Arts and humanities are naturally woven into academics at Wake Forest. From a concert to promote environmental conservation and a student art buying trip to a Musicircus and an interdisciplinary symposium on biotechnology, students enjoyed opportunities to learn through a variety of lenses during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Connecting through art

For 10 years, Wake Forest and Reynolda House Museum of American Art have worked together to form academic connections – a relationship that showcases how a liberal-arts education mindset joins knowledge and resources in surprising ways. “Exchange mates,” a story in the Winston-Salem Journal covers the many ways Reynolda House supports the work of students and professors.

Conservation liberal-arts style

Forty years from now, the world’s rainforests may be gone and with them our chance for a stable environment. Wake Forest’s JAMAZON, the first of six Secrest Artist Series events, celebrated creative minds from biology to music to history to English to show that real, sustainable change means engaging non-scientists, too.

Humanities Institute receives $1 million donation

Wade Murphy (’00), left, with Humanities Institute director Mary Foskett

Wake Forest graduate Wade Murphy (’00) donated $1 million to support the Humanities Institute, extending the reach and impact of humanities and the liberal arts. Murphy’s gift allows the Humanities Institute to continue to foster interdisciplinary scholarship and explore creative ways to use knowledge to solve real-world problems such as exploring the important connection between story-telling and medical care for breast cancer patients and hosting discussions on the ethical and religious intersections of biotechnology and technological advances.

Performance meets liberal arts at IPLACe

A new Interdisciplinary Performance and the Liberal Arts Center (IPLACe) supports projects combining performing arts with other academic disciplines. To celebrate the centennial of composer, writer and artist John Cage’s birth, Wake Forest hosted Cagefest, a series of interdisciplinary events highlighting Cage’s many talents. As part of the event, the Z. Smith Reynolds Library hosted a free-for-all community Musicircus in the atrium. What’s a Musicircus? Watch the video.

Students hit the Mainstage Theatre

• Students lobbied to perform ‘Marisol’: For a post-9/11 generation, José Rivera’s play “Marisol” captures the feeling of living life with the fear that something bad could happen at any time. The play kicked-off the 2012-13 Wake Forest Theatre season and was covered in the Winston-Salem Journal.
• Understanding Shakespeare: If all the world’s a stage, and all men and women merely players, then Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” would be easier to understand. Wake Forest actors helped teach future high school teachers how to help teens better understand the Bard.
• Vox: An ensemble of Wake Forest students spent three weeks with visiting actor and director Tim Miller producing “VOX” (which is Latin for “voice”) — creating a production based on their own personal stories, experiences and memories. Read more: “Student voices will not be silenced in Vox.”
• Noises Off: The season ended with Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” — a physical play within a play comedy that includes actors running up and down stairs and in and out of doors. The play was previewed in the local paper and was reviewed by the Winston-Salem Journal critic Susan Gilmor who wrote that actors pulled off the challenging comedy “quite nicely.” Read the review: “Laugh’s on tap in WFU’s ‘Noises Off’”

Film at the Forest

Winston-Salem has become a hot spot for North Carolina’s thriving film industry. And from a student-run film festival to a graduate program in documentary film to an undergraduate film studies program, Wake Forest is part of the action. Documentary Film Program 2013 graduates Sam Smartt and Chris Zaluski were interviewed on CBS This Morning to talk about their award-winning documentary “Wagonmasters” — a film on the rise and fall of the classic station wagon. They were also featured in the New York Times, “‘Wagonmasters’ Celebrates the Classic American Dream Through Station Wagons.” “Wagonmasters” was awarded second place at the 34^th Annual College Television Awards. The nomination marks the fifth time a student film supervised by Wake Forest’s Documentary Film Program faculty has been recognized by the Emmy nominating committee.

Finding the next Picasso

Over spring break, seven students visited art galleries in New York City to select works of art for the University’s Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art. The buying program, believed to the only one of its kind in the country, has occurred every four years since 1963. The “Hunt for a Legacy” was covered in the Winston-Salem Journal. Wake Forest Magazine’s story, “Work of Art,” features more about the exceptional quality of the art students have purchased. To learn about J.D. Wilson (’69) who participated in the third University art-buying trip as a senior, read “A life ‘intertwined’ with art.”

Bringing new life to a ‘dead’ language

After participating in a Teaching and Learning Center interdisciplinary book club discussion, Latin teacher Ted Gellar-Goad decided to apply what he learned and try something new. In his Latin composition class, each of his students chose a character from Graeco-Roman myth, wrote spells, mapped dungeons and earned experience points to gain levels while they learned to write Latin. It was all part of a semester-long journey based on game theory.

Students explore diversity through art

Student groups came together to showcase the “Big Tent,” encouraging their peers to think about diversity and identity through art. The project was part of the University’s year-long Faces of Courage celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of integration. Learn more about diversity on campus.

Sara Commander will often help Lindsay Tise with strength training exercises at the gym.

At 94, Tise suffers from knee osteoarthritis, a debilitating yet common ailment for older Americans that makes physical activity both difficult and painful. Commander helps Tise with leg presses, lifting weights and participating in cardio exercises at Wake Forest University’s Clinical Research Center, a state-of-the-art facility located next to BB&T Field.

“I want to be a physician’s assistant one day,” said Commander, who is a rising senior and biology major.  “This is really a great opportunity for me to get out of the lab and get some real world experience.”

As counterintuitive as it may seem, Tise said the strength training has his knee feeling better than it has in more than a decade.

“The exercise seems to be working,” he said. “I feel better, move better, and it has even helped my golf game. I now play once a week, weather permitting. I’m driving the ball further and straighter and enjoying it more.”

Tise is one of 372 individuals over the age of 55 that will participate in Wake Forest’s Strength Training for Arthritis Trial or START, a first-of-a-kind, 5-year study to test the benefits of high intensity strength training, low intensity strength training, and healthy living on older adults with knee OA.

More than 4.5 million Americans have had knee replacement surgery due to knee osteoarthritis. The procedure is expensive-often costing more than $20,000 per knee- and may not be necessary for everyone.

Previous studies at Wake Forest have shown that high intensity strength training is safe for older individuals and may also slow the progression of knee osteoarthritis.

START researchers hope to confirm these findings in a supervised, clinical setting. The end goal is to develop a surgery-free and effective option to treat knee pain and loss of mobility associated with knee osteoarthritis, says Stephen Messier, professor and director of the J.B. Snow Biomechanics Laboratory at Wake Forest University.

More participants are needed before the benefits of the new treatment can be realized however. Messier says the START team is currently seeking volunteers to participate in the 18-month trial.

Participants must be 55yrs of age or older, have knee pain on most days of the week, and not be involved in a formal strength-training program.

“Every participant receives individualized attention during the study,” said Monica Carpenter, an exercise interventionist for START.  “It offers a brand new way to deal with joint pain for a population of people who have not done this kind of strength training before.”

Carpenter says study volunteers will be randomly assigned to either a strength training group or a group that attends healthy living classes along with stretching exercises.

Tise said he doesn’t see why someone with knee pain wouldn’t participate in the study.

“Nothing really seemed to be working for me so I decided to give this a try,” he said.

He added that it is great working with Wake Forest staff and students as well.

“It has helped me so much that I don’t see why it wouldn’t help someone else in a similar situation,” he said.

In many ways, Courtney Flynn (’14) is the poster child for a 21^st century liberal arts education.

A junior Classical studies major, she pursues her passions while simultaneously safeguarding her future with the help of Assistant Director of Career Education and Counseling Carolyn Couch.

“I believe that while primary the purpose of the institution is to teach us, it’s also to teach us things that are applicable to the rest of our lives,” said Flynn, who will intern with Citigroup this summer. “There are no Romans out there hiring and I don’t want to go to law school, which is the typical path afterwards. I declared my Classical studies major because I love it. For me, the career office is a vital link between what we learn and what we can do with it.”

Wake Forest has been at the forefront of transforming the traditional, outdated concept of “career services” into a holistic, four-year approach to personal and career development.

Now, a new report issued by the Office of Personal and Career Development (OPCD), “A Roadmap for Transforming the College-To-Career Experience” outlines a seven-step process to help colleges and universities of all sizes and resources rethink the way they prepare students for the world of work.

This crowdsourced paper, which includes input from 20 innovators in higher education and business, also profiles and shares insights from some of the country’s leading personal and career development models in higher education.

Building upon the ideas of national thought leaders representing the professional world and from 74 premier colleges and universities, the report captures feedback from the “Rethinking Success” conference hosted by Wake Forest last year.

In addition to examining issues related to the value of a liberal arts education and employment today, the conference also helped catalyze a national movement with a clear takeaway and an urgent call-to-action.

Chan

“Career preparedness is not a talking point for graduation season only. Higher education as a whole must do more to prioritize personal and career development as a four-year long, mission-critical component of the college experience,” said Andy Chan, Wake Forest’s vice president for personal and career development. “To achieve a life of meaning and purpose, students need to be employable for life, not just employable immediately after graduation.”

Investing in personal and career development pays off

Four years ago, President Nathan Hatch envisioned an undergraduate experience that gave students not only an academic education, but also a career education that teaches them about themselves and their options in the world of work.

Since 2009, Chan has built an innovative, resourceful “College-to-Career” community designed to intentionally prepare students in a comprehensive way, starting with their first days on campus.

In three years, Wake Forest has raised more than $10 million to invest in personal and career development, and the results are paying off. Of the Class of 2012, 95 percent reported being employed or graduate school just six months out of college (compared to a 66 percent nationally).

Rethinking personal and professional success for students

To that end, it might seem surprising that, according to the National Association for Colleges and Employers, colleges and universities have slashed career office budgets by an average of 16 percent in the past year.

Though many schools – from large public research universities to traditional liberal arts colleges – face real resource constraint issues, they cannot be an excuse for not providing the necessary career support for every student, says Chan. To that end, he outlines seven key steps institutions of all types should take to successfully enable and implement transformational change in the area of personal and career development.

“Unless we can demonstrate to current and prospective students and their families that the four years spent at college will result in real employment prospects, there will continue to be those who disparage a college education as a waste of time and money,” Chan said.

For students like Flynn, the OPCD experience isn’t just professional – it’s personal.

“I want to emphasize how office is invested in us as people. I have developed a relationship with my career counselor and she emails me all the time about events that would be of interest to me,” she said. “She’s also interested in how I am as a person and how things are at home. That’s the allure of the office. They’re interested in getting to know you and helping you.”

The full report and roadmap are available at http://opcd.wfu.edu.

From researching regenerative medicine in Sweden to teaching in Vietnam, 11 Wake Forest students and recent graduates have been awarded Fulbright scholarships to go abroad during the 2013-1014 academic year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program — the most prestigious international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government — offers opportunities for students and young professionals to conduct research or teach English in more than 155 countries worldwide.

Jason Green (’13) of White Plains, N.Y., will conduct regenerative medicine research in Sweden, and Diane Hazel (’05) of Washington, D.C., will study law in Namibia.

Nine students were awarded Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships and will be teaching English abroad:

• Sal Badillo (’13) of Tampa, Fla. is teaching in Spain
• Theodore Barton (’13) of Pinon Hills, Calif., is teaching in Poland
• Amanda Cain (’13) of Alexandria, Va., is teaching in Vietnam
• Elizabeth Cannon (’13) of Atlanta, Ga., is teaching in South Korea
• Carter Kenyon (’13) of Brentwood, Tenn., is teaching in Germany
• Carleigh Morgan (’12) of Greensboro, N.C., is teaching in Turkey
• Annie Ornelles (’11) of Winston-Salem, N.C., is teaching in Andorra
• Becky Perry (’13) of Monroe, N.C., is teaching in Germany
• Renee Slawsky (’13) of Knoxville, Tenn., is teaching in Russia

Including the 11 named here, 83 Wake Forest graduates or students have been named Fulbright scholars since 1992.

Two students who were recommended by the U.S. Fulbright committee to the host committees in other countries are currently listed as alternates for English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) abroad:

• Molly King (’13) for Ecuador
• Ken Meyer (’13) for Turkey

Maggie Rodgers (’13) is an alternate for the Fulbright ETA to Germany. She is the recipient of an Austrian Fulbright Commissions ETA for 2013-14.

One Wake Forest graduate, Paige Haynes (’11), was chosen as an alternate to conduct political science research in Poland.

Rachel Cox spent the tail end of her biology for non-majors class delving into the intricacies of global climate change. Cox, a sophomore, wrapped up the course taught by senior biology lecturer Dan Johnson with a final presentation this week.

While many students have taken Johnson’s course before, Cox’s experience this spring was unique. She was one of a handful of students asked to test out a new kind of e-textbook as the sole take-home educational resource for a semester.

BioBook is an electronic learning tool that offers content in an unconventional way. Unlike the thick and convoluted textbook of old, BioBook is accessible by smart-phone, tablet or computer. Developed by Wake Forest researchers, it breaks down complex and lengthy topics into small, manageable chunks of knowledge that can be changed and updated as educators see fit. It also provides students instant access to multimedia from national research organizations such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in addition to traditional text, class lectures and practice quizzes.

“If a page uses an unfamiliar word, there’s usually a hyperlink on the word that will lead to its definition,” Cox said. “Features like this make it better than many of the textbooks I’ve used in the past.”

Within three years, the approximately $30 BioBook is expected to replace the $200+ paper textbooks of up to 1,200 students taking general biology at Wake Forest and Forsyth Technical Community College. More students and schools are expected join the initiative as well, said Johnson, BioBook’s principal developer.

The new collaborative initiative officially kicked off this semester. It will be incorporated into a multi-state $15 million Department of Labor initiative (led by Forsyth Tech) to help displaced workers find a new home in the 21st century workforce.

“We particularly appreciate that BioBook can be offered to students at little to no cost,” said Michael Ayers, dean of Forsyth Tech’s Math Science and Technology Division. “This is important because many students struggle to purchase science books that may cost hundreds of dollars.”

Ayers said the new initiative is part of a longstanding relationship between Wake Forest and Forsyth Tech. For example, Forsyth Tech’s nanotechnology students learn how to work with electron microscopes at Wake Forest.

“We hope to continue to strengthen our partnership by helping to improve BioBook and by working together to produce other science books,” Ayers said.

Johnson said BioBook takes material and content developed in a biology for non-majors class and puts it into a malleable and easy-to-access format so that educators, regardless of institution, can use the material and evaluate it as they see fit. “So rather than constantly reinventing the wheel,” he said. “If something works, it is already in a sharing and ready to go format.”

Johnson and Jim Curran, chair of Department of Biology at Wake Forest, both used BioBook as the sole resource for their biology for non-majors classes. Slides, lecture notes, and supplemental material were added to the book’s data bank as the semester went on, giving students a wealth of new information to choose from, Curran said. “It is something I think students find very helpful and I plan on using in future classes.”

Perhaps the most useful aspect of BioBook will be its adaptability. Johnson said it will enable both teachers and researchers to track what learning tools worked for students at the end of the semester. Educators can then use this data to hone future lesson plans based on what is most effective for their particular brand of student.

“The BioBook by definition is a big data set generator,” Johnson said. “If you see that a particular resource isn’t working or doesn’t fit the way a particular group of students likes to learn, then you can change it.”

Johnson said BioBook has the potential to tackle some of the big questions emerging around the 21st century classroom-like whether or not to incorporate social media as a learning tool. “The data is going to allow us to ask these really interesting questions that will help to improve electronic learning materials in the classroom,” he said.

As for Cox, she said she would like to see more reading intensive classes adopt a similar platform in the future. She said it would not only be useful from an academic standpoint but would also save her some cash. “The total cost of my textbooks would be under $100 if some of my other classes did this; last semester it would’ve been almost cut in half.”

When Rahel Tafese spent a day shadowing a sales representative for a company called BioRx, she learned a lot about treatments for immune deficiency, but more importantly, she made connections that will help her as she figures out what path she will take within the health professions.

Tafese, a first-year student from Maryland, participated in Wake Forest’s new job shadow program with Wake Forest alumni offered through a course in the counseling department called “Options in the World of Work.”

“It was amazing,” said Tafese, who is thinking about majoring in health and exercise science.  “Several of the physicians and pharmaceutical company representatives I met offered the opportunity for me to shadow them as well. Where else would I get that kind of connection?”

Forty Wake Forest alumni in North Carolina offered an insider’s view of their work to current students. On the flip side, alumni find out what it is like to be a student today.

“It’s a fun way to stay in touch with the Wake Forest family,” said Eric Hill (’88), who arranged Tafese’s visit to BioRx, the company he co-founded. “It doesn’t require a lot of effort to give a student access to a real business environment. I would encourage other alumni to do this.”

In addition to connecting students with sales representatives in the Winston-Salem area, he has offered to arrange for students to visit the company’s operations center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“This program has been successful in more ways than we imagined,” said Department of Counseling instructor Heidi Robinson, who directs the series of College to Career courses. “Students are experiencing all different industry and career settings:  consulting, sales, finance, education, medical practices. And, our alumni provide each opportunity.”

One student spent a day with a chaplain in an Iredell County hospital.  Another shadowed an orthodontist. Robinson partnered with Lori Sykes, who works on the employer relations team in the University’s Office of Personal and Career Development (OPCD). Wake Forest’s Alumni office helped recruit local alumni to participate.

“Job shadowing opens up possibilities,” Sykes said.  “It opens a student’s mind to hear from an alumnus who received a history degree, but works in private wealth management. Making that connection to someone who has been in their shoes before can make a huge difference in how they see their future.”

For some younger students, who have no idea what career they want, just seeing a day in the life of someone in the work world is valuable.  For others, who are already focused on a particular career, shadowing that professional either makes them confident about their choice or makes them take a broader look at what else is out there.

“Either way, it’s very beneficial for the student to do that earlier rather than later,” Sykes said.

Opportunities were listed in the OPCD’s recruiting system on a first-come, first-served basis. As soon as it was posted, Nick Syris signed up to job shadow Cameron Kent (’79), a news anchor for WXII-TV.

“I met everyone from producers, to the traffic reporter, the weather director, the sports director, to the people who run the station’s website and handle the technical aspects of the news station,” said Syris, a first-year student from Florida. “Three hours felt like three minutes.  I loved the adrenaline rush I got from watching a show go live.”

Robinson said job shadowing gives students three things:

• Confidence to reach out to other people and ask for job shadow opportunities on their own as they explore possible career interests.
• Competence in skills – preparing thoughtful, well-researched questions, reflecting on experiences, writing thank you notes – professional qualities that will be essential as they prepare to enter the job market after they graduate.
• Clarity about the kinds of work environments that excite them and align with their talents and gifts.

Written reflection helps students understand the value and relevance of the job shadow. They process it. Each student submitted written reflections to Robinson addressing three questions:  “What (they did)?”  “So what?” and “Now what?”

For sophomore Abby Rogers, spending two days observing accountants in different roles from procurement to internal and external reporting, confirmed she had chosen the right major for her—accounting—and fueled her enthusiasm for the accounting profession. “Shadowing took me out of my comfort zone and forced me to ask questions,” Rogers said.

At the end of his day shadowing Kris Downing (’93 MBA), director of business strategy and partnerships at the Center for Creative Leadership, Grey Miller was invited to apply for a summer internship. Miller is a sophomore from Morganton, N.C., who plans to major in communication with a minor in entrepreneurship.

“For me as an alumna, I found it refreshing to spend time with a college student and I had a renewed sense of pride in the work I do,” said Downing, who gave Miller the chance to sit in on research meetings and a conference call with a potential client. “It was very rewarding to share a portion of my day with an attentive, interested Wake Forest student.”

When students are home during summer break, they can feel confident seeking opportunities on their own, Robinson said.  “All this experience will translate into being better prepared and making better decisions when it is time to choose a major, select courses, and, of course, once it’s time to interview for that internship or full-time job.”

After spending countless hours in the studios in the basement of Scales Fine Arts Center, students put the finishing touches on their most prized creations. Running up the stairs, often just minutes before the deadline, they submit their work at the gallery—hoping a panel of faculty judges for the Student Art Exhibition will select their piece for the show.

Judges may choose works based on the artist’s skill, the level of improvement between a student’s first work and the work submitted, or the degree of challenge the student faced in creating the piece.

This year, works by 34 student artists were selected for the exhibition, which runs through May 20 in the Hanes Art Gallery. The show includes paintings, photographs, collages and videos.

Senior computer science major Stephen Parey combined his interests in computers and art for his work, “Rusty Motherboard.” Parey designed a copper plate to look like a futuristic computer piece by etching an intricate line pattern into it.

Cami Burruss, “Enroute”

“Working in the studio art department, it is always great to see what others are doing and gain inspiration and tips from their artwork.  The student exhibition is a great opportunity to see everyone’s designs and collaborate with them about their piece and the process behind it,” Parey says.

Those students selected enjoy seeing the pieces they have worked on throughout the semester displayed in the gallery. For some, studio art courses offer an opportunity to continue doing the art that they love; for others, the courses are a way to learn something completely new.

First-year student Cami Burruss took photography courses prior to college and enrolled in Introduction to Photography to further develop her skills.

“As a first-year student, I was not anticipating having multiple pieces presented and for the faculty to think my work strong enough to be part of the exhibition,” Burruss says.

In her first studio art course, Introduction to Sculpture, sophomore history and art history major Brittany Forniotis created “Bite,” which was selected for the exhibition.

“The opportunity to be a part of this show is a true testament to the nature of the liberal arts education that Wake Forest provides,” Forniotis said. “Even though I am not studying studio art, I have had the opportunity to experiment in the arts, and I feel encouraged by seeing my work displayed in a real gallery.”

The 2014 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro is just over one year away. But while fan excitement builds, 170,000 Brazilians may be relocated from their homes as the city makes room for construction and infrastructure projects to accommodate the millions of expected visitors.

It’s a story that might not make the news without help from foreign correspondent Jawad Wahabzada, a graduating senior who was recently named a fellow for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The journalism program at Wake Forest is a member of the Center’s Campus Consortium, which brings foreign correspondents to campus and provides funding for the fellowship.

This August, Wahabzada will travel to Rio de Janeiro to film a short documentary about Betto Guaraciaba and his work with children living in the favelas, many of whom will be affected by the loss of their family homes as shantytowns are destroyed to prepare for the World Cup.

A retired boxer and now a photographer, Guaraciaba began his life in the streets of the favelas. He now dedicates his time to impoverished children, teaching them to box, giving them hope and keeping them away from drugs and violence.

“Through the eyes of Betto, I plan to explore how the World Cup preparations are affecting the residents of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas as families are forced out of their homes. I hope to present an original perspective to this issue from the eyes of those who have experienced it firsthand.”

Wahabzada is Wake Forest’s second recipient of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting’s student fellowship. Majoring in communications and minoring in film and religion, he is an experienced documentary filmmaker whose previous work, “Children of Kabul,” has been mentioned on CNN iReport and CNN Backstory. Wahabzada’s proposal was selected from among many strong applications with assistance from staff members at the Pulitzer Center in Washington.

“Jawad will be working one-on-one with a Pulitzer Center editor on a multimedia project that will include blog posts, photographs, stories and a short film. His work will be published on the Pulitzer Center website and possibly in national news outlets,” says Justin Catanoso, director of Wake Forest’s journalism program. “He’ll receive mentoring on how to refine his work and prepare a final story that will inform and inspire. It’s a fantastic opportunity.”

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an innovative award-winning non-profit journalism organization dedicated to supporting the independent international journalism that U.S. media organizations are increasingly less able to undertake. The Center focuses on under-reported topics, promoting high-quality international reporting and creating platforms that reach broad and diverse audiences. The organization is based in Washington, D.C.

The University’s affiliation with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is made possible through funding from Wake Forest’s Office of Global Affairs.

Senior theatre major Dean Guerra knows the power of bringing stories to life on stage. He has experienced it in his classes and through his community of friends who are also drawn to theatre.

So when the drama club at a local school needed reenergizing, he gathered his fellow actors and took the lead.

Guerra recruited members of the Anthony Aston Players, a Wake Forest student organization dedicated to the promotion of arts, to join him in teaching acting, improvisation, voice and movement to sixth through tenth graders at Paisley International Baccalaureate Magnet School.

“When I found out Paisley’s drama club needed support, I jumped at the opportunity to co-sponsor the club and serve as student coordinator,” Guerra says. “I was excited to pursue my interest in theatre education and the art of theatre and positively impact young people.”

Guerra’s commitment to Paisley’s drama club earned him a grant from Wake Forest’s Institute of Public Engagement to help fund costumes and scenery for a performance last spring.

“Theatre helps to educate children in a way that is active and engaging; kids want to learn when they are having fun,” says Guerra. “Theatre has given me a sense of community, and at Wake Forest people have invested in me and cared about my success as a student and an artist. I wanted to do the same for students at Paisley.”

Guerra is a theatre and women’s and gender studies double major from Hockley, Texas. During his four years in college, he has participated in 43 shows in a variety of roles including actor, director, sound designer, light designer and stage manager.

After graduating, Guerra plans to return to his hometown to teach theatre to children. “My plan is to use what I have learned and experienced during my time at Wake Forest to have a positive impact on their lives,” says Guerra.

Choose your character, write spells, map the dungeon and move up levels. It sounds like Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s not. It’s Latin class.

Each student plays a hero from Graeco-Roman myth with a backstory, personality and actions determined largely by the student. Over the semester-long journey the players face obstacles, challenges and opportunities both independently and as a group.

And they learn to write Latin.

Game theory for teaching languages

“The best way to learn a language is by immersing yourself in it,” says Ted Gellar-Goad, a post doc teacher-scholar in Wake Forest’s classical languages department who teaches the class. “And it’s even more fun in a world not quite our own, in time, place or nature.”

The first day of Latin prose composition class, the most challenging required course for Latin majors and often the dullest, the 12 students chose a character to guide through the 20 levels of the course.

Sophomore Amy Templin chose Ariadne as her play character (PC) — the princess of Crete who clandestinely helps Theseus slay the mythological Minotaur. “My PC tends to help solve riddles and puzzles,” says Templin. “She matches my actual personality nicely.”

Students in Ted Gellar-Goad’s class ‘map dungeons’ while learning to write in Latin.

Templin says generally other women in the class were more hesitant to embrace role-playing than the men, something Gellar-Goad expected might happen. “But the class is not a video game, it’s a paper-based role-playing game, and its extrinsic value is to create increased engagement in the class. Something I think we’ve definitely accomplished,” he says.

“I look forward to the class, and I’m not constantly checking the clock,” says Templin. “Though I was initially intimidated by the set up, especially starting the class at level zero, I’ve noticed so much growth in my abilities. I’m looking at the dictionary less and less. That we craft our sentences according to our character and the motivations of game players is a big challenge, but so much more fun than translating the vanilla sentences someone else wrote from a 1940s textbook.”

Experience points: Level zero to level 20

Students earn experience points, not grades. They gain levels. They learn Latin in a “super-structure of fun,” says Gellar-Goad. This includes:

• Scribing spells (complete translation projects),
• Mapping the dungeon (construct visual representations of Latin grammatical constructions);
• Crafting magic items (produce creative projects); and
• Completing side quests (establish standards of a Latin author’s style, for example).

The idea for the course setup came from a Teaching and Learning Center book group on José Antonio Bowen’s “Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning.” Gellar-Goad was most interested in Bowen’s exploration of using games as a useful pedagogical tool. “The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game,” was another useful resource for course design.

Learning through avatars

As game master, Gellar-Goad moderates the class, provides the setting and helps guide both the storytelling and the adventures. Students work as a class to figure our how their player characters will respond to given situations. Gellar-Goad sets up the simulation: We are in a city in ancient Greece and the Mycenean people are rebelling against their queen. The rebels have caught you, and you have two options: Confess you are gathering information on how to defeat the Sphinx or hide your true motives. The group discusses the options and possible outcomes, and then composes sentences in Latin to move the game forward.

“One of the biggest takeaways for me from the class is that Dr. Gellar-Goad’s unique approach is inspiring students in our class who have different ways of learning,” says senior Matt Sherry, an aspiring high school Latin teacher. He encourages creativity and that creativity gives students different ways to approach learning.”