Making Your Place

CRN: fall: 10209 (8 cr), 10210 (12 cr); winter: 20157 (8 cr), 20158 (12 cr); spring: 30176 (8 cr), 30177 (12 cr)

Note: This 8 or 12-credit, Grays Harbor program will meet in an intensive weekend schedule. The first class of each quarter meets on Evergreen's Olympia campus in SEM 2 B1107. All other classes will meet at Grays Harbor College. Saturday and Sunday classes meet 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Any Friday classes meet 6 to 9 p.m.

• Fall schedule: Oct. 3 (at TESC), 17-18, Nov. 7-8, Dec. 4-6.
• Winter schedule: Jan. 9 (at TESC), 23 (field trip), 30-31, Feb. 13-14, 27, Mar. 6.
• Spring schedule: Apr. 3 (at TESC), 10, 24, May 8 & 9, 16 (field trip), 22, 29.

Because web-based learning activities will be a significant part of the program’s work, all students must have access to internet-linked computers.

On the one hand, all human beings are born into and form communities. On the other hand, Americans idealize individualism and self-reliance. What do we get from these values, and what do they cost us? In this broadly interdisciplinary program, we will blend an analysis of our core social structures with an opportunity for each student to explore his or her personal opportunities for participation and action.

Using perspectives from psychology, linguistics, evolutionary biology, law, literature, and drama, students will work throughout the year to understand community, to develop eloquent expression—both written and oral— and to examine ways to use that eloquence to address a variety of audiences and issues. Our learning about community will be grounded by a close examination of how humans evolved, how they develop, and how they associate. Analysis of theory will lead to practical applications and suggestions for ways to work with and within communities. Issues of social justice and diversity will form a consistent background for themes developed throughout the year.

In fall quarter, we will study intimate communities, particularly families and musical ensembles. In winter, we will look at how our sense of community broadens into the larger affinities of schools, spiritual groups, and community organizations. In spring quarter, our focus will be on government and civic responsibility and the emerging role of technology in creating and connecting ever-larger communities.

Throughout the year students will work on creating and performing oral history monologues based on interviews they conduct—in fall quarter with each other and in subsequent quarters with significant people they choose. These projects in documentary theatre will allow students to celebrate members of their communities while developing cross-disciplinary skills in interviewing, editing, and oral eloquence and gaining the poise and confidence necessary to articulate their ideas across a range of contexts, both personal and public.

Students enrolled for 12 credits will complete a significant independent project each quarter. Fall’s project will be a research paper 10 to 12 pages long, exclusive of bibliography, on a topic of the student’s choice related to our program themes. In winter quarter, students will complete a major art project in a medium of their choice and present it to the class (e.g., photography, sculpture, other visual art, music, drama, dance, etc.). In spring quarter, students will create an enduring web-based collaborative project that will benefit their communities.