Summer Reading Program

Welcome

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

12:00pm – Lunch and Discussion with Facilitators

1:30pm – First panel discussion event (60 minutes)

1:30pm – First Summer Reading Group discussions (60 minutes)

3:30pm – Second panel discussion event (60 minutes)

3:30pm – Second Summer Reading Group discussions (60 minutes)

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 follow the instructions below. If you have any questions, please contact the SRP Team at srp@tcnj.edu.

The SRP-099 Canvas course will be available from July 18th, 2025. You will be responding to a discussion board question by posting an essay and one alternate response in the SRP-099 course on Canvas. Detailed instructions on how to post your assignment will be posted within the SRP 99 Canvas course. Here is a brief description and a timeline below;

Individual Response – due Friday, August 15th
Choose one of the assignment questions and respond by posting an essay to the discussion board.

Alternate Response – due Friday, August 22nd
Post your response to a colleague.

Attend your assigned Expert Q&A Panel discussion – Monday, August 25th
The panel discussion will take place using a main-stage, format in one of TCNJ’s auditoriums.

Attend your assigned Facilitated Discussion – Monday, August 25th
You will be assigned a classroom for facilitated discussions.

Volunteer activity: Provide a question for the Expert Q&A Panel discussion to your assigned facilitator in advance – due Monday, August 18th
Students may submit up to 2 questions for our panel guests, relating to a topic in the book.

Provide your initial response in of the following ways:

Essay (500 words)

Choose one of the following response themes and answer one or more questions below pertaining to the same theme in a traditional essay of approximately 500 words. In order to connect your personal ideas to the text, your essay must make explicit references to at least three different passages from the book (this may be a short quote but it need not be). When quoting text, include the page number in parenthesis.

Student Assignment Questions – use the following questions to guide your responses:

- What is a community?
- Did the book change your idea of what a community can be?
- What do you feel are the commonalities presented in the book?
- After reading the book, do you feel that we have a lot in common as Americans, or very little in common?

Post a response to someone else’s Individual Response:

Responses should be brief but poignant.
Substantive responses may include:
- Additional examples that address the same topics that the other student discusses;
- Reflections that link your personal experience to the text; or
- Questions that you may have regarding other students’ responses.

Alternate format for your response:

You may also choose an alternate format for your response, such as a visual art project, redesigned book cover, photo essay, comic strip, poetry, song, a music playlist, or a video response. If you choose an alternate format, your response must be accompanied with a brief explanation of its connection to the book and chosen response prompt.