By Sara Schneider
Transcript Correspondent
The Course Connection Fair took place on Tuesday, September 10 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00pm in Benes Room A in the Hamilton Williams Campus Center.
This fair occurs once a year on the Ohio Wesleyan campus to educate students about the Course Connection program and how these connections could be beneficial to them. This year’s event was not widely attended.
The Course Connection program was introduced to OWU about three years ago when changes to the curriculum were being discussed. Other ideas that were discussed at that time that are in effect today are Travel Learning Courses and the OWU Experience.
Course Connections are cross-divisional networks of courses organized around common themes. They offer an innovative way for students to fulfill the general distribution requirements while they examine a topic of interest in-depth. This program takes several semesters to complete.
Course Connection program director Erin Flynn described the Course Connections as thematic minors.
“This network allows you to study a topic or theme through a different perspective,” he said. “It also enables students to appreciate the different approaches toward a topic and their limitations.”
There are seven different course connections currently being offered at Ohio Wesleyan: American Landscape; Crime, Responsibility and Punishment; Food; Four Corners; Modern Life and its Discontents; Poverty, Equity and Social Justice; and Silk Road and Waters: Rites and Rights.
Flynn said the three most popular course connections are Modern Life and its Discontents, Poverty, Equity and Social Justice and Silk Road and Waters: Rites and Rights.
Course Connections include different extracurricular events, trips, movies and more. Some also have activities such as walking tours of Delaware and local field trips. Depending on the course connection, these events may or may not be mandatory.
The approach of course connections also helps students understand the complexity of big issues.
Sophomore Allie France said she enjoys taking classes with a common theme under the Course Connections. She will have completed the Food Course Connection after taking one more class.
“It’s nice being able to group mandatory classes by a similar theme and having it count towards another focus,” France said.
Sophomore Mariah Konrath, who is also in the process of completing the Food Course Connection, said she thinks the program is “a great way to expand your understanding of a topic.”