Centenary In New Orleans
Centenary’s first-year international program, Centenary in Paris, has emerged as one of the College’s signature experiences since its creation in 2014, providing a unique opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to create strong bonds and explore a great world city rich in history and culture. While most incoming Centenary students are able to take advantage of this opportunity, Centenary in Paris is not mandatory and each year there are students who, for various reasons, do not make the trip. In October 2022, Centenary offered its first alternative to Centenary in Paris, launching an immersive six-day course in another great world city rich in history and culture: New Orleans. Ten students joined Dr. Rachel Johnson, director of the College’s new Center for Teaching and Learning, for this unique experience.
The course, “Mapping the Crescent City: Resistance and Resilience,” invited students to not only digest primary and secondary written sources about New Orleans but also to experience first-hand one of the most complex and richly diverse cities in the United States. With an itinerary that included visits to museums such as the Free People of Color Museum, the Backstreet Cultural Museum, and Whitney Plantation; a meal at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant; a New Orleans Saints football game prefaced by discussions of the significance of the Superdome and the Saints in the context of Hurricane Katrina; an excursion to Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve; and a culminating jazz cruise on the City of New Orleans riverboat, the course worked to highlight New Orleans’s transnational, multicultural, and indigenous legacies and to provide students with new and often unexpected knowledge to process as they worked to form their own collective digital archive, or map, of the city.
Johnson explained that an overarching goal of the course was to explore whether it is possible to truly “know” a place, especially a place like New Orleans with many iconic spots that are popular with tourists but not necessarily representative of the city’s authentic history and diverse cultures. “New Orleans is close and a lot of the students were familiar with it, but they have not been able to explore the city as adults and with a lot of independence,” said Johnson. “Many of the students had been to some of the ‘touristy’ sites but have not been to sites that engage with New Orleans as a place. I tried to show them more of the history of the city and to encourage them to examine certain events – for example Hurricane Katrina – with a more critical eye.”
Both Centenary in Paris and “Mapping the Crescent City” are courses meticulously planned in advance but taught “on location,” meaning that surprises, detours, and unexpected outcomes are the norm rather than the exception. For example, a guided tour in one of the museums on the New Orleans itinerary was suddenly drowned out by a loud racket from the street outside, where a jazz funeral complete with second line (one of several to occur in a typical week, according to the museum guide!) was passing by. The guide told everyone to go outside and experience that bit of unique and authentic New Orleans culture – her tour could wait. “The students were really amazed by that,” said Johnson. “It was a priceless moment and something you really can’t script.”
Johnson also overheard a lunchtime conversation between several students that validated many of the goals of the immersive New Orleans course and pointed to an impressive level of engagement with the themes and approach. Earlier that day, the class had observed a group of people experiencing homelessness who had set up temporary shelter under an overpass. At lunch, one student stated to some of his classmates that he didn’t understand why the people they had seen weren’t out getting jobs because it seems that so many businesses are hiring these days. Another student responded that getting a job isn’t perhaps as easy as his classmate perceived, while another student brought up the question of addiction and what role that might play in the lives of the people they had seen. “The coolest thing was that they were just discussing and offering different ideas rather than getting angry with each other,” said Johnson. “The bonding that took place on the trip seemed to have contributed to this. The experience was successful at building a lot of trust and safety between the students, which created a setting where people felt comfortable engaging with each other.”
Ronnie Dubois, a first-year student from the Lake Charles, Louisiana, area, signed on for the New Orleans course for the chance to experience New Orleans in a new way.
“When I was younger, my dad would bring me to New Orleans every once in a while,” said Dubois. “I wanted to experience the city through a new view, and hopefully not through rose colored glasses, as it seems like most memories use.”
Dubois found the course surprising and challenging “in some of the best ways possible.” He enjoyed both the organized activities and tours and the freedom to explore the city on his own, which helped him more fully understand and appreciate the diverse cultures and people present in New Orleans. And his most enduring takeaway was perhaps particularly unexpected for a busy, at times even chaotic, city: “I experienced something that you can only truly feel in New Orleans, and that was finding kind people in even the least likely places. Every time we would either be out as a class or exploring on our own, people treated one another with a kindness typically reserved for family.”
With the combination of Centenary in Paris and innovative, closer-to-home courses such as “Mapping the Crescent City,” Centenary is providing multiple avenues for students to expand their cultural horizons and engage big questions at the very beginning of their college careers.