By: Diana Dopheide, Lion’s Eye Staff Writer, dmd5846@psu.edu

In the fall of 2018, the Brandywine Book Club and the Brandywine Common Read Committee collaborated in order to create an environment in which students, faculty and staff can all participate in a literate environment on campus.

Previously, the Common Read Committee selected a book yearly and encouraged faculty to utilize the text in their curriculum by analyzing various themes and their significance.

Within the last year, the Brandywine Book Club was created for students to develop critical thinking and literacy skills.

This year, the two organizations decided to combine in order to engage both students and faculty through book club discussions.

The book club still follows its original format with monthly meetings and discussion questions; all students, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate.

The collaboration of all campus members is beneficial to the book club and its growth.

“It is a wide array of perspectives that are gathered in our meetings, which benefits all participants. Encouraging community on campus helps engagement, and hopefully helps book club members feel a little more like they have a place at Brandywine,” said Annie Jansen, a reference and instruction librarian.

The common goal of the two organizations is to promote literacy collaboration among all individuals of the Brandywine campus.

“As a faculty member, I hope that the merging of Common Read and the Book Club might lead to more stimulating conversations between students, staff and faculty, and contribute to a richer, more vibrant intellectual atmosphere on campus,” said Jim Berkey, assistant professor of English and director of the Writing Studio.

So far, the club has read two books, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.

“These two books are important to show students, faculty, and staff that being a ‘reader’ is not defined by reading classic novels, but really by engaging with any type of narrative structure, including pictures and sounds,” said Jansen.

These novels were chosen because of the themes presented, including gun violence, interpersonal relationships and LGBTQ rights.

“We chose books whose subject matter informs and responds to larger cultural conversations in today’s society and whose subject matter might be relevant to our students’ lives,” said Berkey. The club plans on continuing to choose novels among the young adult genre in order to target the college community.

“Given the challenges of talking about issues like this as well as the emotional reactions, learning to discuss these ideas with other people and learning to be open to different points of view is crucial for critical thinking. The fact that these topics are prevalent in the news also increases critical thinking skills, because it helps students connect with the broader culture,” said Berkey.

These topics also promote literacy in various genres by creating assimilation through other’s inputs.

“Reading literature improves empathy and socialization, and the dialogue around encourages a type of empathetic understanding and civility,” said Jansen.     

All students, faculty and staff are encouraged to join the book club’s monthly discussions in Vairo 110. The meetings occur the third Tuesday of every month and last from 12:15-1:15 p.m.