The 2009 summer reading was chosen by a committee of students, faculty, and staff who met during the Fall 2008 semester. Some of the criteria that were used to select the book are:

• the book should elicit rich discussions
• the subject should be relevant to first-year students
• the subject should be thought-provoking
• the author should be an engaging speaker
• the topic should be current
• the book should be accessible to all students in terms of style and content

SUMMER READING FOR CLASS OF 2013

“The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow has been selected as the summer reading for 2009. The book is named after the “last” lecture given by Dr. Pausch to an audience at Carnegie Melon University where he was a computer science professor. It is a tradition at Carnegie Melon, and at other colleges and universities, that a faculty member is selected to address an audience of students and colleagues as though it were his/her last opportunity to impart collected knowledge and wisdom. Although the premise is imagined in most cases, in the case of Mr. Pausch, the lecture really would be the last opportunity to speak to students at his university because he had been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mr. Pausch entitled his talk – “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” and he meant it to serve as a motivating and engaging talk that celebrated life, success, and achievements.

Students from the class of 2013 will read the book this summer and have discussions in their First-Year Seminar classes in September. We encourage all members of the Ramapo community to read the book this summer and to discuss it with colleagues and friends. In the fall, we hope that conversations about the book will facilitate new first-year students’ engagement with one another and with other members of the Ramapo Community. And we hope that these conversations will serve as a means to extend this common academic experience to places outside the classroom.

Jeffrey Zaslow, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal, and co-author of the book will be speaking at the convocation on September 16th.

Have a great summer!

[ return to top ]