First Year Experience

(I’m at the First Year Experience Conference in Atlanta this weekend celebrating the Superbowl and my birthday. I thought I’d share the page I made for educators considering using Where Am I Wearing as a common reader. )

First Year Experience

In the 2010-2011 school year Where Am I Wearing was selected as a freshman common reader by Elmhurst College, Pfeiffer University, and Wingate University.

In the following video you’ll…

  • Learn why Pfeiffer University selected Where Am I Wearing
  • Watch what Kelsey has to tell an auditorium full of freshman about getting kicked out of his first college class & being undecided
  • See a synopsis of Kelsey’s global quest
  • Hear Kelsey’s advice on how we all can be glocals (local & global citizens)

Connect ideas & people

Email hi@kelseytimmerman.com to…

  • Arrange a Skype visit with Kelsey
  • Have Kelsey visit your campus
  • Organize a Skype session with garment workers and your students

Fun Stuff

Note from Kelsey

When I was on the trip that would become “Where Am I Wearing?” and even during the writing of the book, I never imagined how the book would be used. Middle schools, high schools, churches, and book clubs have used the book. But the most rewarding usage for me has been when the book is used as a freshman common reader.

Cam workersWhen I was on the trip that would become “Where Am I Wearing?” and even during the writing of the book, I never imagined how the book would be used. Middle schools, high schools, churches, and book clubs have used the book. But the most rewarding usage for me has been when the book is used as a freshman common reader.

In the 2010-2011 school year three schools Elmhurst College, Pfeiffer University, and Wingate University selected Where Am I Wearing? as a their common reader and brought me onto campus. I spent a few days on each campus meeting with freshman and talking to a wide range of classes and groups about globalization, the garment industry, underwear, being a freshman, global poverty and how we can be responsible glocals (global and local citizens).

Essentially, the book is about what I did after college and how college inspired my curiosity to ask, “Where Am I Wearing?” I never never got a job because of my degree in Anthropology, but I’ve put the knowledge I gained in college to use in my own way.  Being able to share my experience with college freshman who are at the “What am I going to do?” stage has been so rewarding, and it is such an honor to share the stories of the workers I met in Bangladesh, Honduras, Cambodia, and China .

I enjoy interacting with students in any way I can, including Twitter, Facebook, Skype, or discussion boards like Blackboard.

What students and faculty are saying

Deb Burris (Director of First Year Experience / Chair Dept of Communication and Journalism, Pfeiffer University):  “EXACTLY what we hoped for in a Freshman Reader.” (that’s Deb introducing Kelsey in the video above)

Martin Hughes (Professor, Calvin College): “…so relevant and interdisciplinary…we packed the auditorium. He really knows how to relate to today’s college students, and he gets them to reckon with important yet difficult issues perfect for a common reading program!”

Melody Loya (Professor, W. Texas A&M University): “Kelsey is relaxed engaging; approachable, available, and just plain fun. “

Alzada Tipton (VP of Academic Affairs Elmhurst College): “I’ve never attended  a presentation that I enjoyed and respected more. An exceptionally effective blend of humor and humanity: Kelsey has the rare gift of being equally talented at getting the students to laugh and to think, and it’s very effective at reaching students where they are and getting them to take some steps down a path to where they could be. I really appreciate that Kelsey was willing to share with students his own college experience and to give them some advice…in a completely genuine and real way that made them take it much more seriously, I am sure, than all the advice droned at them by professors and administrators in the first two weeks of their college experience.

Jacob Franchino (student Rutgers University): I really appreciated getting to see the personal side of this issue completely stripped of politics. Where Am I Wearing affected me in a personal way.

Hilary Broms (student, Monmouth College) : “ I do have it “made” and I have never once thought about who made it for me. It is crazy to think about where I am wearing.

Kasey Zapatka (student Point Loma University): It has truly influenced me and I wholeheartedly agree, that they are “no longer just clothes”.

Colleen Boyd (Professor of Anthropology, Ball State University): “…fills in blanks I could not, since it puts names, faces and compelling stories to the (global economy).

Bryce Sneed (student, Wingate University) – “I’m not a fan of reading but I just can’t seem to put this one down. I have come to realize that the struggle of what we americans think is right and what people of other countries think is right is very hard.”

 
4 comments

We would like to use Where Am I Wearing for our FYE common read at Georgia Highlands College this fall. Kelsey Timmerman will be speaking in Rome, our main campus community. Would you please send me an exam copy and let me know of the order price for a multi-campus wide common read. Thank you very much.
Joan Ledbetter
Georgia Highlands College
706.368.7514
jledbetter@highlands.edu

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