One Book, One USAFA
Since 2020, the U.S. Air Force Academy has selected a book as part of its common reading program, One Book, One USAFA. This creates a sense of community among the incoming basic cadets through the shared experience of reading a book carefully chosen by the Dean of the Faculty.
The book is promoted throughout the year and various departments incorporate topics from the book into their academic lessons; not only allowing cadets to connect with each other, but with the Academy as a whole.
Books that are selected for the program speak broadly to the incoming cadets and to the goals of creating leaders of character, exploring the depths of the human condition, navigating nuance and ambiguity, honing critical thinking skills, and developing empathy and understanding of other positions and cultures.
The program goes beyond the incoming class. Each year’s selection is widely accessible and available at both the McDermott and Community Center libraries enabling upperclassmen, faculty, staff, and parents to participate in the program, moving it out of the classroom and creating a bridge to the campus and external communities.
Orbital
by Samantha Harvey
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. One Book, One USAFA invites you to join the conversation as we ask what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?