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| Why We’re Reading "The Kite Runner" |
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| Why a Common Reading Experience? |
| A common reading experience allows all members of the Aquinas College community to gather around a collective, shared program. It allows the community to engage in healthy discussion and debate over a common purpose or theme. The Common Reading Experience offers a foundation for learning around a common purpose through events, discussions, and activities. |
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| A Message from President Balog about "The Kite Runner" |
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| Below is the letter the Class of 2013 received from President Balog, explaining the Common Reading Experience: |
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| Welcome Aquinas College Class of 2013. This summer you will face a number of tasks in preparation for your college experience. Why are we adding another? We want you to see this time as a bridge between your current life and one filled with an expansion of knowledge and preparation for adulthood. With this aim in mind, we instituted the Aquinas College Common Reading Experience. |
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| We recognize the importance of all the diverse experiences and people that create a vibrant world community. We also recognize and celebrate that our Aquinas College community is actively in pursuit of knowledge, truth, and social justice within that world view. We are a nation at war; we are a nation in a challenged economy. It is important for our college community to recognize that our current campus students and leaders, our alumni, and our AQ friends are affected every day by the choices that they make in the environment in which they live and learn. With all of this diversity and all of the experiences that currently define our times, a common reading experience offers us a common academic platform for discussion, debate, and learning. |
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| The book chosen for this year is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The story focuses on the life of Amir, a young man in Afghanistan, as he navigates his life in an effort to make things right again. It is a book rich with insight into Afghan culture, and you will see the connection in Amir's experiences with the values that we hold as a Dominican college: study, faith, community, and, of course, service. This book was selected to assist you as first year students in understanding your opportunities to define your own experiences and to value and explore the relationships and commitments that you have made within your own journeys. |
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| Members of the entire Aquinas community are reading this book with you. Your orientation leaders will be discussing it with you in August. Some of your faculty members will include it in classroom discussions. Events on campus will support the learning that you will experience in these pages. |
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| We look forward to seeing you and to sharing our reactions to this book with you. |
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| A copy of the book will be provided at your STAR (Student Testing Advising and Registration) day this summer. We hope that you will not only read it early in the summer, but that you will also share it with family and friends before you arrive on campus. Through you, they become a part of the Aquinas community as well. |
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| Once again, welcome to Aquinas College. Through reading, discussing, and learning together, we will make all the difference in the world! |
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Sincerely,
C. Edward Balog, Ph.D.
President |
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