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Students, public invited to panel discussion of Stand Up That Mountain

First-year students at NC State University had a summer assignment: to read the book, “Stand Up That Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail,” by author Jay Erskine Leutze. This annual activity for incoming undergraduate students is part of NC State's Common Reading Program.

The new students – along with anyone else intrested in the topic – will have a chance to dig deeper at a panel discussion with people who were part of the story. The panel discussion, arranged by the Poole College of Management, will be held Friday, August 28, 2:30-3:30 p.m., in 3400 Nelson Hall, 2801 Founders Street on NC State's main campus.

Panelists are:

  • Dan Hirschman, special deputy attorney general and section head for the North Carolina Department of Justice, Environmental Division
  • Jay Stem, executive director, North Carolina Aggregates Association
  • Morgan Sommerville, regional director, Appalachian Trail Conservancy
  • James Simons, (retired) director, Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources, Land Quality Section, NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Eileen Taylor, associate professor of accounting in Poole College, will serve as moderator.

Jessica Thomas, director of Poole College’s Sustainability Initiative, and Mike Maher, a May 2015 Jenkins MBA candidate and former Sustainability Initiative Associate at Poole College, helped to organize the August 28 panel session.

"This year's common reading provides an opportunity for our students to study from a range of perspectives a real-world environmental issue that is important for our state,” Thomas said.

Related activities 

Additional discussions and events related to the book have been scheduled for September and October, including a discussion on Documenting Moonshine and Heritage in Appalacia and the documentary film screening of “Popcorn Sutton: A Hell of a Life” by Emmy Award winning producer Neal Hutcheson. 

In selecting "Stand Up That Mountain," the committee members noted a connection between its themes of overcoming obstacles and upholding personal values, something they saw as being valuable to the first-year student experience at NC State, Taylor said in an email interview.

“As a university that is dedicated to applying knowledge in service to our state and society. “Stand Up That Mountain” demonstrates how a dedicated group of ordinary ‘mountain folk’ can have profound effects on their community and spark important discussions about the complex issues of our time and our world,” Taylor said. “A story of resilience and tenacity in the face of obstacles, the book compels readers to consider the rights of businesses and communities amid the backdrop of Appalachian culture.”

That connection with business is one of the perspectives that Taylor, as a faculty member in NC State’s business school, brings to the Common Reading selection committee. “I also bring the perspective of a parent, as two of my children were once freshmen at NC State, and both participated in the common reading program,” she said.

Taylor now is chair of the committee that will select the 2016 book, working with Michael Coombes, director of New Student Programs at the university. “This year, I am happy to announce that we have at least one representative from each undergraduate college on the committee, as well as members of the public, and representatives from many organizations on campus,” Taylor said.

Nominations will be accepted beginning in spring 2016. The committee will select and send the top three nominees to the provost who will make the final selection.

Taylor said that she got involved in the Common Reading program through her participation in the Office of Faculty Development and through connections made while working with the undergraduate Quality Enhancement Program (QEP), which stresses critical thinking.

The Common Reading program provides “an important introduction to college for our incoming freshmen and a common experience for them upon entering NC State,” she said.

The program strives:

  • to provide a shared intellectual experience that will contribute to a sense of community by increasing student-to-student and student-to-instructor interactions,
  • to develop an environment of intellectual engagement, both inside and outside the traditional classroom,
  • to create a foundation for students to explore values and ethics,
  • to raise awareness and tolerance of intergenerational and cultural likenesses and differences,
  • to promote academic discourse, critical thinking, and an exchange of ideas, and
  • to provide an introduction to the expectations of higher education

“It has been rewarding to play a part in such an important choice,” Taylor said. “Incoming freshman receive their copy of the book during summer orientation, so it is the first NC State academic experience many of them have here. I also appreciate meeting and interacting with others from across campus, and helping plan common reading events.”

The Common Reading Program began at NC State in 2006. View the list of previous Common Reading books and  View the prior selections.

This year’s book is available on the NC State Library’s Kindles, which can be checked out by staff, students and faculty.