Through the Read Today, Lead Tomorrow initiative, Xavier students will become more active and engaged readers. These enhanced skills and behaviors will enable students to improve their overall academic performance and will enliven the intellectual culture on campus.
Xavier University of Louisiana
Quality Enhancement Plan Office
1 Drexel Drive, LRC 407, Box X
New Orleans, LA 70125
504-520-5353 [voice]
504-520-7810 [fax]
http://read.xula.edu
Shared reading: Shared Reading
Every year, all first-year students at Xavier read the same book and discuss and reflect upon it in their Freshman Seminar classes. Incoming students are provided with copies of the book when they arrive on campus. Throughout the year, all members of the Xavier community are encourage to read and discuss the book and the issues it addresses. These discussions are enhanced through our Reading Connexions series, through which Xavier hosts authors, speakers, and films screenings related to the shared reading. Through this shared reading, we gain not only a better sense of the book but a better sense of each other.
This Year's Shared Reading
The students, faculty, and staff of Xavier University have selected as the shared reading for the 2013/2014 academic year The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Skloot's book uncovers the dubious history of the HeLa cells, human cells that have thrived in a laboratory setting. Although HeLa cells have been used by medical researchers for the past sixty years, including by Jonas Salk in his development of the polio vaccine, they were taken from Henrietta Lacks without her knowledge.
You can read more about the book and the author and find additional resources on our Henrietta Lacks pages
Previous Shared Readings
Since 2007, Xavier has used the idea of a shared reading as a means of helping our first-year students make the transition to college life. Over the past five years, this project has expanded to become something that can help bring the entire university community together. Below are the books that have been read over the past few years. Click on the cover for more information about each.
