More than 2,000 University students read about Cedric Jennings’ struggles to succeed as a minority at a predominantly white Ivy League school. Now they can hear about them in person.
Jennings — the subject of Ron Suskind’s best-selling book, “A Hope in the Unseen” — will speak at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Lenhart Grand Ballroom.
Jennings will also answer students’ questions about what it was like to go from being an overachiever at a poverty-stricken Washington D.C. high school to struggling to just get by at Brown University, according to Colleen Boff, First Year Experience Librarian.
“He’s essentially going to bring the book to life,” said Boff, who helped organize the event.
Many students on campus are already familiar with “A Hope in the Unseen” because of the Common Reading Experience Pilot Project. Groups across campus read the book including the Honors Program, BG Experience, several first-year students and every University 100 course.
It is only because of University 100 students that Jennings is coming to campus, Boff said.
Only by chance did two students — Tina Curry and Stephanie Helton — find out online that Jennings was attending graduate school at the University of Michigan. His proximity sparked the idea that he could come speak.
“We were really lucky,” Boff said.
Though much of the book is about racial barriers and discrimination, Cedric’s experiences apply to all students, regardless of skin color, according to Boff. He faces issues many students can relate to, including the loss of faith in religion and roommate conficts.
“Since we’re focusing of first-year students, we wanted to have a book that spoke about transition issues,” she said. “This book is so thematically rich. Students can see that someone else is feeling the way they do.”
The committee in charge of the Common Reading Experience chose the book in spring, hoping it would spark a common interest between very different groups, she added.
“We were looking for a way for students to have something in common that wasn’t just social,” Boff said. “It’s in essence a way to make a big campus experience seem smaller.”
The Common Reading Experience started last year when 450 students read “Into the Forrest.” The book’s author, Jean Hegland, also spoke on campus.
“It was similar to what we’re doing now, but on a smaller scale,” Boff said.
