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FEATURES
But rise3 is more than just
research, internships, and service
learning: it’s about thoroughly
integrating those experiences
into students’ education and
engaging them to think critically
and creatively. Every rise3 project,
whether conducted in a classroom
setting or independently, requires
students to reflect on what they
learn before, during, and after their
experience. They also celebrate
the students’ accomplishments
in campus-wide forums such as
public performances and poster
presentations as a way to honor their
work and inspire others.
“This structured reflection
exponentially deepens the learning
process,” said Professor of Theatre
Dr. Alan Litsey, rise3 director.
“Students not only identify learning
in rise3, they also identify when
that learning has taken place and,
importantly, how it will make a
difference in the future.”
In its first year, the 2013-14
academic year, there were 16 rise3
pilot projects—either courses offered
by BSC faculty with a research,
service, or internship component or
opportunities for students to engage
in those experiences on their own.
This year, 29 pilots are being offered.
Some projects are independent
study organized with a professor and
a student—Litsey is collaborating
this semester with a theatre major
who is directing four short plays by
Tennessee Williams, for example—
while others incorporate rise3
elements into a course, often in
surprising ways. For instance, a
business administration course
called “Marketing the Arts”
requires students to act as real-
world marketing consultants;
one group even worked with the
Birmingham Museum of Art to
design a marketing plan for reaching
Millennials.
“This goes beyond the status quo
by giving students actual marketing
problems to solve,” said the course’s
professor, Dr. Carolyn Garrity,
assistant professor of marketing.
“It expands their networks and
introduces them to new outlooks
and viewpoints, engaging them with
the community outside of BSC. This
kind of hands-on learning should, in
turn, enrich classroom learning.”
Take, for example, a project that
three business students tackled
with Associate Professor of Business
Administration Dr. Bert Morrow,
who was asked to understand
business issues facing farmers
in rural Uganda. The students
traveled to Uganda with Morrow
this summer to hold focus groups,
collecting data from 183 Ugandan
farmers. (See sidebar on p.21.)
“This is an opportunity I don’t
think I would ever have gotten
at a large institution,” said Billy
McMahon, a senior business
administration major from
Homewood who participated in the
project. “This is something that a
graduate student would have done.”
That, Litsey said, is one of rise3’s
strengths—that students get the kind
of focused, engaged, learning that
often isn’t available to undergrads;
it takes BSC’s traditional liberal
arts approach a step further. No
matter the project, students who
participate are asked to think
critically about their own personal
goals, make connections between
classroom knowledge and real-world
experience, and to consider their
own role in the wider world.
“A rise3 experience becomes part
of a student’s muscle memory,”
Litsey said. “Students own the
skills developed in this closer
collaborative model and are ready to
build on them. Rise3 is a bridge for
students to build their futures.”
Beyond theaction