Each year Arcadia staff selects an intellectual theme to connect Arcadia programs all over the world. The prompt challenges students to view global issues through a different lens. Students engage through theme-related activities, discussion groups and lectures. This year’s theme will be Protest!
With the recent movements around the world such as the Arab Spring, England Riots and the Baltimore Uprising, students now have the chance to learn about countries ongoing power struggles and how they have the potential to shape students’ political consciousness. Poetry retreats, concerts, community service and many other activities are all accepted ways for students to get involved in the new Protest! theme.
Kira Setren, a 2012 student in London, put together a video pertaining to the Occupy Movement that provides students with a great example of one possible mode of participation related to Protest.
In 2014-2015 the Life of the Mind theme was Rhythms of the World. This subject gave students the opportunity to explore different cultures through music and rhythms in all forms. Students learned the universal impact of this form of expression as well as the different uses across the world.