Important JSC Calendar Dates

  • 11.19 - 11.23.07 Thanksgiving Break
  • 11.26.07 Classes Resume
  • 11.30 - 12.1.07 JSC Dance Ensemble (dance)
  • 12.8.07 The Nutcracker (dance)
  • 12.12.07 JSC Jazz Ensemble
  • 12.14.07 JSC Concert Band (music)
  • 12.17 -12.21.07 Final Exams
  • 12.21.07 Semester Ends

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First Year Experience

Margo WardenGreetings from the office of First Year Experience! During the initial weeks of the semester, students rose to the challenge of meeting new people and adjusting to new situations. By mid-semester, students were confronted with the reality of papers, tests, and adjustments. Soon, students will be meeting with their academic advisors to review their progress and to select courses for the spring semester. It seems a bit odd to have summed up eight weeks of learning and adjusting in just a few sentences. Our first-year students have made a number of original contributions to our campus since their arrival. The Class of 2011 was our first class to participate in a reading of a common text, and they set the mark for every class that will follow. It was really the first time, in my recollection, that we asked students to work so hard during an orientation weekend. It was a big ask....and the students answered in a big way. I invite your feedback and comments as we continue moving through the academic year. Please feel free to e-mail me at margaret.warden@jsc.edu or call at 802-635-1474.

Margo Warden

Director of First Year Experience

Celebrated Author Ishmael Beah Visits JSC

Ishmael BeahNew Student Orientation this August signaled a change in expectations for our first-year class. During registration new students received a copy of Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and a study guide for the book. Students were asked to read Beah's bestseller account of his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone as part of JSC's new Common Reading Initiative program.  During orientation, students participated in discussion groups focused on many aspects of Beah's account. Facilitators and students reported they had rich and important conversations about the book. Descriptive words that arose included: "powerful," "touching," "eye-opening," "gripping," and "important."

In addition to reading the book there was also a musical performance by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, and film presentations of a documentary with the same title about the band's formation in exile from their native Sierra Leone. The Common Reading Initiative culminated in an appearance by Ishmael Beah at the college when he spoke about his book, read excerpts, and answered questions from the packed audience at Dibden Center for the Arts.

 

 

Tuning into Campus Life

Things are happening at JSCIs your student taking advantage of campus happenings?

Now that your student has been in school for several weeks, it's time to take stock of his level of involvement in campus happenings. Do you get the sense that your student is taking advantage of all that college life has to offer? From academic to social to artistic to athletic, we promise that there is plenty to choose from!

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