On March 31, a lunch celebration with Kenyon faculty, staff and students will highlight intellectual and creative life on campus. The inaugural showcase will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Kenyon Athletic Center.
Fifty presentations will show how students are pursuing expansive experiences such as research projects, artistic performances, internships, community-based research, senior honors theses, off-campus study or collaborative assignments.
For example, Aubrianna Osorio ’17, from Long Beach, California, will discuss the experiential learning process of the sociology class “Borders and Border Crossings,” which took students to the U.S.-Mexico border a year ago.
She wrote on the class blog about their visit to Nogales, a town physically divided by border security: “Faced with a 20-foot wall designed to separate nations and communities and families, I found it impossible to be the Mexican-American I’ve always considered myself. The wall told me that I was American, that I grew up in the suburbs and watched Fourth of July fireworks at block parties. It reminded me that I can’t even speak decent Spanish. Standing at the wall, it didn’t matter how many hours I’d spent making tamales every Christmas or how many sitting at my grandparents’ kitchen table. The border makes you choose.”
Osorio went back to Mexico with her grandparents in December. She said that trip and her preparation for this showcase event have continued her thinking on her experience.
“I’ve learned so much about my family’s journey and how different it was for them in the early ’70s when they came to the States, and the knowledge I gained from the class and from the trip has given me an invaluably deeper, richer ability to appreciate those stories,” she said.
The event at the KAC is being organized by Associate Provost Brad Hartlaub.
“The primary goal of this new campuswide event is to celebrate student success on the Hill, share information with one another about the amazing things our students and classes are doing and foster intellectual discussion and creative engagement on campus,” he said.
In this event, students can reflect and interpret how they have integrated one of their high-impact experiences with their academic program. This event’s illumination of the academic program at Kenyon may take the form of a podcast, a presentation, a performance of a dance or a poster about a summer research project.
Food service will not be available at Peirce Hall on March 31 during the event. Food services will be available at the KAC.