Freshman Seminar Class to Tour State

Professor Todd Taylor will be taking his North Carolina multimedia class on a three-day, two-night bus trip around the state.

"What better way to appreciate the state than to experience it firsthand," Taylor said.

The class will leave this morning and return to campus Sunday night after covering about two-thirds of the state.

The trip is being funded completely by grants Taylor received.

"It's going to be a nice way to get a better feel for some small landmarks that we wouldn't have gotten a chance to see," said freshman Chris Stone of Tarboro.

The trip will include stops at The (Raleigh) News & Observer to see how it covers state issues; Fort Bragg; Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, which hosts NASCAR races; and Mt. Mitchell.

The idea for the trip spawned from Taylor's experience on the Tar Heel Bus Tour, a similar trip for new faculty unfamiliar with the state and its issues.

This is the first year the seminar is being taught.

"All semester long we have been talking about issues important to Carolina," Taylor said.

The students will integrate their classroom experience, required service project and the bus trip to create a multimedia documentary.

"Each student has been doing some community service, which, in essence, is their research for the documentary," Taylor said.

Laura Morton, a freshman from North Potomac, Md., has been volunteering with Rural Advancement Foundation International throughout the semester. She said she has been interviewing poultry farmers who have had their contracts cut off.

"I don't think we are doing anything directly pertaining to my documentary," Morton said. "But I have already seen a lot of poultry farms doing my research."

Morton said she was more excited about seeing the rest of the state.

"The bus trip itself isn't exactly a way of composing a documentary," Taylor said. "It is way for students to see how their issues connect the rest of the state.

"The documentaries will typically be a profile or a case study of the service project the students have been working on."

The class, composed of both in-state and out-of-state students, is excited to get out and see the state, Stone said. He said he is particularly excited about visiting Fort Bragg.

"It should be very exciting to see an Army base firsthand, especially all the conflict going on -- it should really put things into context," Stone said.

Taylor said he wished the class could see the coast, pointing out the Outer Banks and Kitty Hawk as important places they will miss.

He also said he is disappointed that he cannot show them rural health-care issues, a major part of his trip around the state. He said traveling on the weekend restricted the places they could visit.

Taylor said that he is not a native of the state but that he has fallen in love with it. He said he hopes this class and trip will foster at least a greater appreciation of North Carolina in his students.

"I grew up in Florida, and ever since I was 8 or 9, I wanted to live in North Carolina," Taylor said. "I now say I am from North Carolina, denying my roots."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.