About the Benjamin Franklin initiative

the experience

At Wake Forest University, the students participate in three workshops with university professors.  Current students in the program have spent their workshops examining the development of constitutions in the United States and Europe (“Comparative Constitutionalism”); exploring the role of Internet tools in public discourse (“Media Criticism in the Age of Internet”); and experimenting with public debate as a way to bridge differences.

In order to have a chance to experience American life first-hand, the students are staying in the homes of families near the university campus for a weekend.  As part of the program, the students also started their own blogs – a convenient and technologically up-to-date way to exchange information, discuss cultural differences, relate experiences, present points of view and comment on what others have to say.