RCAH Fellows and Mentors Programs
One of the great virtues of a residential living and learning community like the RCAH is the variety of visiting artists, speakers, and groups that will come through our doors each year. They will enrich the academic environment in innumerable and sometimes unimaginable ways. In addition to these occasional visitors, we also will benefit from the regular presence of a highly select group of RCAH Fellows and Mentors drawn from the wider MSU community. The Fellows and Mentors Programs are integral components of the immersion, co-curricular, and community engagement activities that will run throughout the RCAH.
CASTL Fellows
The Fellows Program is a competitive fellowship program for doctoral students at MSU with research and teaching expertise in the arts and humanities and a strong interest in residential programs such as ours. The Fellows Program is co-sponsored by the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) and the MSU Graduate School. Over 30 applicants submitted detailed proposals to work with RCAH undergraduates in 2007-08. The 16 who were selected come from the College of Arts and Letters, the College of Music, and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Each of the selected CASTL Fellows will present a summary of her or his research project to RCAH faculty and students at a regular weekly or bi-weekly gathering. What is distinctive about these research projects is the way that they focus on teaching and learning as a subject of scholarly research. These Fellows take their careers as teachers seriously!
More informally, the Fellows will work closely with self-identified groups of RCAH students on projects initiated by the students themselves. For example, students interested in creating a photography exhibit for the RCAH chronicling their study abroad program or community engagement project may work with Fellows with expertise in museum studies, cultural studies, or community development.
Language Mentors
In addition to the CASTL Fellows, there will also be a select group of doctoral Mentors who will be available to work with RCAH undergraduates on projects and initiatives in two specific areas: world language proficiency and music.
The World Language Proficiency Center in the RCAH will have two components. One is the Testing and Assessment Component which Prof. Dan Reed directs. The other is the immersion component that Prof. Deidre Dawson is coordinating. Language immersion activities will take many different forms, from language tables and study abroad programs to more unusual activities like poetry readings, food festivals, and story-telling sessions in a nearby refugee center or migrant worker community. The common theme is interaction with native speakers of languages other than English in a setting in which the arts and humanities have a role to play.
In 2007-08 there will be three Language Mentors in German, French, and Spanish, with plans for adding other languages soon. A fully-equipped language lab will provide students with the support they need to hone the speaking and listening skills they will be developing in mentored collaborative projects.
Music Mentors
The Music Mentors will play a similar role. Many RCAH students have an interest in the performing arts, and some will be able to participate in the new College of Music minor and in courses offered by the Department of Theater. Others will participate in the clubs and groups sponsored by these units. A Performance Art specialization, which will be anchored in the RCAH but open to all MSU students, will provide students with opportunities to shape their own distinctive, multi-dimensional performance projects with help and advice from several Music mentors from the College of Music.
On a more informal level, Mentors will be available to students who want to create their own, ensembles, bands, and other eclectic groups. Three music practice rooms, each with its own piano, will be available to RCAH students, and the large multi-purpose auditorium in the RCAH provides a wonderful venue for student performances.