Active learning

Lewis & Clark is about active learning. For Shawn Pankratz, a sophomore from Sheffield Lake, Ohio, that means learning through a multitude of experiences outside--as well as inside--the classroom.

Always on the move, Shawn works as a resident assistant; provides sound engineering, technical coordination, and set design for Fir Acres Theatre productions; volunteers as a leader for the Lewis & Clark Intercultural Network for Connecting Students (LINCS); participates in search and rescue as a certified Wilderness First Responder; and enjoys membership in the Russian, ski, and soccer clubs. "Lewis & Clark provides an opportunity to explore all of your interests while focusing on things that will help you throughout life," he says. "As a part of residence life you learn how to build yourself, individually and as part of a group. And through other activities, like community service and outdoor pursuits, you learn that the world is bigger and wider than your own sphere."

One might wonder if Shawn, with so many engaging activities, has time for his studies. But he fits everything in--and then some. Shawn is majoring in international affairs, considering either economics or theater for a double major, and weighing his options for minors in Russian and political science. By the time he leaves Lewis & Clark, says Shawn, "I want to have had a quality education. I want to have grown. And I want to have been prepared for the world. Right now, there are so many options. Eventually, I want to do everything--it’s just a matter of in what order."

Speaking of...

Lewis & Clark draws speakers from all over the world to participate in the College’s symposia on International Affairs, Gender Studies, Environmental Studies, and Multiculturalism as well as other annual events. Here are a few speakers we’ve had on campus in recent years:

Michael Moore, political satirist and author

Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court justice

Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club

Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and 2000 presidential candidate

Cornel West, professor, author, orator, and activist

Lech Walesa, former president of Poland

The Guerrilla Girls, art activists

Burton Gerber, former CIA station chief in Moscow

Winona LaDuke, environmental activist, White Earth Land Recovery Project

Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union

Paul Rusesabagina, inspiration for the film Hotel Rwanda

Robert F. Kennedy, attorney, professor, environmentalist, and author

Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor