Being a university instructor is more than preparing lectures or writing research articles: it’s vital that we create strong connections with our local schools, work in active partnership with our colleagues who teach in those, and help bridge the gap between high school and university. Today’s high schoolers are tomorrow’s university students, tomorrow’s scholars, and tomorrow’s teachers. English Department faculty have recently been involved in two efforts to motivate and inspire high school students to consider how the study of English could play a role in their futures.
As part of a university-wide initiative, over 700 second-year high school students from across Nordland were invited to Nord University’s Bodø campus on October 24th for an “open day.” At this event, which was the first of its kind at Nord, visitors had the opportunity to hear about Nord’s various degree and program options directly from faculty, staff, and students, and get a small taste of campus life. Information and activity stands were set up, and in between presentations from the faculties and during the lunch break, guests could wander freely and ask questions about campus life and university programs.
Representing the English Department, Dr. Andrew McKendry led informative presentations throughout the day about the English One-Year Programme. Prof. Jessica Allen Hanssen, with help from Bachelor of English students (Solveig Landsem, Jenny-Sofie Ulriksen, and Sunniva Lysfjord Sørensen), hosted a lively information stand featuring an American history and culture timeline game. Both the stand and presentations were well attended, and conveyed a clear message: our local high school students don’t have to leave Nordland to get a quality higher education in the subject of English.
On November 1st, Prof. Hanssen and Dr. Myrto Drizou were invited to Bodø videregående school to address the entire first year of about 150 students, for whom English is an obligatory school subject, on the importance of reading novels in English. This visit was connected to a larger, one-month reading project, initiated by their teachers beginning in 2023, in which students are allowed to freely choose an English-language novel for independent reading, journaling, and study.
Dr. Drizou spoke on “Reading Literature in the 21st Century,” and provided insight into how literature is a vital means of reflecting on ideas about race, gender, and social class. Stressing the idea that literature represents a “passport to a wider life,” Dr. Drizou also emphasized, in agreement with a recent article by Turkish author and critic Elif Shafak, the importance of distinguishing between “information, knowledge, and wisdom”. Prof. Hanssen followed up on this with some reflection and practical guidance on their reading project, and offered the students some useful English vocabulary that they could use in their reading journals.
Several students and their teachers – two of whom, we happily discovered, were our former English students themselves – chose to stay behind after the session to tell us about what kinds of literature they enjoy reading in English (romance, crime, and fantasy remain popular!), and to learn more about what we have to offer at Nord.
All told, the English Department reached out to nearly 1000 young people whom we hope will be our future students – in the space of one week! It’s a welcome break from the library to be sure, but also an important part of our community outreach and cultivation of a strong student culture for English at Nord.
