Humanities Express

Humanities Program Spotlight:

Can You Really Enjoy Summer School?

You're a high schooler, and the interminable academic year has just ended. How would you like to spend a week of your precious, long-anticipated summer vacation back in the classroom? Well, chances are that you would jump at that chance, if you were going to attend the Summer Residential Program of the African American and African Studies Community Extension Center.

Now in its sixth year, this annual program is aimed at helping students hone their critical thinking skills and develop an appreciation for and understanding of African American culture and history. The 2005 edition took place from June 26 through July 2; its theme was "Black Images: Cultural Representations and the Media." With the guidance of Viola Newton of the Department of African American and African Studies, 12 students entering grades 11 and 12 studied Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and OSU's own Kenneth Goings's Mammy and Uncle Mose: Black Collectibles and American Stereotyping.

Students also studied black images in film, music, artifacts, and television; took fieldtrips to OSU's Hale Black Cultural Center, the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, OH, and The King Arts Complex in downtown Columbus. A discussion and activity session on stereotyping and biases by guest lecturer Barbara Glass from Ohio State's Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing helped inform the personal Web pages that students went on to create. Each participant's Web page included an e-portfolio, a collection of writing responses and critical analyses of images studied during the week.

Newton describes the program as well-defined with each feature being thematically and rhetorically united. "This structure allowed students to engage in discussion and respond in writing, develop questions, interpret ideas, and evaluate arguments. In short," she says, "students in the program began to think critically about 'Black Images: Cultural Representations and the Media.'"

The program clearly had the effect that Newton and the other facilitators wanted to achieve. In the words of one participant, "The experience taught me to be grateful for the rights and privileges I have as a black person today."

The Summer Residential Program is sponsored by the Department of African and African American Studies Community Extension Center. The Center partnered with the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing in offering the 2005 program, with partial funding provided by Ingram White Castle Foundation.

The African American and African Studies Community Extension Center is located at 905 Mt. Vernon Avenue on Columbus' historic near eastside. Check out the Center's Web site for more information: http://aaascec.osu.edu/.