The Daily Bulletin Archive

For the nearly 100 students and faculty members who are part of Buffalo State’s learning communities, today is a capstone. An evening of presentations and performances will convene members of all four learning communities to share their knowledge and experiences throughout the semester.

Held today in E. H. Butler Library 210 from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m., the fourth annual learning community event will feature group and individual presentations on specific research topics and overall experiences. The event is open to campus, but seating is limited; faculty and staff are asked to contact University College to reserve a place.

Scott Johnson, interim dean of University College, said the presentations have historically been both creative and scholarly. “Many of the presentations are amazingly good,” he said. “The students ask hard questions and put a lot of time and effort in their research.”

Johnson said the presentations also dispel the myth that learning communities are designed to provide remedial help. “The learning community is an incredible opportunity for a first-year student to have an exceptional, academically rigorous experience,” he said.

New Learning Community: Da Capo
Da Capo, the new learning community specifically geared for music majors, will use today’s presentations—part research, part musical performances—as a kind of unveiling.

According to Lisa Hunter, assistant professor of music and coordinator of the music education program, “‘Da Capo’ is a term often seen in musical scores, and it means ‘the beginning.’”

Hunter said Da Capo is designed to help students integrate scholarly and performance aspects of music as early in their career as possible. Today’s presentations will include performances accompanied by a theoretical analysis of the repertoire.

In addition to class work, students and faculty participated in two off-campus experiences: an all-day trip to Cleveland, Ohio, to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and attend a performance of Le nozze di Figero at Opera Cleveland, and a visit to the nearby Ujima Theatre to see In De Beginnin’, a gospel musical about Adam and Eve.

First-year students Brenna McCabe and Adam El-Fawal said the community exceeded their expectations. McCabe, a commuter who described herself as shy before joining Da Capo, said the community gave her confidence and helped her make friends easily. “I’m not the same person I once was—I’m more confident,” she said. El-Fawal added that the teachers made the experience special. “They really knew what they were doing,” he said.

Affirming Careers in Teaching
This year’s learning community for aspiring teachers adopted a new name: “In Teachers We Trust.” And with the new name came new challenges.

Students provided after-school tutoring at School 19, Native American Magnet School, as part of their curriculum. They also visited School 45, the International School, and organized a food drive to benefit school families, according to Kathy Wood, director of the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education.

“The overwhelming majority of the students feel affirmed in their career choices because of the learning community,” she said. “The students loved the experience, particularly because it helped get them out in the field early in their college journey.”

This community’s presentation topics will include teacher expectations, cultural pedagogy, the overrepresentation of African American males in special education schools, and funding inequalities for urban schools.

Students Find Reasons to Care
Presentation topics from the “And Justice for All” learning community will include immigrant experiences, genocide, voting rights for college students, and media framing.

“Our experiences this semester helped students look at social justice in a new way,” said Amitra Wall, associate professor of sociology. “The issues allowed students to explore why they should care about problems around them.”

The group toured the East and West sides of Buffalo and visited the Colored Musicians Club and Santasiero’s restaurant. Students also provided tutoring and collected baby items for local refugees with the Priscilla Project, part of Jericho Road Ministries. Wall said the experiences helped students to bond with each other and the professors in the community.

“This community is an eye-opener for students,” she said. “It’s a smaller-knit group, so students cannot hide from their work. But they learned to enjoy working together and doing research.”

America Stripped Bare
As Allen Shelton put it, the longtime “Naked America” learning community experienced “Latinization” this semester. The associate professor of sociology said that most students were from the metropolitan New York City region and descended from Latin America and the Caribbean. Tim Ecklund, associate vice president for campus life, agreed.

“Many students signed up for Naked America because they wanted to see the differences of how the country is portrayed to the outside world versus its reality,” he said.

Topics during today’s presentations will include a study of voodoo in Haiti—with ties to Moby-Dick, the music of Bob Dylan, and the construction of femininity (i.e., defining “beauty”).

Naked America faculty organized a miniconference for students in late October called “Uncanny America.” Talks by a historian, artists, musicians, a documentary filmmaker, and Pulitzer Prize–nominee Charles McNair reinforced students’ classroom learning. Naked America will continue for another semester.

An Empowering Experience
Learning community faculty members share a unique teaching experience. “You can do things in a learning community that just aren’t possible in a stand-alone course,” Shelton said.

Ecklund said that faculty members feel invested in their core group of students (normally around 25) and develop close relationships. “The environment allows participants to get to know one another on an intellectual basis,” he said. “And more importantly, first-year students feel an incredible sense of empowerment.”

Hunter is glad that the learning communities unite faculty from various disciplines to help students achieve success. And although the experience culminates today, she says it’s only the beginning for students.

“We’ll see the best results in the future,” she said. “We’ve planted seeds for what it takes to be successful here and in their careers.”