New UK Students' First Assignment: Read 'Memoirs of a Boy Soldier'

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 9, 2014) — Thousands of young people all over America, indeed, all around the world — all soon-to-be freshmen at the University of Kentucky — are settling into their favorite reading spot this summer to relish “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” by Ishmael Beah.

Beah recounts his own story as a young teen, forced to endure and provoke unspeakable horrors and then to seek and find the long, hard road to salvation and forgiveness. His true story makes one cringe and weep, then weep and cheer. It is the sixth book designated as summer reading material for all incoming freshmen.

In 2009, the University of Kentucky started the Common Reading Experience (CRE) program. Made possible through the Division of Student Affairs and its New Student and Parent Programs, the Common Reading Experience has two main goals: “first, to bring new students together for a common reading experience that introduces them to academic discourse prior to the start of classes; and second, to engage the entire UK community in a common intellectual experience through year-long programming,” according to the CRE’s website.

Each year, the CRE book is chosen by a selection committee comprised of faculty, staff and students who evaluate books based on several criteria. Ultimately, the book should provoke intellectual stimulation; be enjoyable and easy for students to read; rouse discussion; be relevant to first-year students, the institutional mission and campus initiatives; and should provide the opportunity for additional programming.

Provided a copy of the selected title when they attend their summer advising conference, first-year students are expected to have read the novel before arriving on campus in the fall. During their first week at the university, they join a community of scholars during K Week, where they participate in small group discussions about the book with other new and upper-class students.

This year, the CRE selection committee chose Beah’s celebrated first novel, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.”

Beah tells how, at the age of 12, he fled attacking rebels and “wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence.” By 13, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At 16, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, “he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal.”

Annie Kelly, assistant director of New Student and Parent Programs and coordinator of the Common Reading Experience, says the author “tells his story with honesty and conviction while exposing the reader to global awareness and the power of humanity.” The book was chosen in part to “continuously emphasize diversity at the University of Kentucky,” thus allowing readers “to further broaden their perspectives and understandings of people from different backgrounds.”

The 2014-2015 CRE book also marks the first year the program has intentionally linked the CRE with content areas of the university’s core curriculum. According to Kelly, the book lends itself to multiple content areas of the UK Core including global dynamics, U.S. citizenship, diversity and community, and intellectual inquiry.

By integrating the CRE and UK Core, New Student and Parent Programs and Student Affairs hope to continue to educate and emphasize the importance and purpose of UK’s general education program and intentionally lend the book to diverse academic departments and faculty.

MEDIA CONTACT: Gail Hairston, 859-257-3302, gail.hairston@uky.edu