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Buckeye Book Community
Each summer, first-year students complete their first college assignment by participating in the Buckeye Book Community. First-year students are given a reading selection during orientation and are asked to complete the reading before they return to campus to be prepared to discuss and analyze what they have read. The experience culminates with a visit from the featured author.

The BBC connects the first-year class through a shared experience and introduces the expectation that college students cultivate a life of learning both in and outside the classroom.

Goals of the BBC

Promote reflection and dialogue among first-year students and faculty/staff around a common academic activity
Introduce students to expectations of higher education
Cultivate the life of the mind in and outside the classroom
Help foster community among first-year students
Connect first-year students to faculty and staff through co-curricular programming
Provide students with the opportunity to hear from the author, engage with the author through Q&A, and gain a greater understanding of the author's motivation and writing process

Buckeye Book Community 2013

For information regarding events (including the author visit): fye.osu.edu/thesubmission.html

Check back for discussion questions to guide your reading.

The Submission by Amy Waldman

Re-imagining 9/11 and its aftermath, Amy Waldman's provocative novel begins with a resonant scene: a jury gathers in Manhattan to choose a memorial for the victims of a devastating Islamic terrorist attack. After tense deliberations, they select the Garden, which features trees both living and made from salvaged steel.

Then the jury discovers that the anonymous architect who created the winning design is an American Muslim. The story unfolds to capture the reactions of committee members, the architect, and the American public. As the emotional rhetoric escalates, The Submission becomes a mesmerizing meditation on the human experience.

Past Buckeye Book Community Selections

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