From the Course Syllabus:

On the occasion of the College’s 250th anniversary, this course will foster conversations between past and present students about experiences at Hampden-Sydney. Through readings, guest lectures, and resources from the StoryCorps project, students will learn communications techniques related to interviewing, listening, and taking oral histories. Each student will be paired with an alumnus for a series of three conversations during the semester. The class will work to construct a series of conversation topics and questions that each student-alumni pair will explore together. The meetings with the alumni partner will constitute a recorded oral history using techniques and topics developed during the course. The class will also construct a public-facing project to report its findings about the College to a larger community in late April.

Throughout the course, active learning exercises will give students the chance to set goals for conversations, and then to practice skills and techniques. Each activity will be followed by in- class reflection to critically examine the goals and expectations of the exercise. Students will use what they are learning to construct conversation prompts and goals for their meetings with alumni. Each alumni conversation will be followed by a written reflection that includes insights gained and ideas for the next meeting. Both formal and informal writing related to all active learning in the course will be kept in a field journal.