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W'Engage

A collage banner of students traveling and researching across the United States.
A collage banner of students traveling and researching across the United States.
A collage banner of students traveling and researching across the United States.

For Wingate University sophomores, the W’Engage program offers an opportunity to contribute to surrounding communities and travel for 5-7 days to a U.S. destination in order to promote positive social change.

A weekly seminar focuses on a single topic of importance, such as hunger, education or ecology, explored in a course designed to ignite your need to create social change.

W’Engage helps you gain skills you can use for the rest of your life, no matter your major or intended career path. You also earn two hours of academic credit.

Grow as a Person

Throughout the W’Engage program, you grow as a person by developing a greater awareness of and respect for community issues. In addition, you learn to apply ethical reasoning to contemporary local, national and global issues. Students travel and work closely with learning teams and diverse groups. Together, you learn from one another as you have open-minded discussions in which you examine and reflect upon your personal values, assumptions and attitudes.

A sign for Charleston, SC

W'Engage FALL 2024

W'ENGAGE SEMINAR: LOWCOUNTRY RICE CULTURE 

In this class, we will explore the question of how diverse people come together to form a culture. We’ll answer this question by examining the rice culture of Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is a city created by many cultures, including the famous Gullah culture. There are also profound African influences. There are influences from the West Indies as well as the traditional English colonial settlers. Other groups have made Charleston their home, including the Huguenots, Jews, Germans, and other peoples from European lands. How all these people came together to form the unique rice culture of the low country is the story we will examine in the classroom and through a trip to Charleston during Fall Break. Instructor: Dr. Mitchell Mackinem Course.

Find Your Voice

Through the primary-source field research and observations you conduct during the program, you help raise awareness of community concerns. As you analyze the concepts of community, leadership and development, you reflect on what you can do to address social problems. To really inspire those around you, however, you have to be able to get your points across.

Apply Your Knowledge

The program provides the opportunity to put your academic knowledge to use as you explore your topic area through hands-on learning both inside and outside the classroom. W’Engage encourages Wingate University students to identify, compare and contrast differences between their local community and the destinations they visit for field research.

Ready to W’Engage?

  • You must have sophomore standing with a 2.3 GPA.
  • Students can register via WinLink during regular course registration days by searching for WENGAGE. 
  • Seminars have limited availability, and the cost is $250.

Previous experiences:

  • Hunger and Homelessness (New Orleans)
  • Community Policing (Boston)
  • Homelessness and LGBT community (NYC)
  • Civil Rights and Freedom Riders (Washington DC)
  • Sustainable Food Systems (Asheville & Boone)
  • Voting Rights (Georgia & Alabama)
  • The Housing Crisis in America (Denver)
  • Lowcountry Rice Culture (Charleston)

Questions?

 

Dr. Terese Lund
Coordinator of Undergraduate Research
t.lund@wingate.edu