Knox College's 2015 Fall Institute provided students with a series of workshops and other opportunities designed to help pave the way toward a purposeful, goal-driven academic career.

Fall Institute takes place each year, with regular classes called off for a day. This frees up time for students, enabling them to engage in discussions about a wide range of topics, including potential career paths, study abroad programs, and experiential learning.

The 2015 Fall Institute kicked off the evening of October 20, when documentary filmmaker Christine Herbes-Sommers '70 screened her film, American Denial. She then conducted a question-and-answer session on the film, which is about racism in the United States.

Knox student Patrick Ford '16 was one of the audience members who questioned Herbes-Sommers, asking what made her decide to make a film on the subject of racism. Herbes-Sommers provided a detailed answer that referred to her involvement in the women's movement, her experience of living in Tanzania for two years, and her previous two films about race.

Ford said the film's discussion of An American Dilemma, a 1940s study on race written by Swedish economist and sociologist Gunnar Myrdal, provided him with "a clearer view" of the work. It is one of the assigned readings for Ford's Race and Ethnic Relations class at Knox.

On October 21, Fall Institute Day, Herbes-Sommers led a session for students called "Can Documentary Film Storytelling Shape Our World? And Yours? How?"

In an informal talk with about a dozen students, Herbes-Sommers spoke about her experiences as a filmmaker and the importance of good writing.

(Photos above and below: Christine Herbes-Sommers, at left, speaks with Knox students at Fall Institute.)

"Anybody who likes people will do well in this business. It's a challenging profession," she said. "You tell stories, but you also construct an argument."

Herbes-Sommers, who said that she learned to argue while at Knox, explained that building an argument persuades people, while telling a story reaches their hearts.

Students said they appreciated hearing her insights.

"It was good to have someone confirm the importance of knowing how to write and form a narrative structure before getting into the 'nitty gritty' technical parts of documentary film production," said Casey Mendoza '16, a political science major who plans to pursue a career in multimedia journalism.

"I think that aspect of her session really helped a lot of the other students in the room, especially since the industry is currently in a state of transformation," added Mendoza. "Since video production is becoming cheaper, the market is becoming more saturated, and funding is a lot harder to get. It's pretty scary for anyone that wants to get into film production, but for me, it's a sign that there is a high need for technical expertise and storytelling skills."

Katie Stiava '19 attended several Fall Institute sessions, including discussions about majoring in English and about experiential learning. She explained what attracted her to Herbes-Sommers' session, saying: "I love stories, and I need to learn different kinds of storytelling."