That service in a military organization teaches unique and valuable skills is unarguable.  The successful exercise of Intelligence Gathering, Planning/Preparation, and Mission Execution depends on sound decision making, on practical leadership skills, on teamwork, and on the self-discipline that is critical to survival in life-or-death situations.  The focus of this course will be on translating the language, context, and framework of your military experience, not only into effective strategies for navigating the often murky institutional and academic waters of higher education, but on beginning the process of discovering meaning in what you have experienced as warriors.

The course will challenge you to learn to read with perception and discernment, to write with clarity and precision, to be not just critical thinkers but courageous ones, and to find language that will enable you to articulate what you have discovered to be true.  These are habits of mind and practice that are foundational to meaningful learning and we will begin to develop them through a very intentional reflection on your own experiences and on the experiences of others.  Those reflections will be guided by films, music, and works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry augmented by tutorials in academic writing, reading, and research.  You can expect to wrestle with the discoveries you make and employ the skills you acquire in formal writing assignments, in a personal journal, in small group work, and in seminar. 

At the heart of any academic endeavor is the library.  Libraries are themselves schools and librarians are in the highest sense teachers.  Each library, though, has in place a unique kind of machinery for the use of its collection.  A key component of this course, then, will be teaching students to effectively manipulate the levers of the particular TESC machine in the service of your academic aims.