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The College of New Jersey’s signature Summer Reading Program for first-year and new transfer students each year selects an overall theme and a book for incoming new students to read and discuss with each other over the summer.
The 2025 Summer Reading selection for the class of 2029 is Tell Me Who You Are by Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi.
2025 Intellectual Theme: Finding Community While Building Common Ground
The Cultural and Intellectual Community Council (CICC) selects the annual intellectual theme related to the Summer Reading and distributes funds for related programming during the Academic year. The 2025 Summer Reading selection for the class of 2029 is Tell Me Who You Are, by Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi. The Intellectual Theme for CICC sponsored programs for the 2025-26 academic year is Finding Community While Building Common Ground. The theme centers on discovering the ties that bind us as an American community, while recognizing and respecting our differences.
The 2025 Summer Reading selection for the class of 2029 takes us on a journey across our nation, led by two young women who decided that their high school education lacked depth when regarding the subject of race. They addressed this by deferring the first year of college, and instead traveling across the country in search of an authentic view the American experience, seen through the eyes of cultural and ethnic minorities. Collecting over 100 interviews, Guo and Vulchi present a panoramic view of American culture, while shining a spotlight of honesty on the inequities that many struggle with in their daily lives. This important work provides a catalyst for conversation, and holds potential for healing.
Video: Introduction to Tell Me Who You Are and its Authors
The theme, Finding Community While Building Common Ground invites us to think about how we are interconnected, while recognizing that we have a long way to go in the building of the bridges toward truth and common ground. Guo and Vulchi welcome us to be brave and honest as we examine the barriers to equality in the United States, while demonstrating that we can all play a role in breaking them down. This year, in addition to facilitated classroom discussions, students will attend a Q&A forum with a panel of faculty and staff who are experts in the topics presented in the book. We hope that this program will encourage self-reflection and a sense of campus-wide community connection that lasts throughout the year and beyond TCNJ.
Convocation Day Schedule – August 25th, 2025
To be determined; we will let you know and update this page when the timeline is finalized.
Student Assignment Description
Completion of the Summer Reading Program, SRP 099, is a graduation requirement at TCNJ. All First Year Students are required to complete the SRP Assignment in the Summer prior to their first year at TCNJ. In order to complete this requirement please view the assignment details in the 1258-SRP99-01 Canvas course. If you have any questions, please contact the SRP Team at srp@tcnj.edu.
View Summer Reading Archive
View Past Summer Reading Highlights