Winthrop University has selected "Spare Parts" by Joshua Davis as its Common Book
for the 2017-18 academic year. Since 2011, Winthrop has used its Common Book to emphasize global awareness through
the Global Learning Initiative.
ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — This summer, Winthrop University freshmen will read about
the lives and experiences of four Hispanic youth who build an underwater robot - constructed
entirely of scavenged materials - for a contest.
Winthrop University selected the book, entitled "Spare Parts" by Joshua Davis, as its Common Book for the 2017-18 academic year.
In 2004, four Latino teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education
Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Born in Mexico,
they were raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where they attended an underfunded public high
school. Two inspiring science teachers had convinced these impoverished, undocumented
kids from the desert who had never even seen the ocean that they should try to build
an underwater robot.
They competed against some of the best collegiate engineers in the country, including
a team from MIT backed by a $10,000 grant from ExxonMobil. The Phoenix teenagers had
scraped together less than $1,000 and built their robot out of scavenged parts. Against
all odds, they won, but their story doesn't end there. Their tale became a key inspiration
to the DREAMers youth movement for immigrant families to stay in this country.
New students will receive "Spare Parts" at Orientation sessions in June and August. The Common Book Project, in place at Winthrop since 2004, works to integrate Winthrop students into the university
environment and offers them a common intellectual experience that upholds Winthrop's
strong academic values.
Since 2011, Winthrop has used its Common Book to emphasize global awareness through the Global Learning Initiative. While this
book is not set in a foreign country, it adheres closely to the university's adopted
definition of "global": local, regional, national, and/or international experiences
that may differ from one's own culture.
"This book continues Winthrop's commitment to ˜global education' and our desire to
incorporate a book that supports the themes of the individual's place in education,
in community, in the natural world and in identifying what we hold as 'sacred,'" said
Gloria Jones, dean of University College.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at 803/323-2404 or e-mail her at longshawj@winthrop.edu.
