Common Read 2023-2024
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CT State Norwalk’s Common Read Program’s mission is to provide first-year students with a shared, enjoyable, academic experience that introduces them to an educational community where intellectual discourse is fostered and valued.
The 2023-2024 Common Read selection is Dave Isay’s Callings.
Spring 2024 Common Read Week: March 18th-19th
Mark your calendars and prepare to dive into a world of inspiration at our Common Read Events!
Join us as we explore the captivating stories and insights of individuals who’ve discovered their true passion and purpose in fields as diverse as accounting, education, hospitality, media, non-profits, psychology, social work, marketing, and beyond!
Save the date, and get ready to be inspired like never before. See you on March 18th and 19th!
Keynote: Stories of Purpose and Passion with StoryCorps
Monday March 18th at 9:30AM, Room E-230
Emily Janssen, StoryCorps Director of Learning & Engagement
Emily Janssen has been a part of StoryCorps’ “corps” for almost a decade. She has facilitated, recorded, and archived over 500 conversations with StoryCorps, and trained thousands of others to do the same. As the Director of Learning & Engagement, Emily designs programs and builds partnerships to bring StoryCorps’ stories and interview model into classrooms and communities across the country. During her tenure at StoryCorps, she traveled with StoryCorps’ mobile recording booth for 18 months, recording and archiving conversations between everyday people from coast to coast.
About StoryCorps:
StoryCorps is committed to the idea that everyone has an important story to tell and that everyone’s story matters. Our mission: to help us believe in each other by illuminating the humanity and possibility in us all — one story at a time. Since our founding in 2003, we’ve helped nearly 700,000 people across the country have meaningful conversations about their lives. These recordings are collected in the U.S. Library of Congress and in our online archive which is now the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered.
Time: 8:00AM
Event Title: Find your Path, Live your Calling – Speed Networking Event
Description: Discover the secret to loving your job! Join us and learn from professionals who have found passion and fulfillment in their careers. Join us for this interactive networking event and hear from professionals, including alumni, who love their work in Hospitality, Human Resources, Education, Psychology, Accounting, Data Science, and more.
Locations: Culinary Arts Dining Room (W121)
Hosted by Tatianna Williams Ascott
Time: 9:30AM
Event Title: Stories of Purpose and Passion with StoryCorps (KEYNOTE)
Description: Come together for an hour of listening as StoryCorps share stories of everyday people talking about the significance of their work, and their paths to finding purpose. Hear recordings of individuals featured in the book Callings, and additional stories from StoryCorps’ vast archive. StoryCorps staff will share lessons she’s learned about a life well lived from decades of listening to people talk about the things that matter most in their lives.
Location: E-230
Keynote: Emily Janssen
Time: 11:00AM
Event Title: Trivia is Calling
Description: Trivia is CALLING you and two or more of your friends to brush up on your CALLINGS knowledge! Come and answer some fun and book related questions for a chance to compete and win gift cards!
Location: E-230
Hosted by: Karla Smith
Time: 12:30PM
Event Title: Tell YOUR Story
Description: In the spirit of StoryCorps, students will record interviews with one another about doing something they love. The discussions will be recorded on podcast equipment and shared on a podcast site.”
Location: E115
Hosted by Julie Casper Roth
Time: 5:30PM
Event Title: Discover Your Calling
Description: An interactive card game developed to help participants focus on the skills, values, and interests that makes the unique. Students will have to think on their feet while being challenged to explore who they are.
Location: E-210
Hosted by Pracilya Titus
Time: 7:00PM
Event Title: “You” Studio: Life Design and Starting Where You Are
Description: Life Design is a concept that helps us tackle the wicked problems of figuring out who we are and what we want to do with our lives by using design thinking. Through hands-on activities, planning with a bias to action, and collaborating with others, we will discover more about the ‘authentic you’ and find your own calling in life.
Location: W-105
Hosted by Stephen Kittredge
Time: 8:00AM
Event Title: Trivia is Calling
Description: Trivia is CALLING you and two or more of your friends to brush up on your CALLINGS knowledge! Come and answer some fun and book related questions for a chance to compete and win gift cards!
Location: E-230
Hosted by Karla Smith
Time: 9:30AM
Event Title: “You” Studio: Life Design and Starting Where You Are
Description: Life Design is a concept that helps us tackle the wicked problems of figuring out who we are and what we want to do with our lives by using design thinking. Through hands-on activities, planning with a bias to action, and collaborating with others, we will discover more about the ‘authentic you’ and find your own calling in life.
Location: E-230
Hosted by Stephen Kittredge
Time: 11:00AM
Event Title: Callings: An Improvisational Odyssey!
Description: Please join the Acting I & Acting II students in an immersive improv journey based on readings from the book Callings. Audience members will be asked for suggestions for scenes and be invited to participate in theatre games based around various professions.
Location: E-108
Hosted by Sabrina Stoker
Time: 12:30PM
Event Title: Tell YOUR Story
Description: In the spirit of StoryCorps, students will record interviews with one another about doing something they love. The discussions will be recorded on podcast equipment and shared on a podcast site.”
Location: E115
Hosted by Julie Casper Roth
Time: 2:00PM
Event Title: Discover Your Calling
Description: An interactive card game developed to help participants focus on the skills, values, and interests that makes the unique. Students will have to think on their feet while being challenged to explore who they are.
Location: W-105
Hosted by Pracilya Titus
Time: 4:00PM
Event Title: “You” Studio: Life Design and Starting Where You Are
Description: Life Design is a concept that helps us tackle the wicked problems of figuring out who we are and what we want to do with our lives by using design thinking. Through hands-on activities, planning with a bias to action, and collaborating with others, we will discover more about the ‘authentic you’ and find your own calling in life.
Location: E-230
Hosted by Stephen Kittredge
March