C-START allows students to teach their own course

Signs in UNC residence hall showers warn students that in just 10 minutes, they could waste dozens of gallons of water.

But Mandy Eidson, a senior English major, is looking at the University’s water theme through a different lens.

Students in Eidson’s course, “The Cultural Biography of Water,” recently visited University Presbyterian Churchon Franklin Street to talk with the pastor about water representations in Christianity.

Eidson’s class field trip is just one of the ways she and her students are exploring water from a new perspective, thanks to a program called C-START, or Carolina Students Taking Academic Responsibility through Teaching.

C-START lets UNC students become professors of their own subjects. Eidson said before she found C-START, she didn’t have an avenue to pursue her interest from the cultural and artistic angle she wanted.

“I wanted to see if there was room at the University for a kind of more arts-based approach to celebrating the theme,” she said.

Frankie Barrett, a senior Women’s and Gender Studies major, teaches a class on “Gender and Violence in U.S. Music.” She said C-START provided a platform for a conversation she found necessary but missing at UNC.

“It provides and empowers students to create that discussion in academic communities, which I think is really important,” Barrett said.

C-START is managed by Honors Carolina — but students do not have to be in the Honors program to be instructors or to enroll in a course.

Student teachers receive three hours of independent study credit for developing and leading the course. Each course meets once a week for two hours, and students enrolled earn one hour of pass/fail credit.

Eidson said the best part of her experience so far is that she can explore her topic alongside other students.

“Now I have these 10 awesome people to share that interest with,” Eidson said. “That’s the coolest thing.”

C-START classrooms have six to 15 students, plus the student teacher, allowing for active participation and lots of discussion. Eidson said lecturing is highly discouraged.

“What I’m really doing is facilitating learning — facilitating discovery,” she said.

Lily Rolader, a junior who is in Eidson’s course, said having a teacher who is also a college student changes the learning environment significantly.

“I feel like since she’s in the same boat as all of us, the conversations are a little bit more fluid. You don’t feel like you have to impress the teacher with what you’re trying to say,” Rolader said.

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