By Cameron Pettrone
Staff Writer
St. Bonaventure hosted the annual freshmen poster conference on Nov. 7 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Doyle Dining Hall. The conference was designed to have University 101 students relate their majors to this year’s All Bonaventure Reads novel, “The Boys in The Bunkhouse.”
The novel, by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and Bona graduate Dan Barry, ’80, depicts the events that occurred in the small town of Atalissa, Iowa, from the mid-20th century up until recently, in which dozens of men with mental disabilities were overworked at a turkey processing plant for years and paid very little due to their disabilities.
The book draws attention to injustice and the exploitation of the disabled. It advocates on the behalf of those who are rarely heard.
The vast array of majors represented at the event allowed the novel to be analyzed from many angles including focusing on mental illness, injuries the workers obtained at the plant and even looking at the employment of the disabled from a business standpoint.
Students used a variety of creative ways to showcase the way their specific majors connected to the book, including posters and interactive games such as Jeopardy and Kahoot.
One group of students even traced the history of state schools to modern day, supplementing their research with an interview from an administrator from an Olean-based rehabilitation clinic.
Tracie Hickman, a freshman psychology major, discussed her experience working with the intellectually disabled during high school through the “Best Buddies” program.
“I joined Best Buddies in high school… I really came to love these people; they gave me so much joy,” she said.
Hickman, whose presentation dealt with the neurological side of mental illness, believes that those with mental disabilities are a very repressed group and deserve to have their voices heard.
“People don’t care enough about these people,” she said.
pettrocj16@bonaventure.edu
