American City The First-Year Academic Experience The way students transition from high school to college courses sets the tone for the rest of their academic career.
students from Brazil and Saudi Arabia. That’s in addition to the ILEP Fellows. Along with learning nuances of spoken English and what happens at a Super Bowl party, fellows leave Albany with new approaches to share with colleagues. The first group learned how to teach character education and how to expand the use of technology. “The Thelma P. Lally School of Education has prominence in the field,’’ said Colleen Flynn Thapalia, director of International Recruitment and Admissions. “With the State Department piece, we are taking our programs beyond local, statewide and national levels to resonate internationally.” And as important as what the ILEP fellows brought home were the lessons they left behind. At the College and in the schools they visited, the fellows spoke authoritatively about Islam, Hinduism, various Christian denominations and African religions. One teacher was able to clarify for children that being Muslim did not mean having four wives. A local teacher noted that such exchanges were not insignificant. “When (my) students saw the fellows later at Tulip Fest,” she told the College, “instead of seeing strangers in foreign clothing, they saw people they knew. They were all excited to tell me about it the next Monday.” The State Department has approved Saint Rose for a second year of the program, among just four colleges. In January, 16 ILEP fellows arrived, including, this time, educators from the Philippines and Tanzania.
WAHEERA MARDAH grew up in Highbridge, in the Bronx, attended high school across the Harlem River in Manhattan and then studied her hometown from upstate in Albany. “The ‘American city’ was not something I focused on, even though it was all around me,” said Mardah, a Saint Rose sophomore. “I never thought about why certain sections of Harlem, especially along 125th Street, were Italian and some were mainly Hispanic,” she said, “and how people came and settled those places like little towns and left. This has really opened my eyes.” Likewise Tessa Dickinson, who grew up 90 minutes north of New York and visits frequent-
Waheera Mardah ’16, Dr. Ryane Straus professor of political science, and Tessa Dickinson ’16 present their research project at the Undergraduate Research Symposium inspired by their participation in the American City First-Year Experience.
American City, shines a light on both the city and pursuit of the liberal arts ly. “I thought I knew a lot about the city. It turns out I knew nothing,” said Dickinson. “Now I’ve started seeing similarities among cities.” They were two of 63 freshmen who took part in American City, a year-old project that shines a light on both the city and pursuit of the liberal arts. Entering its second year, the year-long learning experience invites freshmen to examine a city through the lenses of sociology, history, philosophy, political science, composition and literature, three courses per semester. Along the way, they work with a team of experienced professors dedicated to seeing that they develop analytical thinking, writing and oral communication skills. “We want to bridge the gap between what they come to us with and what our expectations are,” said Risa Faussette, an associate professor of history and political science who coordi-
nates American City. “We are focused at the freshman level on providing a rigorous and meaningful liberal arts education that equips students for success in their majors, internships and, eventually, their chosen professions.” Working across disciplines, American City professors carefully design the project as a whole. Collectively, the project covers immigration and the nativist backlash, industrialization, child labor, tenement housing, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, machine politics, police brutality, prohibition, the Harlem Renaissance, the Lower East Side, yellow journalism, the Jazz Age, civil rights, civil liberties and the Brooklyn Bridge. “They get to talk about riots and corruption and brothels — why wouldn’t they be interested?” Faussette joked.
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