Spelman's Independent Scholars

Who are Spelman's Independent Scholars?

We are a very diverse group of young scholars. We are sophomores, juniors and seniors, majoring in African American studies, biology, economics, English, math, political science, psychology, philosophy, sociology, Spanish, and women’s studies.

Who are the SIS Mentors?

As a group, our mentors are as diverse as we are. They are professional secretaries, caterers, receptionists, social workers, domestics, cooks, nurses, school teachers, high school counselors, journalists, college professors, school administrators, entrepreneurs, notary publics, artists, preachers, theologians, published scholars and community activists.

They are women who earned college and graduate degrees and women who earned GEDs; women who grew up in rural farm communities and women who grew up in urban areas; women who lived in housing projects and women who lived in middle class communities; women who came from families of three children and women who came from families of thirteen; women who have never left the confines of the community in which they were reared, and women who have traveled all around the globe; women who birthed daughters and women who adopted daughters. They range in age from seventy to ninety-five. All of them now reside in the South. All of them are remarkable women.

Clearly, with such a diverse group of women, we expected different stories, and yet we discovered that, at the very core of this difference, there are commonalities about belief in family and community, education and integrity, resistance and change, and in our future as leaders. All of us heard the same message from our mentors: “You are special, and you must achieve.” Because SIS is such a special course and a special experience, it is no coincidence that WOW is not only the acronym for Women of Wisdom, it is also the response we often make to our mentors’ tories.

What is SIS?

Spelman’s Independent Scholars (SIS) Program is a two-semester independent, interdisciplinary and intergenerational learning experience open to students across all majors. In SIS, we enhance our critical writing and critical thinking skills. In weekly seminars we share our research, sharpen our skills and grow in knowledge about oral history. In addition to learning sessions with the SIS faculty mentor, we are privileged to lectures by guest scholars including a gerontologist, two oral historians, a museum curator, an archivist and a physician-researcher in traditional knowledge. The first semester in SIS focuses on research and interviewing. The second semester focuses on transcribing and editing.

The concept paper included in our SIS Research Notebook gives a rationale for the learning experience:

Throughout our history in this nation -- indeed before we were brought to these shores -- older women in our families and in our communities have been griots and sages, seers and prophets whom we were taught to honor and revere. Their stories teach us about values and beliefs that shaped their reality and, in immeasurable ways, impact our own. For reason, then, we see their memories, anchored deep in the soil of wisdom, as cherished treasures. It is this truth, as old as time itself, that undergirds the SIS Oral History Project.
Danielle Phillips, Spelman Independent Scholar

"Every time an elder dies, we lose a library"
An African Proverb

"The world is made of stories, not atoms"
Muriel Rukeyser