In order to prepare the Sacred Heart University Class of 2016 for the start of their college careers and for the academic realities of college life, we are announcing our Freshman Summer Reading Assignment. This year, we have chosen a contemporary text that offers both challenge and inspiration. We ask you to read the text with care, enjoy and think about it, and be prepared to discuss it with classmates and professors when you arrive in the fall. Be sure to bring the book with you.
Our text is:
Our book is a thought-provoking look into the “fates” of two men with the same name. One, our author, became a Rhodes Scholar, a White House Fellow, and a successful investment banker, while the other is now spending a life sentence in prison for the murder of a police officer. Both emerged from similar environments, yet they now inhabit two different worlds. The questions are why and how?
Stacie Williams in the Christian Science Monitor describes our author as “earnest but not naïve as he challenges the oft-repeated theories of nature vs. nurture and the perceived advantages or disadvantages of race and class.” Williams finds it “simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking to read how certain incidents played large—and sometimes irreversible—roles in both men’s lives.”
We are pleased to announce that Wes Moore will be speaking on campus to the Sacred Heart freshman class and to the entire University on September 5, 2012.
In addition, we are planning a number of activities when you arrive on campus in the fall that will link with your Summer Reading, including a series of faculty-led discussions on The Other Wes Moore and how it might inform our lives both as students and as citizens.
Since this is your first “college assignment” at Sacred Heart University, we ask you to approach it as a college student would—be thorough and thoughtful, use your time wisely, and don’t make this just a “last minute” task.
If you have questions about the reading or about anything else, feel free to contact me at 203-365-7648 or at bozzonem@sacredheart.edu.
Have a wonderful summer.
Michael Bozzone
Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences