Several new students at Linfield arrived to campus early to take part in the newest pre-orientation program offered by the college.

Arts and Humanities in Action (AHA), is a new program at Linfield that is funded through a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

There were 13 new students who participated in the program that was co-directed by Professor and Competitive Scholarship Advisor, Tom Mertes and Professor of English and creative writing, Anna Keesey.

The theme of this year’s AHA program centered on how different disciplines in the arts and humanities look at and discuss the case of Charity Lamb, who is the Territory of Oregon’s first woman convicted of murdering her husband.

Students in the program took a trip to the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, visited downtown McMinnville as well as Nicholson Library and the Linfield Garden.

President Hellie, Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs Susan Agre-Kippenhan and Catherine Jarmin Miller who is the director of Corporate and Foundation Relations were instrumental in securing the $100,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation.

“The Mellon Foundation recognized the decline in students across the country who major in disciplines in the arts and humanities and wanted to help encourage students to major in those fields by providing funding for career development, internships, student-run learning communities and faculty support,” Mertes said.

Students who participated in the program completed projects that confronted how different majors in the arts and humanities would discuss and make sense of the Lamb case.

Student projects completed include a film, a collection of poems, a historical analysis paper, a bisecting chart, a collection of short stories and two diaries.

“I got an exquisite opportunity to meet with several professors before I even have classes at Linfield and they really did help me go deeper in looking at Charity Lamb from different perspectives,” Freshman Adrian Lu said.

By the end of the program, “students were introduced and learned about several disciplines in the arts and humanities including history, philosophy, religious studies, English and creative writing, visual arts and music,” Mertes said.

Faculty mentors who helped with the program included Professors, Lissa Wadewitz, history; David Fiordalis, religious studies; Bill Millar, religious studies; Leonard Finkelman, philosophy; Lex Runciman, creative writing; Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, English; Hillary Crane, anthropology; and Ron Mills, arts and visual culture.

Students also had peer mentors including seniors Camille Weber and Joanna Buchholz, sophomore Joshua Harper and recent graduate Doug Sundman.

Mertes says he “hopes to fill the program in the future and to have more students declare majors in the arts and humanities.”

Current Linfield students now have the opportunity to form learning communities based on collective interests centering on topics and ideas related to studies in the arts and humanities.

Those learning communities have the chance to receive funding from the Mellon grant and will also have a faculty mentor provided.

There will also be more opportunities for career development and internships in the arts and humanities.