Honors students walk through the Fortwood neighborhood as part of City as Text. Photo by Angela Foster.
Before classes officially began, more than 100 new students in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Honors Collegeexplored the streets and neighborhoods of their new community as part of an annual activity called “City as Text.”
With little direction, the groups had to find a mode of transportation and make their way to areas of Chattanooga including St. Elmo, Coolidge Park, Alton Park, Fort Wood, Brainerd and the Bluff View Art District.
There, they saw and discussed the infrastructure, attractions, parks, restaurants, stores, homes and bus stops.
When each group returned to campus, they gathered in the Guerry Center, where they shared their observations with Krue Brock, a lifelong Chattanoogan, community advocate and grandson of William Brock—the namesake of the Brock Scholars program.
Krue Brock (holding microphone) speaks to students with Dr. Jordan King.
Bengt Carlson, an experiential learning coordinator for ThinkAchieve and adjunct instructor in University Honors, opened the discussion with a question: “What are three aspects of loving something?”
“One would just be to enjoy it,” Carlson said. “Another would be to try to understand it better. Then the other is to try and make the thing better.”
This is the perspective students were encouraged to take while roaming Chattanooga.
In their feedback, students shared some of the problems they encountered—long wait times for public transportation, a lack of tree canopy and places to sit in some areas.
They also discussed seeing beautiful scenery, eating good food, meeting local business owners, admiring art and exploring the spaces they could visit as students in the city.
Dr. Jordan King, director of the Innovations in Honors program and organizer of the event, explained the purpose of the activity.
“Their goal is to read the place where they go as a place with a lot of rich history and different people,” King said. “We encourage them to talk with folks, check out a restaurant and get a sense of that place so they get more comfortable with being here in Chattanooga.
“We want them to think about their relationship to not just campus but the city as a whole, and to realize how many resources are out there in the city, and start that relationship building and exploration from day one.”
Getting to their destinations was part of the experience. The students were divided into groups of five or six and sent to 12 locations. Walking, biking and public transportation were among their options.
King said a missed bus or a wrong turn can teach students more about the neighborhoods than expected.
“I think one of the things they take away is, ‘How do I work with others and what is my response to things maybe not going perfectly?’” he said.
Peter Simon and Xavier Ware, both Brock Scholars from Memphis, were among the students getting a better look at the city they will now call home.
Simon, a mechanical engineering major, explored the Tennessee Riverwalk with his group. Along the way, they took photos, enjoyed the scenery and stopped at Boathouse Rotisserie and Raw Bar.
Ware, an elementary education major, explored the area around Finley Stadium.
“There’s a lot more artwork and a lot of smaller businesses and restaurants that show you the personality of Chattanooga,” Ware said.
As the discussion came to an end, Brock encouraged students to approach their education in the same way they explored the city.
“You should learn a lot of things that people want you to learn,” Brock said, “and then you should really drive hard to learn some of the things you want to learn.”
He told students to seek out opportunities at UTC and be active in their community.
“If there are things that need to happen in Chattanooga, what drives them crazy is when people say, ‘Why don’t they?’” Brock said. “Why don’t you get some people together? You’re one relationship away from solving a lot of things that could be better.”
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