Message from the Dean, January 2014

Carole Haber, Tulane University

Dear Alumni, Students, Staff, Parents, and Friends of SLA,

Given the depth and breadth of the School of Liberal Arts and Tulane University, no one should be surprised by the range of opportunities that awaits our students from the moment they step on campus. In the past, we have highlighted the ways in which service learning classes provide knowledge and engagement. We have introduced you to students who, by majoring in a field in SLA, have found exciting internships and careers. In this month’s newsletter, we are excited to inform you about new opportunities being created by the school, as well as one extraordinary and well-established program. Clearly, each lives up to the notion of “only at Tulane”; each provides our students with unmatched educational and career possibilities.

Beginning in the summer of 2014, Tulane students will be able to enroll in three new programs that will take place after the traditional spring semester. Without having to compete with complex schedules or extracurricular activities, the summer allows both students and professors to do intensive study, travel, and experiential learning. Previously, we informed you of the new “Tulane to Hollywood” that will take our students from the Tulane campus to Hollywood and back again. Along with in-depth study on campus, these students will spend a week in Los Angeles meeting and learning from individuals who are at the center of the entertainment industry. In a second program focused on language revitalization, our students will study the Tunica language and then spend a week living at the reservation in Marksville, Louisiana. As outlined by Judith Maxwell of the Department of Anthropology, and under her direction, they will work with Tunica children on language and customs, and help bring the native language to life. Finally, as Celeste Lay explains, the School of Liberal Arts is offering a new, summer minor in public policy, which combines interdisciplinary classroom instruction with service learning. Not only will students study policy formation, but they will experience its implementation first hand by working at city hall and other governmental agencies. And, in addition to these three programs, in the months to come, we will inform you of another donor-supported program that will begin in 2015 and will take students from Tulane into the heart of the peace-making process in the Middle East. For further information on all these initiatives, we urge you to consult our new SLA summer programs website.

But not all such programs are new. As detailed in this newsletter, one outstanding program is almost a decade old and clearly has had a direct impact on the careers of those involved. For nearly ten years, students from Tulane have put their knowledge of international relations to the test by participating in the Model Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. Once again, this March, they will form a delegation and debate politics and policy from the perspective of Brazil, their assigned country. And once again, the students will undoubtedly undergo a life-changing experience.

In fact, we believe that all the new summer programs will have a similar impact on their participants. We know that the unique experiences that await them will not only enrich their education but also provide rare opportunities to define who and what they want to be.