Gettysburg College Declares New Major

By Paul Di Salvo, David DeBor, and Rose Kane

In a recent, completely unsolicited, announcement, Gettysburg College has declared the creation of a new, more scholarly, major. This major, unlike any other on campus, will publicize the College’s resplendent motto, Do Great Work, and by virtue of its position has been labeled the Great Works Major. Below are some corresponding details.

Courses offered by the Great Work Studies Department

GWS 101: Introduction to Great Works

A basic overview of the basic understandings and theories of Great Works. Course defines the three aspects of Great Works (leadership, diversity, and service) and spends equal time exploring the concepts of each.

GWS/FYS 102: Great People and Their Great Works

A course offered to first-year students that highlights various famous individuals and their advancements to the field of Great Works. Focuses on the impacts that their efforts have caused.

GWS 103: Understanding Leadership

This course explains what leadership is defined as in our modern society. Core material includes opportunities to experience leadership hands-on through community engagement.

GWS 104: Conceptual Diversity

This introductory course explains what it means to be diverse and how societies can pursue greater acceptance of others. Class instruction will be supplemented by various film lab sessions to follow up lecture material.

GWS 215: Great Work Methods

Mandatory course for all majors. This course provides detailed analysis of the statistical and critical analysis skills needed to understand the effects that Great Works have in a variety of scenarios.

GWS 224: Engaged Citizenship in the Modern World

This 200 level topics course looks at what it means to be an active participant in an emerging and evolving world.  Students will be required to engage their communities as a course component.  Fulfills the Community & Global Leadership concentration.

GWS 237: Excellence and Multiculturalism

GWS 237 looks at the role that multicultural individuals have played in the world as a result of their differences.  Students will learn how to interact with people of other origins and be excellent while doing so.

Fulfills the Broadening Diversity concentration.

GWS 241: Servicing Society

Students concentrating on the Service and Society track will explore multiple ways to bring happiness to members of the community in this course.  Hands-on and physical activity is the main focus of this experiential class.  Course meets from 1:00AM to 3:00AM on the corner of Stevens and N. Washington St.  Fulfills the Service & Society concentration.

GWS 249: Becoming a Community Role Model

With the emerging importance of positive role models being needed, students will study the various individuals who have achieved this status.  Readings by Janet Riggs, Morgan Freeman, and Ms. Lindsay will be utilized.  Fulfills the Community & Global Leadership concentration.

GWS 268: Leveling Social Injustice

Students will get a first person account of ending tyranny and injustice by participating in protest movements. Past initiatives included the Black Panthers and the defeat of Bowser in Level 5 of Super Mario Bros.  Fulfills the Broadening Diversity concentration.

GWS 284: Advanced Analysis of Service

For students seeking to enhance their skills from GWS Methods, GWS 284 explores quantitative concepts of and advanced analyses of Great Works.  Prerequisite: Statistics I.  Fulfills the Service & Society concentration.

GWS 324: Corporate Leadership

Course is focused on current world business leaders. A study of implementation of business strategy, leadership, and management skills in the modern era.

GWS 337: Poverty in Adams County

A specific look at how one of the nation’s most pressing problems is affecting the local area of Adams County. Course will entail the devising of a long-term solution to ending local poverty and implementing the plan’s first stages. Tutoring at El Centro or other local civics is required.

GWS 341: Motivating Your Community

A course devoted to embracing community values and molding them into services and civics for the town. Attention will be given to sustainable development and how to engage a diverse population. Volunteering in the town of Gettysburg is required.

GWS 349: Comparative Leadership: From Mao Ze Dong to Adolf Hitler to Barack Obama

A more in-depth course which looks at specific case studies of world leaders from the past century. Careful attention is placed on strategies that worked and didn’t work for these leaders and events that were of crucial importance in their careers. Goal of this course is to help future leaders be more successful by understanding past successes and failures.

GWS/ HIST 356: Global History

Required for the major. This course gives a broad historical overview from the Agricultural Revolution to the present. The goal of the course is to deepen understanding of historical events and how they have shaped modern leadership, diversity, and society.

GWS 368: Expanding Diversity through Writing

A course which allows the individual to take a more hands-on approach towards Great Works. Focus on building writing skills for letters, position papers, and informative texts. Site-based projects for the ACLU, NAACP, and other civil liberty organizations will be required. English 101 is a prerequisite.

GWS/IDS 384: Independent Service Project

This course is designed for students who have demonstrated an interest in a specific service project locally or worldwide and would like to expand their knowledge of the topic by completing fieldwork. This can be in the form of an unpaid internship, volunteer  opportunity, or a guided course by a faculty member.

GWS 400: Seminar

This is a capstone project course for senior Great Work Studies majors who have completed all requirements for the major. The topic of the course changes by semester and will culminate with two group projects focusing on diversity and service and one individual project focusing on leadership.

GWS 450: Individualized Study

This is for more focused Great Work Studies majors who wish to complete an independent project which focuses on service, diversity, and leadership. The project will focus on a topic of choice by the student which is approved by a faculty member. This course is only available to seniors who have completed all the requirements for the major and who are in good academic standing.

GWS 477: Great Work and the College Presidency

This is a specialty course which can count as a 300-level topics course for majors or as credit towards certain graduate schools. Focus will be on the problems and decisions of the presidents of Gettysburg College from Charles Phillip Krauth to Janet Morgan Riggs. Some attention will be given to other colleges nation wide and the actions of their presidents.

GREAT WORK STUDIES MAJOR CHECK SHEET

Name___________________________

I. Introduction Courses

____________

____________                       3 courses from among 101, 102, 103, 104

____________

II. ____________    GWS 215 Methods

III. ____________       One course at the 200-level from each different concentration:

____________      Community & Global Leadership ______

____________      Broadening Diversity _____    Service & Society ______

IV. ____________      GWS/HIST 356 Global History

V. ____________       One topics course at the 300-level

VI. ____________     One 400-level capstone course

Electives                                              Requirements Remaining

Total Courses Required    _____10____

Total Courses for average ___________

Quality Points                   ___________

Major Average                  ___________

GWS.01

4/10

For more information, please visit the official Gettysburg College website.