8 minute read
Appendix C: Anticipation Guide Perspectives
Students were asked to express their opinions regarding statements related to topics discussed in First Year Seminar both at the beginning of the semester and again at the end of the semester. The idea is to gauge how their opinions or knowledge changed over the course of the semester. The most significant changes occurred with these statements:
• I understand the details of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. • I am familiar with President Harry S. Truman’s Executive Order 9981 issued in July 1949. • I understand the “charism” of the Sisters of St. Joseph and how it relates to social justice. • I am familiar with the story of Sgt. Isaac Woodard that occurred in 1946.
Advertisement
The one thing that didn’t change, 100 percent of our first-year students affirmed at the beginning of the semester that they believe racism exists in our world, this remained the same at the end of the semester. Additionally, at the beginning of the semester, 94 percent of responders shared that they feel a sense of responsibility to confront injustice and racism; at the end of the semester this was 98 percent.
Students were also asked to select one of the statements and write about their thoughts, feelings, and opinions associated with the statement. Here are some of the responses:
“Through reading Unexampled Courage and the various activities throughout FS 101, I understand Harry S. Truman’s Executive Order 9981 desegregated the U.S. armed forces and was a catalyst for further litigation promoting civil rights in America. I have also learned the importance of doing my individual part in confronting the injustice and racism around me - though it may feel like my action may not make much of a difference, if we all take on the responsibility and deny the acceptance of prejudice, it could help in the grand scope of eliminating racism and other abuse. I have also learned to understand and control my own personal bias and discrimination toward others. Though we all have them, it is crucial to consciously work to disprove and call out our unconscious bias thoughts/actions that we may have in order to ensure we are not contributing to racism or discrimination.”
“The areas that changed me the most are learning how to stand up for yourself and address conflicts that involve racism. Doing the Bystander Training helped me identify other people’s harmful actions as well as my own. I know how to use my voice through social media, sending letters to representatives, and finding a group that shares my beliefs.”
“One thing that has tremendously changed for me is identifying the difference between racism and prejudice. I also know how to actually stand up to what I know is wrong because I used to think that standing up involves me speaking when there are other ways I can confront. I also learned how to control the comments and thoughts I make towards other individuals or groups because although I may think I’m just joking, they may take it as me being racist and be hurt over the comments I have made. Most importantly I learned that to make a change, it should start with me first.”
“Since the beginning of the semester, I have been shown that although something doesn’t affect me, it is my responsibility to stand up against injustice. I have been fortunate enough to have not had to deal with very many injustices in my life, but I have friends/my boyfriend who are minorities that deserve my help in setting non-bias policies in place that will better affect them, and our community.”
Avila University provides a common reading for all first year students as part of the First Year Experience. Student success research is clear about how this type of program can assist in emphasizing academic importance prior to the start of classes and assist in building community within a first year cohort. All Avila first year students receive information about The Common Reading Program during the summer prior to the start of classes. The topic of the Common Reading Program is always global in nature which connects with Avila’s mission of providing students with opportunities to prepare for contributions to the global community.
2021: Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Woodard
and the Awakening of America by Richard Gergel Unexampled Courage, is the story of Sergeant Isaac Woodard. In 1946, Woodard was attacked and permanently blinded by local police for challenging a bus driver’s disrespectful treatment. The attack sparked then-president Harry Truman to establish the first presidential commission on civil rights, paving the way for Truman to order an end to segregation in the U.S. armed forces. 2020: Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project by Jack Meyer Life in a Jar by Jack Meyer, is a dramatization of the life of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker who organized a rescue network of fellow social workers to save 2,500 Jewish children during the Second World War. Her story disappeared until it was rediscovered by three Kansas high school girls and refashioned into a drama, now performed across the globe.
2019: A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, A Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age by Matt Richtel
In 2006, as a 19 year-old Utah college student, Reggie Shaw was driving on a highway he’d taken hundreds of times before. While texting, Reggie drifted across the center line and fatally struck two rocket scientists, James Furfaro and Keith O’Dell. A Deadly Wandering follows Shaw, the families of Furfaro and O’Dell as well as many of those who were involved in the police investigation and trial. Author, Matt Richtel not only shares the details of these tragic events but also delves into brain research outlining our inability to multi-task, regaining situational awareness and why we can’t seem to resist our phones.
2018: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
A remarkable story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity.
2017: The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
This memoir outlines the hardships and the heartaches of Grande’s immigration story from child to adult. Grande was two years old when her father left Mexico and crossed the border into the United States, hoping to earn enough money to build a home in Mexico when he returned. Eight years later he returned to take his family across the border. Once in the United States Grande sorts through many challenges as she navigates into adulthood.
2016: While the World Watched by Carolyn Maul McKinstry
Carolyn was present on September 15, 1963 at the Sixteenth Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, when white racists bombed the church. Carolyn’s four young friends were killed. She was among thousands of students hosed by firemen during the 1963 marches. She survived a second bomb explosion that destroyed a portion of her home in 1964. She wrote this memoir in 2011.
2015: The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster by Jonathan M. Katz
On January 12, 2010, the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere hit the nation least prepared to handle it. Jonathan M. Katz chronicles the terror of that day, the devastation visited on ordinary Haitians, and how the world reacted to a nation in need.
2014: They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, Benjamin Ajak with Judy A. Bernstein
The memoir of three boys who walked with tens of thousands of other boys across the Sudan as a result of civil war within the country. These boys, many of whom came to the United States as refugees, became known as the Lost Boys.
2013: The International Bank of Bob by Bob Harris
An inspiring memoir of an ordinary American who turned his brief brush with opulence into a joyful adventure of investing in the world’s working poor.
2012: Unbroken by Laura Hilenbrand
A World War II story of survival, resilience and redemption of Louis Zamperini.
2011: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
A remarkable story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity.
2010: Series of Articles Related to Hunger and Poverty
Reid, Barbara. (2009, July 20-27). Always Enough: Heavenly Bread. America, p.45. New York: American Press, Inc. “Finding the Flexibility to Survive,” Copyright © 2008 by Brighton Earley. Part of the This I Believe Essay Collection found at www.thisibelieve.org, Copyright © 2006-2009, This I Believe, Inc. Reprinted with permission of This I Believe, Inc. United Nations. (2009). The millennium development goals report. New York, NY. “The Time to Help Is Now,” Copyright © 2008 by Maria Zapetis. Part of the This I Believe Essay Collection found at www.thisibelieve.org, Copyright © 2006-2009, This I Believe, Inc. Reprinted with permission of This I Believe, Inc.
Harry S. Truman Distinguished Lecture Series
Avila University received exclusive rights from former President Harry S. Truman to establish a lecture series in his name in 1970. The permission was granted to Sr. Olive Louise Dallavis, CSJ, who served as President of Avila from 1960-1985.
Recent Past Lecturers
William F. Buckley Political Analyst, Author & Columnist
Joseph Califano Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare
Clarence M. Kelley Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Nancy Landon Kassebaum Kansas Senator
Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ Social Justice Activist
Louis Zamperini WWII Prisoner of War, 1936 American Olympian
Bob Harris Author, The International Bank of Bob and Jeopardy! Champion
Alephonsion Deng
Author, They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan
Jonathan M. Katz Author, The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster
Carolyn Maull McKinstry Author, While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Right Movement
Reyna Grande Author, The Distance Between Us: A Memoir
William Kamkwamba Author, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Reggie Shaw High School Teacher and Coach
Norm Conard & Megan Felt Executive Director & Program Director, Lowell Milken Center
Richard Gergel United States District Judge and Author, Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Woodard and the Awakening of America
Avila University • avila.edu • 11901 Wornall Road • Kansas City, Missouri 64145 • 816.942.8400
