The Curriculum for Miami University's 2009 Summer Honors program is an integrated mix of Core Seminars, Field Experiences Service Work, CONNECTions to the future, and Social Activities.
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Core seminars will be dialogic lecture format with built-in time for reflection groups and interactive collaborative work. Core seminars will introduce students to conceptions of leadership, community, social change, privilege, democracy, responsibility, power, and identity.
Core seminars will:
- Build upon essential strategies for engaging students
- Build upon connections to their own identity, culture, and community
- Recognize that young people are assets and experts about their own community
- Engage young people as community leaders on issues that matter to them
- Bring young people and adults together to work as engaged, contributing partners on projects
Sample guiding questions for the Core Seminars: Why do we serve? What does service mean to you? What is good leadership? Why do I sometimes recognize myself in others? What is and is not within our power? How do we justify our power relationships? How do we lead in situations of threat, danger, and insecurity? What is social justice? What is community? How does a person learn to serve? In relating to others, how do we deal with race? How do our differences affect our connections to others? How do we respond to those who do not want our help? What is the value of disagreement and opposition? What can we expect from the people we lead? What does where I live have to do with who I am? How can people move beyond the givens of their lives? How do we justify or explain our power relationships? What risks are worth taking? What is our responsibility to the natural world?
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A field-based, experiential part of the curriculum, entitled “Special Topics Field Experience” will provide students with the time and resources to conduct an in-depth exploration of a social, economic, or environmental issue as a means for better understanding the complex challenges that face communities today, for developing tools and strategies for affecting positive social change, and to link theoretical conceptions from Core Seminars in practical real-world applications. Through participation in on-going service projects at various organizations, including Miami University’s Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine, students will gain a deeper understanding of the complex social issues and how young people can make a difference.
Special Topics Field Experiences will be located at various service organizations including those affiliated with the Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine whereby students will be involved in the ongoing projects including for example, urban education, urban planning, environmental sustainability, architecture/construction, law, and urban art.
Possilbe sites include:
- Drop Inn Center, 217 W. 12th St. Cincinnati, OH 45202. A grassroots community of shelter residents, staff, and volunteers organized to end homelessness by promoting human dignity, supporting positive social change, and offering a wide range of services.
- Over the Rhine Community Housing, 114 W. 14th St. Cincinnati, OH 45202. Helping women, children, families, and communities to reach their greatest potential. Children’s Creative Corner located at the Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine is a project of Over-the-Rhine Community Housing seeks to provide opportunity and empowerment through art classes for youth in the neighborhood. Youth are offered the chance to acquire both technical arts and life skills, thus increasing knowledge of potential self-expression, focusing attention on the fostering of community, and to use creativity as a means for becoming agents for positive social change.
- Peaslee Neighborhood Center, 215 E. 14th St. Cincinnati, Oh 45202. Works to welcome and nurture the involvement of the neighborhood in building a stronger, healthier community. It is a place where all are invited to become a part of a community that is caring, supportive, accepting, and welcoming.
- Our Daily Bread, 1730 Race St. Cincinnati, OH 45202. Provides a warm meal in a safe place for all who come. Students would be engaged in assisting with meal preparation, serving lunches, and general assistance at the site.
- Mary Magdalene House, 1221 Main St. Cincinnati, OH 45202. Provides shelter and other services to homeless individuals.
- Design/Build Project at the Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine, The Design/Build Program of the Department of Architecture and Interior Design, under the direction of John Blake, will be working on a construction project. The Design/Build Program works on the historic housing stock to renovate units for low- and moderate-income occupancy. Over-the-Rhine Community Housing is the Center’s primary partner in the neighborhood and the owner of the properties we work on. Young students will be able to experience all aspects of the design/build process, from demolition work to framing to drywalling to detailing to painting.
- Oxford Community Arts Center, 10 S. College Ave. Oxford, OH 45056. OCAC’s mission is to restore and maintain historic Oxford College as a permanent home for the arts in the Oxford area, to facilitate activities of the community arts organizations, and to promote the arts and arts education. Projects will include assessing the potential for designing and building a rain garden to capture water for existing community gardens located at the site.
• Oxford Sr. Citizens Center, 922 Tollgate Dr. Oxford, OH 45056. The purpose of this organization is to provide health and social services, education, and inspirational programs for the senior citizens of the Oxford community.
Individual and collaborative student work during the Special Topics Sessions will center on:
• Developing an informed critique of a problem/issue
• Imagining the possibilities and impediments for change
• Active engagement in an on-going civic engagement project
• Creating a concrete application/project that demonstrates their learning
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CONNECTions are evening discussion groups/colloquiums that feature guest speakers from a variety of fields/disciplines including political leaders, local activists, and business leaders who are making an impact on their communities. Additionally, one evening CONNECTions session will be structured so that students have the chance to learn more about the opportunities available to them, in general, at Miami University and other OH universities, as well as the specific opportunities at Miami University for continued engagement in civic leadership programs and projects.
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Students will have choices for the activities they would like to attend including, for example, exploring uptown Oxford’s shops and restaurants, attending Oxford’s Thursday night summer concert on the square, recreation night (including swimming, track, corn hole, racquetball, wall climbing, etc.), sand volleyball, bonfire, & hiking at Miami University’s Peffer Park, and “common time” for relaxing, talking, and playing games at the residence hall.
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