On Saturday, May 14th, we gathered to celebrate the 2011 graduating class from the College of the Liberal Arts. Rain threatened all day, but somehow Robin Robinson and Andrea Crews, who did an excellent job coordinating the events, managed to arrange for the rain to hold off until everyone was safely inside a packed Bryce Jordan Center.
Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 27
Episode 27 of Liberal Arts Voices is our “Commencement Special.” Outgoing Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council (LAUC) President Geoff Halberstadt and outgoing LAUC Vice President Amanda Craig join the program to discuss their undergraduate experiences in the College of the Liberal Arts as they prepare to graduate this upcoming Saturday (May 14, 2011).
This year, Amanda will be serving as the Sociology Department Marshal. In this podcast, Amanda and Geoff share their fondest memories of their time here at Penn State. They discuss their tenure in LAUC, the internships in which they participated, their most memorable classes, etc. Both graduating seniors talk about how their educational experiences in the College of the Liberal Arts were shaped by the relationships they made with fellow students, advisers, faculty and staff.
The Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies Office would like to thank Amanda and Geoff, and the other graduating members of LAUC for their dedication to the College and specifically to our unit’s social media initiative. We hope that CLA graduating seniors listen to this episode of Liberal Arts Voices and share some of your favorite Penn State memories!
For more information regarding the Spring 2011 College of the Liberal Arts Commencement Ceremony, please visit our website. Best of luck to all graduating liberal arts majors and remember that you can keep in touch with the College of the Liberal Arts by subscribing to our blog, becoming our fan on Facebook, and following us on Twitter.
Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 27
To subscribe to Liberal Arts Voices through iTunes, click here.
We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.
LAUC at Obama
Robert Turchick, Amanda Craig, Lauren Perrotti, Matt Jewitt, and John Zang also contributed to this post.
How many mornings do you wake up at a top notch university, and get to see and hear the President of the United States?
Yesterday morning, members of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council witnessed President Obama’s remarks in Rec Hall. President Obama came to University Park to tour labs and speak on innovative sciences and the economy. We’d like to thank the College of the Liberal Arts for this tremendous experience; one that won’t soon be forgotten.
The theme for President Obama’s address was “winning the future.” He challenged students to work hard and pursue big dreams, adding that “the future will be won” in places like State College. The President spoke about the long term goals of the nation, and the projects and initiatives that will lead to America’s success in the 21st century.
President Obama highlighted the ground breaking work being done at Penn State regarding energy efficiency. This work is extremely important in a country where 40% of all energy is consumed by buildings in the form of daily utilities. The President remarked that “while this innovation may not be sexy,” it is essential to the preservation of the well being of the planet and to curb the effects of climate change. It will also save businesses money, allowing them to grow and create new jobs.
Strongly believing that the younger generations will the “lead the American idea,” President Obama finished his speech with a challenge to young people: “out innovate, out educate, and out build” the rest of the world. If we do this, the President has no doubt that “America will win the 21st century, just like we won the last century.”
How do you think the College of the Liberal Arts is out innovating and out educating other institutions?
You can find more photos of the event on LAUSatPSU’s Flickr page. Also, make sure to check out the video of LAUC’s live coverage of President Obama’s speech:
What can the College of the Liberal Arts do for you?
Written by Student Body President Christian Ragland.
What can the College of the Liberal Arts do for you? I say that the College of Liberal Arts can do everything for you and will certainly lay a great foundation geared towards your success.
I like to think of myself as one of the many success stories that come from the College of the Liberal Arts. Coming into my last and senior year, I am blessed to be able to say that I hold the position of the Penn State Student Body President. Now I could not have gotten to this point without some help. Besides my faith and the support of my family, the College of the Liberal Arts has played a key role in the development of my leadership skills which allowed me to get elected Student Body President.
To start from the beginning, when I first came to Penn State, I came here with a passion to lead people to better things and better environments. I didn’t care if my leadership would be in the realms of student government, community development, or the federal government; I just knew that I was passionate about leading people to the next levels of their lives. So I quickly realized that my home for the next four years would be in the College of the Liberal Arts as a Political Science and Sociology candidate. At the same time, I also got involved with student government as well because I saw student government as a foundation builder to the next level of leadership in my life. Now how does this all have to do with me winning my election? The opportunities afforded to me by the College of the Liberal Arts were by far some of the main keys to my success. The Political Science and Sociology classes that I took helped me understand academically the role of passionate leaders in our society and the history of those leaders who came before me. The many internships provided by the College helped me gain the experience needed to become a credible leader. The alumni who continue to give back to the college have paved the way for me to be able to follow in their footsteps. So in essence, becoming Student Body President was quite easy now that I think about it, because the College of the Liberal Arts continuously prepared me for the role.
So again, what can the College of the Liberal Arts do for you? The real question is what can’t our College do for you? The diversity of academic disciplines, people, and real experiences in the College of the Liberal Arts is what I believe to be the heart of the College. Now in essence, it is up to us students to continue the legacy of the College of the Liberal Arts. I do not know about you, but I plan to continue to make the College more prestigious and promising by becoming an expert and a leader with the tools that the College of the Liberal Arts afforded me.
For the Glory,
Christian Dupree Ragland
Student Body President
Technology and the Liberal Arts
Tomorrow I am meeting with a group of Penn State alums to talk about about how we at the College of the Liberal Arts are using social media technology to enrich the liberal arts education of our students.
The main point of the presentation is to illustrate how technology can be used to reinforce the traditional virtues of the liberal arts: ethical imagination, excellence in communication, professional leadership, global perspectives and an openness to diversity.
We have received written comments on the initial YouTube video, and via email from some of the alums with whom we shared the video prior to our meeting. I have gathered some of these comments below.
It is striking that when the conversation is opened to the public by social media, the modes by which people respond is so varied: video, written comments, emails and even tweets (thanks @jeffswain). On one hand, it is difficult to follow a coherent thread of the conversation unless someone gathers them together – as I have tried to do here. On the other hand, the variety of different modes of response and the different ways the ideas in this diverse conversation are shared adds a dimension to the conversation that extends beyond what might have happened had we limited ourselves to written or in person communication.
What does this teach us about the power and the limits of social media technology? How are we to best prepare students and ourselves not only to live in, but more importantly to thrive in a world of such dynamic and variegated communication?
Response gathered from emails from alums
David Eltringham linked to three videos here:
Skip Lange suggests that technology is a medium of communication and that “information is not power, but the application of information is.” He emphasizes too, that technology connects people and links us “to ideas and the experiences of others not readily available ever before.”
Patricia Aguer makes the point that “as we become so immersed in technology, human contact and nostalgia are going to become extremely important to us.”
Beverly Sobel-Redler reminds us that different students learn differently and that having a variety of ways to engage students will help more succeed. She also rightly emphasizes how important it is not to pursue technology for the sake of being seen as innovative, but because it helps us reach our educational goals.
From written comments to the initial video posted on YouTube:
JohnZangPSU writes:
“As the world ‘flattens out’, students are able to easily interact with other cultures and expand their understandings of the world and their specific interests. The possibilities of videos conferencing across oceans seem an enticing opportunity.”
glh77 writes:
“I think there are two important aspects here: communication and community. Emerging technologies are increasingly connecting people from across the globe. Specifically, the virtues of the Liberal Arts can be championed and discussed in different mediums that reach untapped audiences. Diversity, democracy, civic engagement can be discussed in a framework of Liberal Arts values and ideals. This discourse will strengthen community ties and hopefully lead to better communities for tomorrow’s world.”
The Presentation
Liberal Arts at 200
One of the highlights of the Fall 2009 semester was the celebration of 100 years of Liberal Arts education at Penn State.
Edwin Erle Sparks, the 8th President of Penn State, established the College of the Liberal Arts in 1909 by bringing art and mathematics together with the School of Language and Literature and the School of History and Political Science. (For more on our history, see the CLA website.)
Who in 1909 would have imagined that their work and the values they embodied would be written about in media that, with the click of a button, makes their words and deeds instantly accessible to an infinite number of people, each of whom is empowered to respond directly to what they have done?
As we begin our second century, it is perhaps fitting to pause a moment to consider: how will liberal arts students, faculty, staff, and alums commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of the College; what will have changed; and what will endure?
In considering this, I am confident of only two things:
- Education in the liberal arts will have been transformed by the digital media revolution through which we are living; and
- The values and abilities taught by the liberal arts – respect for diversity, ethical leadership, excellence in communication, and creative, critical thinking – will remain of decisive importance for a successful and meaningful life in 2109.
Let me end by inviting you to respond to any or all of the following questions:
- How has the liberal arts experience at Penn State changed over the past 100 years?
- What are the values, skills, and ideas that endure?
- How will an education in the liberal arts change in the next 5, 10, 50, 100 years?
- What forms of communication will the College community use to commemorate our bicentennial?