More than 100 new honors students took to the streets last week in the Flagstaff-as-Text project to study various parts of the city. This group documented its eastside journey with a group photo at the base of Mount Elden.

Bookin' around Flagstaff:
How some new NAU students
are making Flagstaff home

Italian author Umberto Eco once said, "The world is a book that demands to be read like a book."

That is the idea behind a new project at Northern Arizona University that is akin to placing the greater Flagstaff area within the pages of a book written by NAU students.

The NAU Honors Program is piloting its first Flagstaff-as-Text project as a way to connect new honors students to their community.

Ellen Riek, an instructor in the Honors Program and one of the driving forces behind the Flagstaff-as-Text project, explained that just as scholars might go to Rome to immerse themselves in the culture and surroundings—using literature and observation to get a true sense of it—students can also approach their new community at NAU in the same way.

"This is more than just observing a city and its people," she said. "We really are creating community and connections."

A freshman honors student takes notes during a mapping exercise in the Coconino Estates neighborhood in northwest Flagstaff.

Using the National Collegiate Honors Council's Place-as-Text program as its model, NAU kicked off its own version of the project last week as more than 100 new honors students divided into smaller groups for an afternoon to set out on "walkabouts" to study various quadrants of the Flagstaff community.

For their explorations, each team was provided with a disposable camera, field notepads, pens and a student mentor to guide them. Through close, purposeful observation—what the Honors Program calls "mapping"—students reflected deeply on their experience in the city's physical, cultural and historical contexts.

"They went into this with two big questions," Riek explained. "How do people who occupy this space turn it into the place in which they live? And what do I see and why do I see it that way?"

Students were asked to think of themselves as novice cartographers as they debated what would belong on a map of their defined area and why.

"Not only are they recording images of the spaces in which they move," Riek said, "they are also constructing their understanding of this space through a particular perspective—their own. They are looking out and also looking in."

This group of new honors students enjoyed a cup of hot tea at the Corea House in downtown Flagstaff as part of their mapping exercise.

After several hours, students came back together as a group to report on their findings, sharing stories of their mapping journeys. Some described how they were welcomed warmly by local business owners who were eager to share their histories in the area. Others brought back photos of their groups noshing at local eateries or mingling with residents and tourists.

"As we regrouped, it was just so obvious that they got it in so many more ways than we had imagined," said Glenn Hansen, coordinator in the Honors Program. "They were taking the time to see and smell and hear. They were meeting with people around town who were really excited to share their experiences. They were making connections."

It's proving to be much more than an academic exercise, Riek added. "This is connecting these students to NAU, to the Honors Program, to Flagstaff and to Northern Arizona."

Many students were equally surprised by the experience. Freshman Katie Brooks of Peoria, Ariz., realized Flagstaff was much bigger than she had envisioned. She also was intrigued by the way some neighborhoods are zoned with both commercial and residential elements.

"On my second day in Flagstaff—my first day without my parents—I was already walking around the neighborhoods," Brooks said. "I was off campus and immersed in the city. I love this place and I already feel at home."

Throughout the semester, students will continue to weave their mapping experience into discussions in their honors classes about who they are in the context of where they are, incorporating carefully selected literature and other materials to enhance their fieldwork experiences.

They are also encouraged to participate in at least two out-of-class activities, such as attending a Southside community meeting or taking a tour of Sunset Crater.

"That's the beauty in all of this," Riek said. "As word spreads about this, more people are calling us to find out how to be a part of it. There is so much substance in the project, and a great deal of potential for it to spin off into other areas."

For example, NAU's program in Community, Culture and Environment has invited participants in the Flagstaff-as-Text project to submit their photos for its annual Places of the Heart exhibit, which features amateur photographs celebrating favorite Flagstaff-area places.

It doesn't have to be limited to the honors experience, she added. "I really envision this trickling out into the student population."

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