Dr. Ryan Ruckel, "Finding Uses for 'Great Men' : Service, Self, and the Soul of America"
Dr. Ruckel will travel to Concord, Massachusetts, birthplace of the American Revolution and home of one of America's great cultural architects, Ralph Waldo Emerson. He will visit Emerson's home, see his library, and read his letters at the Concord Public Library. He will then travel to Nashville, Tennessee, along the venerable Natchez Trace, to The Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, Emerson's contemporary and anti-hero, to remind himself of the American Era of the Common Man. Concord and Nashville represent the promise of America in both the Revolution and the frontier. Ryan will complete the Bill Gove Speech Workshop that creates a framework based on Joseph Campbell's The Hero with A Thousand Faces, and he will craft story-driven leadership exercises that get students to think about their worldview, especially what they value or dislike about American culture.