Summer Reading Program: The College at Brockport

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Summer 2013

Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy

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About the Freshman Summer Reading Program

Each freshman at the College participates in the Summer Reading Program. The purpose of this program is to help orient new students to the Brockport academic community by having a common reading experience with fellow classmates and faculty members. First-year students receive a copy of the book during summer orientation. Students unable to attend orientation receive their copy in the mail in the latter part of July.

The summer reading project is a valued experience at The College at Brockport and continues to be part of our involvement in the American Democracy Project for Civic Engagement, a national, multi-campus initiative that seeks to foster informed civic engagement in the United States. The project seeks to create a greater intellectual understanding and commitment to participate in the civic life of the United States.

The program is made possible in part by the generous sponsorship of M&T Bank. Students will be asked to react to the book during the Welcome Week weekend and throughout the semester. They will also take part in discussions, projects and lectures debating noteworthy themes generated by the book.

This year the Freshman Summer Reading selection is Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy by John Wood. The selection of this book was based on criteria that included readability, relevance, multiple disciplinary application, author availability, and civic engagement.

About Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy

A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy

srp2013 From Amazon.com:

What’s happened since John Wood left Microsoft to change the world? Just ask six million kids in the poorest regions of Asia and Africa. In 1999, at the age of thirty-five, Wood quit a lucrative career to found the nonprofit Room to Read. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “the Andrew Carnegie of the developing world,” he strived to bring the lessons of the corporate world to the nonprofit sector—and succeeded spectacularly.

In his acclaimed first book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, Wood explained his vision and the story of his start-up. Now, he tackles the organization’s next steps and its latest challenges—from managing expansion to raising money in a collapsing economy to publishing books for children who literally have no books in their native language. At its heart, Creating Room to Read shares moving stories of the people Room to Read works to help: impoverished children whose schools and villages have been swept away by war or natural disaster and girls whose educations would otherwise be ignored.

Last Updated 5/28/13