LANCASTER, Pa. - Author Cathy Small will discuss "My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student" on Monday, March 26 at 7 p.m. in Franklin & Marshall's Roschel Performing Arts Center. Small's talk sponsored by South Benjamin Franklin House, is free and open to the public. In 2002, Small, a professor of anthropology at Northern Arizona University, took a detour from her primary research to try to better understand her students, and enrolled in her own university as a college freshman. Small moved out of her house and into the dorms, took a full load of courses, joined student activities, and ate in the student dining hall. What she found on her yearlong journey as a student profoundly changed her and will be the topic of her talk. Small has taught at Northern Arizona University for 17 years. An expert in the South Pacific, and Tongan culture,, her primary research and writings have focused transnational issues, and her book Voyages about immigration has been used by more than 100 U.S. universities. Small is the recipient of numerous local awards, including her university's Teacher of the Year and the Faculty Mentor Awards, and has served as a Faculty Fellow and a member of the Pew Higher Education Roundtable. Nationally, she is the recipient of the Praxis Award for Excellence in Applied Anthropology and the national Points of Light award for co-founding the Pipeline mentoring and college scholarship program for low-income youth. Her program received the Governor's Special Recognition award as well as first prize for Best Educational Practices in Post-Secondary Education in the state of Arizona. -30- |
