This fall, students from GEP 101, First-Year Foundations and a few UHC sections will not be the only ones reading Outcasts United, Missouri State’s 2012-2013 common reader. GEP 101 faculty Carol Gosselink, Patrick Grayshaw, Diane Leamy, Paula Moore, Kathy Nordyke, and Dane Wallace, will pilot a new service-learning opportunity that brings the message and story behind the common reader to the community. Much of the effort for this new common reader service-learning model is based on the result of Communications Senior Instructor Robyn Rowe’s stellar collaboration efforts to promote the University’s  common reader throughout the community, which in turn, provides new ways for our GEP 101 students to engage in service-learning.

The above named instructors will select one of four options, centered around the common reader, for their integrated service-learning experience. Options include: 1) serving as reading discussion leaders at public libraries, 2) reading partners at multicultural, veterans, or other community organizations, 3) reading buddies for hospice patients or at health care facilities, or 4) educational reading partners in dual credit high school programs or with grade schools creating story boards to share the message and story of the common reader with children and young adults. Additionally, as a fifth option, students can engage in fundraising activities. Funds raised will go towards the purchase of additional copies of the  common reader to promote reading literacy in our communities or to support a special need in the community centered around the theme of the book.

Robyn has also been instrumental in partnering the common reader as a community activity with KY-3 Anchor Lisa Rose, Barnes & Noble bookstore, and the Springfield-Greene County Library system to name a few.