Theme Housing
About Theme Housing at Clark
The Theme House Program at Clark University is intended to create strong
links between the living and learning experience. It is designed and intended to
provide direct and environmental support to the academic, social, and/or
extracurricular elements of the University. It provides students with the
opportunity to define their on-campus living experience and to contribute to the
greater campus community in accordance with their goals, interests, and pursuits
by planning educational programs that relate to the theme of each house.
Each Theme House has a Group Leader who is responsible for organizing and
coordinating the activities of the house and serving as a liaison to the
Residential Life and Housing Office. Each house member is responsible for
participating in the planning and implementation of at least one program per
semester. Each house will offer a total of 3 programs each semester. A faculty
or staff member, along with a member of the Residential Life and Housing staff,
advises the house members in their efforts. If you have questions regarding Theme Housing contact the RLH office at x7453.
Meet the 2007-2008 Theme Housing Groups
Center for Jewish Living
The purpose of this theme house is to supply the Clark Community with a place to
find traditional Jewish living. It is the group's priority to create a
supportive and dynamic Jewish experience for all interested in an open,
comfortable environment. Providing a center for Jewish living would allow many
to deepen their connections with our traditional roots, to instill a sense of
culture, and supply a place to grow religiously. It also gives members a chance
to manage a home steeped in Jewish values.
Connecting with the Cougars House
The goal of our theme house is to provide a platform for the students within
the Clark community to get to know each other in a safe and fun environment. One
of the best parts of college is having the chance to network and connect with
people who share similar interests and aspirations. The purpose of our theme
house is to make this key part of college life easier and more enjoyable.
Through our programs, we will give Clarkies the opportunity to build
relationships and connections with people they may otherwise never get the
opportunity to meet.
Culture through Culinary House
The Culture through Culinary Theme house strives to bring culinary awareness
to Clark University and its students. Having diverse backgrounds, the members
would like to disperse their own cultures and learn about the various cultures
of Clark students through various culinary programs.
Discovering Worcester: A Field Trip around Worcester
The Discovering Worcester theme house aims to bring Clark students closer to
the Worcester community by showing them parts of Worcester that they may not
have seen before. We think that Worcester has a lot to offer that many Clark
students haven't discovered yet. We are excited to explore all of the great
places there are to eat, interesting places to learn, and fun places to see.
Everyday is a Holiday House
The "Everyday is a Holiday House" focuses on celebrating lesser known
holidays and using those holidays to strengthen ties across campus and within
the community. Members hope to make every day something to look forward to and
emphasize the importance of celebrating life, every day!
Female Empowerment House
Although women comprise 60% of Clark's undergraduate student body, we have
only noticed a recent and disconnected upsurge in focus on the female
experience. With the addition of the Women and Gender Studies major, we feel
that this would be an appropriate time to create a theme house that will work
with the various female-oriented groups on campus to synthesize and facilitate
comprehensive events for the entire community. Our definition of female
empowerment includes promoting a sense of community and solidarity among women.
As a college campus, we recognize that our community is already filled with lots
of strong women who are independent and have distinct goals, and we want our
theme house to provide a place where the goal of empowerment can be actualized.
Generation AIDS House
The Generation AIDS theme house stemmed from a shared passion for the AIDS
cause among six Clark students hoping to make an impact within society. Using
the theme housing program as an outlet, this group aims at raising awareness
both on Clark campus and within the surrounding community. Generation AIDS
promotes this cause by planning and executing various AIDS-awareness events,
such as a Clark-based “dance-off” to fundraise for a women’s empowerment program
in Namibia or bringing an influential speaker to the Worcester community. This
group firmly believes in the power of outreach via education and plans to target
local schools as a direct method of providing important AIDS information to the
young population. As the epidemic continues to grow in size, the Generation AIDS
theme house hopes to stir interest and promote understanding while also ensuring
that the local (both Worcester and Clark) community is properly educated to
protect themselves against this fatal disease.
Horticulture House
The Horticulture House, a theme house at Clark University, focuses on the
cultivation and appreciation of plants and flowers and their ecological role in
our world. We are interested in the medicinal, therapeutic, and aesthetic
affects that plants and flowers can offer us. Our house works to bring living
flora, along with horticulture-based activities, into the Clark community and
Main South. We are constantly working to educate the surrounding community about
the importance of horticulture in an urban environment. This semester we will be
hosting a natural tea tasting for the Clark community and a flower-planting
workshop at the Boys and Girls Club.
Read Your Way around the World House
Read Your Way around the World is a suite involved in promoting and
analyzing world literature. We hope to introduce Clark students to an array of
novels, plays, and short stories written by foreign authors from different
regions in the world. Our goal is to expand our knowledge of various cultures
from the perspective of native authors. Literature provides an interpretive
framework to not only a society’s culture, but their history, politics, and
psyche.
Reading Club House
The theme of our house is the Reading Book Club House. The theme is about
the importance of reading, especially for children in the Worcester community.
We as a theme house hope to bring more books to the Worcester community by
raising money to purchase book for local school and hospitals. We would also
like to have one on one contact with children by reading to them and having a
reading program. In addition, we would love to help children that struggle with
reading by giving any free tutoring we could. As a group we all believe that it
is vital for all children to know how to read and enjoy it. This theme house
would also contribute so much to the campus community. In bringing the
importance of reading we would be giving the chance for students to help in
anyway that they could: It might be donating a children’s book or giving
sometime to read to a child in the hospital. Also, there are several professors
on campus that have children. By letting Professors know our goal they could
help too by encouraging their children to read. It is a small enough goal that
everyone can participate but it is large enough to really make an impact.
|
