RESIDENTIAL ACADEMIC INITIATIVES PEER-LED UNDERGRADUATE STUDY SESSIONS Northwestern has lots of smart students. To tap into the collective brainpower on campus, the Office of Residential Academic Initiatives and Searle Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning are collaborating on a new model of academic support. Before final exam week, students in Econ 201, Econ 202, Stat 210, Chem 103, and Chem 210 came to an event where students who have already taken those courses were on hand to answer questions and facilitate review discussions. If the promise of more meaningful and efficient studying wasn’t enough to entice them, maybe the catered buffet did the trick. Nearly 60 students showed up at the Peer-Led Undergraduate Study (PLUS) session for help from peer mentors. The Office of Residential Academic Initiatives plans to hold PLUS sessions on a weekly basis in fall quarter to help students in a range of courses as they work on regular problem sets and study for exams.
COMING SOON TO A CLASSROOM NEAR YOU Is an experiment in student-faculty engagement turning into a tradition? The Office of Residential Academic Initiatives offered "Coming Soon to a Classroom Near You" in the fall and winter to help students make more informed choices about their courses during registration season. There are so many terrific academic opportunities that Northwestern students miss out on because they haven’t heard about them or don’t think they’re eligible to enroll. Even though fall seems far away for many, 80 students turned out for a casual and festive dinner this spring that included remarks by faculty members eager to highlight exciting offerings for this fall. Highlighted below are a few remarks from the dozen instructors who presented upcoming courses that evening: Bill Bleich (RTVF, pictured left) explained the record number of spots for non-majors in "Intro to Screenwriting," which is a prerequisite for a range of upper-level courses that he teaches, such as "Writing the Suspense Thriller." Alec Klein (Medill) described his upcoming course for the Medill Innocence Project, which includes case research and reporting on a class trip to Louisiana. Students of all undergraduate schools are eligible to enroll in this course, which may contribute to overturning a wrongful conviction. Carol Simpson Stern (Performance Studies) asked students if they've really ever read James Joyce's Ulysses or just claim to have done so. Either way, she wants students to take her "Performing James Joyce" because they'll engage the text in unique ways. Ana Thome Williams (Spanish & Portuguese) encouraged students to consider adding Portuguese to their linguistic toolkit. The department offers both "Elementary Portuguese" and "Portuguese for Spanish Speakers" as gateways into the language and upper-level courses on literature and culture.