About the 1Book/1Project/2Transform Program

A common reading program brings a campus community together around a shared text, creating opportunities for connection dialogue, and deeper learning. By engaging students, faculty, and staff with the same book, these initiatives foster critical thinking and encourage conversations across disciplines and diverse perspectives. Common readings also provide a shared starting point for exploring important social issues, linking classroom learning to real-world experiences, and strengthening students’ sense of belonging on campus.

“Common readings” play a strong role at many universities across the nation. Common Readings connect students to their peers and their campus. They promote critical thinking skills and discussion capabilities, and can be considered a “common intellectual experience,” one of the high impact educational practices recognized by AAC&U to benefit college students from many backgrounds (Kuh, 2008).

Through discussion, events, and related projects, the 1Book/1Program/2Transform program helps build a vibrant culture of engagement that extends beyond the classroom and into the broader community.

MSU Denver’s own common reading program, 1 Book/1 Project/2 Transform, was developed in 2010.

Mikkilynn Olmsted from the English department speaks about her experience.

WATCH HERE

María Rey-López from the Spanish department speaks about her experience.

WATCH HERE

The 1 Book/1 Project/2 Transform program has featured the following books and authors:

• The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music by Steve Lopez
• Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homelessness to Harvard by Liz Murray
• Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario
• Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America by Helen Thorpe
• Wine to Water: A Bartender’s Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World by Doc Hendley
• The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
• Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets by Carissa Phelps
• The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, & Communities by Will Allen
• Little Three Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
• In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero
• The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton
• We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Better Planet by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
• Sabrina & Corina by MSU Denver alumna Kali Fajardo-Anstine
• A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
• Good Talk by Mira Jacob
• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
• First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Luong Ung
• We Will Be Jaguars by Nemonte Nenquimo