary films, engaging in dialogue with visiting speakers, and embarking on local field trips, seminar participants have encountered Americans from the past who worked courageously in the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement in the south; who were forced on the journey west to Oklahoma during the “Trail of Tears;” and who arrived with hope and were met with disillusionment as immigrants at Ellis Island. For those students who have carried on with the annual theme-based seminar into spring semester each year, the fall focus has suddenly come to life with an educational group trip during spring break to Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama the first year; to the Cherokee tribal community in North Carolina the second year; and to Ellis Island and the Lower Eastside Tenement House in New York City last year.

This year’s theme, “A Sense of Place…and Displacement” will focus on how we, as land-dwellers, relate to our environment, what geographic and related economic forces impact our relationship with our place of living and working (i.e., hunger for land vs. the love of place) and, lastly, how we are formed and changed over the years by our sense and pride of place or the loss of a place that we have come to love. This seminar course is facilitated by professors Ellen Elmes in the fall and April Hess in the spring, with the added support of professors Elizabeth Smith and Greg Horn during both semesters. The seminar is based on informal weekly dialogue between teachers and students. During fall semester, participants will utilize the PBS documentary series, “Appalachia: A History of Mountains & People” to help learners consider the struggles and successes, the issues, the personal perspectives, and the misconceptions in regard to the “sense of place” theme. Topics of discussion will include historical developments of living in the Appalachian Mountains, economic forces that have determined the use, loss, ownership, stewardship and destruction of mountains, and contemporary perceptions and challenges of living harmoniously in Appalachia today. Day trips will be made during the semester to learn the perspectives of both mining company owners who have provided jobs for workers in mountain top removal, and community members who have experienced the impact of mountain top removal practices in their region. Although it is not a requirement to take both the first and second semesters of the seminar course, the spring semester always continues and enhances the same umbrella theme of the fall with two added features. One feature for spring 2010, will be to move from focusing on the experience of others to personalizing the sense of place theme. The queries of second semester will include “What is your personal experience of ‘homeplace’?”… “What is your relationship, if any, with the land where you are born and/or where you currently dwell?”… “Do you feel any responsibility for the land on which you live and work or for the environment at large?” The other added focus of the second semester is the four-to-five-day trip during spring break to a place where firsthand experience of the seminar theme can be gained. The educational travel plans for spring 2010 include a visit to the Old Slave Mart of Charleston, South Carolina, to learn of the displacement experience of slaves at the auction block and beyond. According to written history from the Old Slave Mart (now a museum), “This interstate trade was a hugely profitable economy organized by local and regional slave traders and dealers within the United States who, between 1789 and 1861, forcibly relocated approximately one million American-born slaves from the upper South to the lower South. During that same period, more than two million African-American slaves were sold in local, interstate and state-ordered sales combined.” Another aspect of the trip will be a guided “Gullah Tour” in Charleston and a visit to St. Helena Island, where the rich Gullah culture of African West Coast origin still thrives with the rich dialect, basketry-weaving skills, “Praise Houses” and “telling trees” of the residents. Students majoring in General Studies who participate in the spring break trip can receive some scholarship funds to offset trip costs; however, these recipients are required to enroll in both the fall and spring seminars. Mary-Lane Moore, who is working towards receiving her Associate Degree in General Studies-Fine Arts at SWCC, has participated in four semesters of the Learning Community seminar program. She looks forward to returning again to the seminar this fall because she believes that it provides a more holistic experience of learning. “Hearing and seeing firsthand the experience of others who have confronted injustice or struggled to overcome difficult circumstances,” she says, “has helped me to realize that I am a part of this human will to survive and succeed…that we are all connected in the human experience.” As part of the General Studies Learning Community program, the seminar experience is one of many “added-value” aspects of this new student-centered program. “Community” is the key word in this endeavor. The facilitators strive to build community through the beyond-the-classroom field trips and social interaction related to the seminar theme. Through the Learning Community, students receive special attention for any learning needs or concerns they may have. Also, through the program, important skills for higher education learning and success, such as critical thinking, library research, and technology skills, are emphasized and utilized extensively. For more information regarding this worthwhile critical thinking class, contact Barbara Davis in the SWCC Humanities Office at 276.964.7229