TC Students Learn About Coal Mining History in West Virginia

Students, faculty and staff from Tusculum College recently spent time learning about the difficult lives coal miners and their families faced during the early days of coal mining and living in mining communities, as well as the economic difficulties many of those towns still face today.

Sixteen students and their staff and faculty mentors visited Whipple, W.Va., as part of a cross-curriculum study on the book, “The Glass Castle,” by Jeannette Walls.

The book, set in part in West Virginia, is a memoir of the author’s difficult upbringing dealing with parental alcoholism, neglect and difficult economic circumstances.

According to Amanda Waddell, director of career development at the College and a staff mentor for the Murdock Circle Living Learning Community, the trip was a culmination of the group’s study of the book across several courses, including English, psychology and environmental science courses.

Participating in the educational excursion were students from the Murdock Learning Community and the Quest Learning Community.  The learning community concept at Tusculum College includes students with similar interests or backgrounds living together and taking the same course load in order to create a shared learning environment.  According to Waddell these communities allow for support, in addition to what is already provided by the College, through shared experiences and additional staff and faculty mentors.

The groups read “The Glass House” for their English class, but also addressed the plot’s concepts of extreme poverty and parental neglect in their psychology class and the environmental effects of coal mining in their environmental science course. The trip to West Virginia was a culminating experience for the study unit, said Waddell.

The Whipple area was selected because of its similarity to the setting of the book, a destitute coal mining town in West Virginia.

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International Exposure

One aspect many high school students look for when they are deciding what school to attend is the opportunity for international travel/study abroad programs. We realize this and place a high value on providing international exposure for every Tusculum student. If you haven't thought about traveling overseas, I would really encourage you to consider it.
At Tusculum, you will interact with students from almost 20 different countries, but that is not the extent of the international exposure here. Every student will be provided an opportunity to take advantage of some form of international travel.
To read about some of the places that our students and professors have already been, check out our Center for Global Studies web site by clicking on this link. This website will not only allow you to get in contact with the proper staff members to assist you, it will also give student and professor testimonials and pictures from places like London, Costa Rica, India, and Austria.


Aaron P

Tusculum Students Travelling to Europe

Ten Tusculum College students and two professors are making plans to visit the art, architecture and history of Renaissance and Reformation Europe when they take their classroom to Europe in March.

Because of the uniqueness of the "one class at a time" block schedule offered at Tusculum College, students enrolled in "Politics and Religion in Renaissance and Reformation Europe" will spend two weeks in traditional class work and then take their classroom on the road to see firsthand where the Renaissance was born and where key historical moments took place.

Leading the trip are Dr. Joel Van Amberg, assistant professor of history, and Dr. James Reid, professor of political science.

"After two weeks of traditional coursework we will travel to Europe to visit some of the major sites, buildings and images associated with the Renaissance and Reformation," said Van Amberg.

"There are historical realities that are sometimes hard to understand without traveling to the location where those realities took place," he said. Van Amberg added that in addition to the significant political science, religion and historical topics that they will investigate during the trip, they will also explore the "incredible developments in paintings, sculpture and architecture" that occurred during the Renaissance and Reformation.

"There is just no substitute for actually seeing these masterpieces."

On the itinerary for the trip are visits to Rome and Florence, Italy; Wittenberg, Germany, and Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland. The trip is planned for March and will cover nearly two weeks.

While several of the students are history or political science majors, several others enrolled in the class for the experience of learning the topic first hand and on the original sites were the movements were born.

According to Van Amberg, another positive aspect of the trip is that many of Tusculum's students have never done any traveling abroad.

"This experience will help students and reduce the anxiety associated with international travel. Hopefully it will clear the way for them to take advantage of other travel opportunities offered in the future."

The student Europe trip is part of Tusculum College's efforts to increase the number of students who have an international experience during their college career. As part of this campus wide goal, the College formed the Center for Global Studies in spring 2008, with a mission to "enhance the capacity of individuals and organizations to address local and global challenges through building relationships with communities, institutions of higher learning and organizations globally."

For more information the Tusculum College Global Studies program, contact Dr. Geir Bergvin, director of the Center for Global Studies, at 423-636-7300.