JOHNSON CITY – (Sept. 13, 2021) For a group of students at East Tennessee State University, the Big Apple was more than just a weeklong summer destination this past July.
It was, in fact, their textbook. And also their classroom.
The students were enrolled in the summer course, “City as Text,” offered by the ETSU
Honors College. Students enrolled in “City as Text” included many Honors College
students as well as leaders from the BUCS Academy Living-Learning Community. 
Participants spent a week in New York City. For some of the students, it was their first time getting on a plane, and many had never been to NYC.
As Dr. Chris Keller, dean of the ETSU Honors College, explains, this was much more than just a class trip. Each day, they had an assignment.
“We paired them into teams and sent them to various neighborhoods, from West Harlem down to Battery Park,” Keller said. “Each day there was a different theme assigned, and we told them to go to a specific part of the city and to walk around and tell us what they say through the lens of that theme.”
These themes related to scarcity and abundancy, insiders and outsiders, and new and old, which especially resonated with ETSU Honors College student Christian Price.
“During my time in New York City, I was challenged to intently examine my surroundings
to discover how our nation’s most populous city functions,” Price said. “Throughout
the week, one specific theme resonated with me above the others – the city’s offering
of a sense of belonging for all people.
“It’s easy to classify New York as the ‘American Melting Pot’ based simply upon what we’ve learned from school and media, but it’s not until you’re immersed in the city itself that you begin to realize the magnitude of the city’s diversity. Each district –– each city within the city –– provides a culture disparate from the one before as you examine architecture, taste food, and hear languages exclusive to that certain district. This is a direct result of the immigration that has taken place over the city’s history, which has also served as a major factor in giving New York its renowned vibrancy.”
Keller said that while they did provide students directions on how to get to the neighborhoods, they did not tell them what to expect when they arrived.
After the morning neighborhood exploration, the students would gather back in a meeting room to debrief and share what they saw. The students were given some free time, and Keller was surprised to see some of the students return to those neighborhoods for further exploration.
“New York City, and any other place on Earth, must be stripped of polished ideas to
be fully appreciated,” said Honors College student Jessica Potter. “On the other
side of glamorous personas, those born of a million cameras and cinematic depictions,
life is still life. The breaths of all cities are found in ubiquitous and mundane
human experiences: the constancy of love between caregiver and child, laughter shared
during humdrum grocery trips, and peace found in the silence of the subway. Subscription
to a rose-tinted, broad concept of New York fails to capture what contributes to the
pulsing vibrancy of the city –– its inhabitants.” 
Potter added, “New York City is both grit and lacquer, systemic poverty and boundless opportunities, an iconic metropolis and a place as typical as any other. By casting aside my own suppositions about New York, I found myself within the context of real conditions rather than an idea. It’s within tangible places and present moments that we find the intimacy and authenticity of a lived experience. The extravagant naturally demands our attention, but I found the most substantial lessons by looking towards the quiet, understated heartbeats, wherein people are actually living.”
Carshonda Martin, who is director of ETSU’s Mary V. Jordan Multicultural Center, said this was a great bonding experience for leaders in BUCS Academy, a college success initiative for underrepresented students.
“Our leaders enjoyed very meaningful experiences and said they learned how to observe, listen and reflect on things they otherwise would never have noticed,” Martin said. “They returned home with a transformed perspective of New York.
Each student received one credit hour for participating. The “City as Text” pedagogy continues this fall as new honors students explore social issues here in Johnson City through a course in the new Changemaker Scholars Program.
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