Reading for Reconciliation at Calvin

November 16, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

This fall some 40 Calvin College students are delving into The Kite Runner, a
story about boyhood friends in Afghanistan, and maintaining a vital Calvin
literary community.

Readers for Reconciliation, a book club entering its fourth year, creates a
place on campus where important conversations can take place says its founder.

"I started the program shortly after I started this position," says Jacque
Rhodes, Calvin's dean of multicultural student development. "I wanted a
creative forum to dialogue about issues of race and class and gender. Reading
is one of my all-time favorite pastimes, so I merged two of my passions."

The group began with seven students and two staff members, Rhodes included,
and has added members with each added book title.

The group's dedicated readers have ventured into missionary life in the Congo
via The Poisonwood Bible, racism in southern America through Black Like Me, the
vicissitudes of life on and off the reservation in Black Elk Speaks, the
struggles of Mexican immigrants as told in The Short, Sweet Dream of Eduardo
Gutierrez, and the life of a African American girl in the 1960s described in
The Secret Life of Bees.

Next spring the group will take up Wild Swans, the story of three generations
of women from China.

Rhodes enjoys the fact that the group is as diverse as its booklist.

"They're every major, every discipline you can imagine," she says. "They cross
disciplines. On campus, off campus. Very multicultural. I don't see another
opportunity on campus where you see such a mixture of students."

For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/readers.htm
Contact Rhodes at jrhodes@calvin.edu or 616-526-6081 for more information

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Received on Wed Nov 16 12:54:28 2005