Hot off the press! Dr. Yukako Ishimaru and her student mentor Erika Paris, a Secondary Education major at SRU, taught our Humanities Ladder students the art of calligraphy this week.

Learn more about the Humanities Ladder program here: www.humanitiesladder.org

It’s not just another Thursday at Aliquippa High School. That’s because the CPH’s Humanities Ladder program offered another new experience for program participants—Afro Colombian dancing.

SRU's Afro -Colombian Dance Company (headed by Dr. Melissa Teodoro) gave a presentation and dance demonstration to the students at Aliquippa so that they could observe some of the cultural concepts they studied during their Music and Dance Module. 

During the Music and Dance module, students discussed how music and dance are cultural products that tell or communicate information about the historical background of the peoples that created such cultural products. 

In the case of the Hispanic cultures, the presence of the historical links to European, Indigenous, and African cultures can be found in the music and the dances of different regions. For instance, students spent time discussing how the predominance of certain instruments in music and movements in the dances tell us a story of what cultures have had more impact in the region. Particularly, students discussed drums and call-and-response as elements that communicate strong African influence and how we find these elements as predominant in the cultures of the countries with Caribbean coasts. 

When the dancers from SRU spoke to the Aliquippa students, they mentioned the predominance of the drums and the call and response in the dances that they perform, which illustrated and reinforced the concepts they had explored in the classroom.

Check out the Aliquippa High School students dancing alongside the SRU students!

Calling all SRU students!!!

Are you passionate about the humanities?

Do you enjoy helping others?

Are you looking for a cool job this fall?

The Stone House Center for Public Humanities is looking for student mentors for our Humanities Ladder program.

The Humanities Ladder provides college-level humanities education to high school students faced with socioeconomic difficulties through weekly team-taught sessions. As a student mentor, you will work with a Slippery Rock University professor by assisting students at Aliquippa High School OR Union Area High School with once-a-week classroom activities. The goals of the Humanities Ladder Program are to:

• Provide engaging opportunities for high school students to practice reflective critical thinking in disciplines like aesthetics, philosophy, anthropology, history, and more.
• Demystify college for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students who might not otherwise attend university.
• Provide SRU students with opportunities for integrated learning and community engagement.

As a student mentor, you will gain valuable leadership skills and receive a stipend for ten weeks of service. Time commitment is approximately 3-4 hours one day a week.

If you are interested in being a mentor, please send your resume along with your availability for the fall 2017 semester to publichumanities@sru.edu.

Learn more about the Humanities Ladder program here.

Click here to learn how some of our most successful programs are making an impact in the community.

We are marking our one-year anniversary with expansion of our Humanities Ladder program, an upcoming summer camp for high school students, a humanities "lounge", and much more!

Check out our exciting plans for 2017!

Homebrewed History: “Beer and Medieval Europe”
Saturday, April 2 from 2 to 4 pm, Old Stone House
The latest installment of the Homebrewed History educational series will focus on medieval European brewing history and recipes. Guests will be able to sample two brews based on authentic medieval recipes: and English ale and a Belgian trippel. Dr. Paula Rieder will offer a presentation on the evolution
of brewing from domestic, women’s work to a male-dominated enterprise during the late medieval period. Tickets for the event are $25, and can be bought online at this link.