UHD’s First-Year Common Reading Program is designed to spark intellectual discussions by requiring students to read and digest a good book. Every freshman participating in summer orientation sessions and every UHD professor who teaches freshmen classes will receive their own copy of Outliers and be expected to read it this summer.

“This is UHD’s gift to you,” Associate Professor of English Tammis Thomas told about 100 incoming freshman this week. “Let it enrich your life and let it support your success.”

This is UHD’s first year to participate in a common text program, which is supported by the national Achieving the Dream academic success initiative. Stanford University selected Outliers as part of its summer reading program in 2009, and several other universities around the nation have selected it as part of their freshmen success efforts.

“Students who make connections with other students and with their professors are more likely to graduate,” Thomas said. A committee of 10 UHD professors met this spring to select the best text to launch UHD’s First-Year Common Reading Program. Members looked for a book that would offer freshmen the most potential. The common text program aims to stimulate an environment of inquiry and promote connections among first-year students and their professors.

Outliers details the paths of some of the world’s most extraordinarily successful people. What circumstances create a success story like Bill Gates? What do the best hockey players in the world have in common? What common patterns do the most successful pilots share? Gladwell looks beyond the biographies to find patterns in success and discovers they often have a lot to do with equal parts hard work and luck.

Inside the front cover of their books, UHD freshmen get their first university assignment: read the book by Aug. 10 and submit a 500-word essay by Aug. 15. A $500 award is reserved for the best freshman essay. In addition, freshmen are asked to attend UHD’s first Freshman Convocation on Saturday, Aug. 21. UHD’s professors, deans and president – all of whom will read Outliers – will discuss the book with the incoming freshmen.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to support your success,” Thomas told this week’s first orientation group. “This book is your introduction to academic life. We would like to see every single one of you walk across the stage and earn your degree.”