Quest IV winner asks "What moves us?"

First-year student Jason Levinn will receive $25,000 cash prize Lectures, programs and courses based on the winning question will begin in fall 2005

“What moves us?”

That is the question Jason C. Levinn of Gladstone, N.J., a first-year student at the University, submitted as part of the fourth Richmond Quest competition, which sought a compelling question the entire university community could explore through a series of lectures, programs and courses. The query and a 1,500- word accompanying essay won Levinn a $25,000 cash prize.

“We are driven and shaped by forces that are not always obvious, and perhaps it is this aspect of our lives that begs the question, ‘What moves us,’” wrote Levinn in his rationale.

As part of Levinn’s entry, one of 130 submitted by Richmond students or student groups and reviewed by a panel of judges, he asked, “What moved the masses to volunteer in the wake of 9/11? What moves us to serve others? What moves terrorists to act destructively? What moved the tectonic plates beneath Sri Lanka and Indonesia?”

“The entries indicate that many students are taking this opportunity to ask questions of sufficient depth and breadth to engage the full range of our five academic schools here at Richmond in search of synergies among them,” said President Bill Cooper. “Students enjoy opportunities to begin the educational process where it all begins—with a question. They have demonstrated by their questions and rationales that they are able to exercise their creative initiative in a way that will help shape aspects of our curriculum and special programming.”

Sixty students, including Levinn, worked with faculty or staff mentors. Dr. Doug Hicks, associate professor of leadership and religion and director of the Center for Civic Engagement, served as Levinn’s mentor and will receive a $5,000 faculty development grant.

Levinn’s question could be used as the basis for Quest courses in physics, history, politics, leadership and other areas. “Questioning what moves the populace also has its benefits in the world of marketing and business,” wrote Levinn. “If marketing consulting firms know what their consumers are looking for, they can do their job better and, in the process of responding to the needs and wants that move their customers, companies will earn higher profits.”

In drama and literature, he said, “emotions associated with movement are brought to light. Without the emotion of an audience or reader, playwrights and authors would simply be writing for themselves. Instead, they must question what will be powerful enough to move people, and this becomes a goal of the work.”

Lectures, programs and courses based on the winning question will begin in fall 2005 and continue over the next two years. As part of Levinn’s entry, he included suggestions for speakers related to his question, including:

• Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) who could discuss movements within the Democratic party
• Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace laureate from Burma, who could articulate by teleconference or videotape from Burmese house arrest how to move people to act nonviolently in a struggle for democracy and human rights
• Dr. Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, who could lecture on the role of imagination and the passions working for social change
• Dr. Condoleezza Rice, U.S. secretary of state, who could discuss using American diplomacy to create movements for freedom and democracy around the globe
• Tracy Chapman, musical artist, who moves people through song to inspire social change.

The current Quest topic centers on a question about questions. Amy Robin Hoffman, a 2003 graduate, submitted the winning entry, “How do we know which questions to ask?” The first Quest question was, “Is truth in the eye of the beholder?” and the second asked “When does discovery inspire change?”

Faculty have created nearly 50 courses around Quest themes. Past Quest programming has brought to campus more than 75 speakers and events, including Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, political commentator Molly Ivins and comedian Lily Tomlin. In addition, Quest has funded 30 international research opportunities for students, including research carried out in Prague, Bombay, Russia and Ukraine.

RICHMOND MATTERS