More Community Activities (4)

Discover how communities and schools everywhere are using This I Believe.

Mérida, México
Habla, an international education center in the Yucatan, recently held a This I Believe writing workshop to help teach literacy and language. Workshop leader Len Newman and Habla director Kurt Wootton said the project was an inspiring way for students to learn English. One of the participants said about the event, “If you can touch the heart of your students, you can flip a switch in the brain and have the greatest results teaching a language.” Click here for pictures.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Allegheny County Library Association has selected This I Believe as its choice for their 2012 One Book, One Community read. Community Partnerships Coordinator Charity Leonette said the group wanted something special for the 10th anniversary of this project and that “this type of community dialogue and experience is the essence of One Book.” The 73 libraries around Pittsburgh are inviting everyone in the region to read, discuss, write, and share their beliefs.

DeKalb, Illinois
At Northern Illinois University, many students are writing This I Believe essays as part of the school’s Common Reading Experience. In a developmental writing class, instructor Nicole Boudreau Smith engaged her class in activities to help them develop content for their essays, including a peer-review essay technique she calls a “speed dating” exercise. Click here to learn more about Ms. Boudreau Smith’s process, and click here to read essays by NIU students.

Orange City, Iowa
Writing students at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, have been reading and listening to This I Believe essays this semester in preparation for writing their own essays. Professor Kim Van Es also asked these international students to accompany her in presenting a writing workshop at the college’s Day of Learning in Community. Click here to see pictures of these enterprising students.

Statesville, North Carolina
For the third year in a row, February is This I Believe month in Statesville, a town of about 25,000 people in west-central North Carolina. The city’s Chamber of Commerce is encouraging every citizen to write and submit a This I Believe essay, and the local newspaper, the Statesville Record & Landmark, is publishing one statement of belief every day in February. Click here to read the beliefs of the people of Statesville.

Chicago, Illinois
At the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Professor Linda Ginzel is challenging her MBA students to write their personal credos for her leadership course. Ginzel says the This I Believe essay asks students to articulate how experiences shape our worldviews. “Leadership requires careful exploration into one’s values and goals,” Ginzel says about the project, “as well as the ability to communicate their importance to others.” Click here to learn more.

Waikoloa Region, Hawai’i
The Friends of the Library–Waikoloa Region is leading a community-building exercise by asking everyone in the region to write This I Believe essays. The project invites those who live on the Island of Hawai’i to learn about each other and to create local pride in the diversity and commonality expressed. These volunteers from the organization have been reading This I Believe books from their bookmobile for inspiration.

Lacey, Washington
First-Year Seminar students at Saint Martin’s University have been reading and writing This I Believe essays to explore their values and beliefs. They also interviewed residents of a local retirement community to learn about their beliefs and to be mentored by their elders. The students then wrote about their own beliefs and about the person they interviewed. Visit the school’s “This We Believe” Facebook page to watch their video essays.

Oshkosh, Wisconsin
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year, and their alumni relations office is inviting the entire college community to write This I Believe essays. Campus radio station WRST will record and broadcast statements by alumni, students, faculty, and staff who are sharing stories of their personal beliefs and core values. Click here and here to learn more.

Danville, Kentucky
Liberal arts school Centre College recently established a campus chapter of This I Believe with the goal of building a public dialogue among students, faculty, and staff. Student organizer Nachelle Mangeot says “College is a perfect time for writing an essay—it’s during college that we get asked the question, ‘What are you going to do with your life?’ In order to answer this question, we must have a deeper understanding of what defines us.” Click here to read more.