One Book, One College 2022-2023

Emily Baffa

Nov 3, 2022

One Book, One College (OBOC) is a year-long program that unites the Illinois Central College (ICC) community by reading one book selected by the ICC library OBOC committee. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam M. Grant is the 2022-2023 program selection.

The ICC OBOC committee was formed when the ICC librarians created the “One Book, One College” program to encourage learning and community. The committee members are half librarians and half faculty members. The process of selecting each year’s book begins ten months prior to the school year. Typically, the yearly selected books rotate between fiction and non-fiction. The committee has chosen books from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho to How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson. The books are thoughtfully chosen to apply to ICC students or the culture around them.

Adam Grant is a psychologist and bestselling author. His book, Think Again, hinges on the idea that learning to question your opinions is an essential art that enables you to be an effective worker, a genius entrepreneur, and a wise leader. Grant dissects our biases and assumptions and discusses how to overthrow them and when they can be tools to aid us. Grant contends that the most pivotal quality of an impactful individual or organization is a mindset of continuous curiosity. 

Raymond Kowalczyk, Associate Professor and Honors Program Coordinator at ICC, encouraged the students of the Honors Program to read Think Again.

“Students should read this book because if you notice in the world right now, things are polarized. Everyone’s fighting everybody . . . This book is telling us, ‘Let’s just stop to listen first. Maybe we can find some common ground. Are we brave enough to sit back and listen to someone who doesn’t quite agree with us?” Kowalczyk remarked.

ICC’s mission statement declares, “Through learning, minds change. We believe by changing minds, we can change the world.” One Book, One College serves this mission as it exists to promote learning, challenge minds, and encourage the student body to change the world together.