Each fall semester, all incoming students arrive to campus having read the same book.  This common book is chosen to enrich our perspectives and to invite conversation from across our different fields of interest.  We hope this initial experience will help you get a sense of the intellectual community here at Millersville.  We think it's an exciting program and look forward to you joining us.

The selection for fall 2011 is Enrique's Journey.  Journalist Sonia Nazario depicts the true story of a Honduran teenager crossing 1,700 miles on route to his mother in the U.S.  His mother has entered this country illegally in order to support her family back home.  But her plan to get her family on solid footing before returning home has extended twelve years.  Enrique becomes unable to function without her and risks everything to find her.  Targeted by thieves, gangs and corrupt government officials, Enrique endures unimaginable danger riding the tops of trains.  As a narrative, his story demands our sympathy.  But once he reaches his goal, we see the toll of his choices on his new community, as Enrique has brought his many troubles with him.

The following opportunities will be available next fall for you to engage with the book:

• Discuss the book in groups during Orientation: Interact with your new peers over the issues in the book during a discussion led by a faculty or staff member.
• Hear the author when she comes to campus to discuss her perspective on issues raised in the book.
• Participate in a symposium on understanding the immigrant experience during the author's visit.
• Submit an essay on how your family arrived to the region where you now live.  Win one of two $250 prizes.  See the prompt below.
• Watch and discuss films on the immigrant experience.
• Study the book in your English Composition class and/or freshman seminar, if the instructors decide the book fits with their curriculum.

Writing Contest Prompt (Deadline, Nov. 1):  With the exception of native populations already on this land, our U.S. citizenry arrived here as refugees, opportunists, adventurers, slaves, servants.  We have many stories to tell of how our families came to this land.  Retell--re-imagine--the story of one of your family member's experience coming to this country.  You will likely need to do research, but also use your imagination to recreate their perspective.  The two top entries will receive a $250 certificate from the bookstore.

The judges will be looking for stories no longer than 1250 words (typed, double-spaced) that:

• engage creatively with immigration theme(s) of the book;
• evoke a specific experience to illustrate the theme(s);
• demonstrate effective use of narrative form.

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario

Seeking to understand why Latina single mothers leave their children to come to the U.S., and why many children undertake the hazardous journey to reunite with them, Nazario traced one family's story. Enrique was determined to find his mother, who left him in Honduras when he was five. At 16, after seven attempts to make it to Texas, robbed by bandits or police, beaten, jailed, and deported again and again, he finally reached the Rio Grande and earned enough to call her. She sent him money to pay a coyote to smuggle him across the border and the two were reunited, but they are strangers now, their relationship strained. Meanwhile, Enrique's girlfriend in Honduras bore his child. Ultimately, she joined him, leaving their three-year-old daughter behind. Mothers leave their children to send back money for better food, clothing, and schooling, yet years of separation strain family ties. The author retraced Enrique's journey by traveling on top of trains, hitchhiking, taking buses, facing the dangers the teen faced.  Molly Connally, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
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