Reynolds Community College faculty, staff and guests gathered
at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Grant kick-off event June 28th. The event was held in celebration of Reynolds receiving
the Transforming Community College
Humanities through Local Engagement grant.
Reynolds was chosen as one of 12 U.S. community colleges to be awarded
the three year $100,000 grant from the NEH.
Dr. Jane Rosecrans, Professor of English, will serve as
Project Director and Dr. Stephen Brandon, Professor of English, will serve as
Co-director. According to Rosecrans, the
grant will give Reynolds the ability to develop courses in the
humanities/liberal arts and help to provide support for humanities faculty.
“The humanities have been under attack in the United States
recently as colleges and universities focus on STEM programs and business,”
said Rosecrans. “The support this grant will provide our humanities
courses is a huge boost. In addition, we are hoping that by developing
our humanities courses by working with academic and independent scholars and
local historical, cultural, arts, and religious institutions, we will also make
these courses more engaging for students.”
In addition to Rosecrans and Brandon, ten faculty
members will serve as Faculty Fellows in history, literature, art, music,
humanities, philosophy, and religion in support of strengthening those aspects
of the college to better serve faculty, staff, students and the community. Numerous seminars and symposiums have been
scheduled in the coming months to give the community an opportunity to share in
learning about history and the arts from world renowned experts
.
For Rosecrans, the NEH Grant kick-off served as a platform
to show upcoming plans for the grant.
Attendees learned about the ways in which the project will move forward
with plans for a website and future expansion.
“We plan to communicate with the college as we proceed over
the next three years so that everyone at the college might share in our
success,” Rosecrans added. “We also hope that this project at Reynolds
serves as a role model for other community colleges who may also take advantage
of resources in their communities and we plan to share what we learn at New
Horizons and the conferences as part of the Community College Humanities
Association. Finally, we hope to create long-term relationships with
academic scholars at four-year institutions and our project partners.”
