Television shows, movies, music, books, and other forms of mass media provide tremendous insight into the varied experiences of first-generation college students. Through character portrayal and complex storytelling in their scripts, lyrics, and written words, audiences are provided a glimpse into the real lived experiences of first-generation students. This course will cross analyze characters and various forms of popular mass media with current student development theories and intersectionality as it relates to holistic student success.
- To gain an understanding of the experiences of first-generation students.
- To increase the visibility of the first-generation identity within popular culture and mass media.
- To explore the intersections of race, society, familial status, and lived experiences through various student development and identity theories.
- To foster self-exploration and critical thinking skills.
- To effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts or of works in the visual/performing arts.
Required Books:
Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis
Grading for the course will be broken down as follows:
Attendance & Participation: 20%
Team Project & Presentation: 30%
Reflection Papers: 20%
Paper: Finding Me: A Memoir: 30%
*All work should be submitted as a digital copy through Canvas.
Final Grade: Your final grade will appear as a letter grade according to the following scale:
90-100%: A
80-89%: B
70-79% : C
60-69%: D
0-59%: F
Attendance & Participation (20%):
Since in-class discussion is an important part of the learning experience in this course, you are expected to attend and actively participate in class on a regular basis. However, in order to accommodate your schedule and life, you are welcome to miss up to three classes during the semester. If necessary, please use these absences wisely. If you foresee the need to miss more than three classes during the semester, please discuss your conflicts with me.
There is in general no need to provide me with documentation related to your absences from class. However, if you miss more than three classes during the semester and wish to have an exception made regarding your attendance and participation grade (e.g., you were ill or faced some other personal emergency), you will need to provide documentation for all of your absences, to show that each was in fact worthy of an exception.
At the end of the semester your Attendance & Participation grade will reflect your average points earned across all classes (allowing for three absences).
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.
This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Humanities area.
Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.
This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:
- How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic and philosophical works.
Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:
- Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts or of works in the visual/performing arts.
Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:
- Ethical Reasoning
- Information Literacy
- Intercultural Competence