 The Common Reading Experience, a joint initiative
between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs,
engages first-year students in intellectual inquiry
that encourages students to explore personal,
racial, religious, and cultural issues. The program
was introduced in summer 2007
during new student
orientation and piloted in Fall
2007 in the
Freshman Seminar classes.
Kim Harris and Lucy LePeau, Co-Chairs
of the UNC Charlotte Common Reading Experience
Selection Committee,
are pleased to announce the 2008 selection,
Enrique’s
Journey,
by Sonia Nazario.
The book recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a teenage
Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and
peril to reach his mother who left when he was five
years old to work in the United States so that he
would have enough to eat and be able to go to
school. With only her North Carolina telephone
number to go by, Enrique sets out to find her,
travelling by train through the
 length of Mexico and
across the border. The book’s author, Sonia Nazario, is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for
the Los Angeles Times, and by all accounts
this is an engaging, and timely read.
The
Common Reading Experience Committee is also pleased
to announce that the author will be visiting campus
on
Tuesday, October 21,
2008, to
discuss the book, and other related enhancement
opportunities are in the planning stages.
Anyone
interested in the common reading should contact
Lucy
LePeau
or
Kim Harris
for additional information.
Former Common Reading Experience Selections:
2007 -
The Color
of Water by James McBride |
