December 10, 2009
Honors students honor ‘100 Greatest Americans’
UPDATE March 25, 2024: This story has been updated to correct broken hyperlinks.
Who would be on your list of the 100 greatest Americans? A group of nine honors students spent fall quarter thinking about and debating that question, and on Dec. 9 they revealed their picks.
Their final list includes politicians, philanthropists, artists, social justice leaders and artists including: Stephen Spielberg, Hillary Clinton, Steve Jobs, Jimi Hendrix, Edward R. Murrow, Amelia Earhart, Walt Disney, Barack Obama, Eleanor Roosevelt and Albert Einstein. To see their complete list click here.
The students started the process by defining what greatness means to them. Their main goal was to “assess each individual as a whole, not just on one great act,” said freshman Erin Slomski-Pritz.
Student Maggie Torrance said that selecting the “greatest” American for the number one spot proved to be a huge debate, “We even considered making our number one a tie between our top two, but we were able to come to a decision on number one and two eventually.”
The class decided that Rosa Parks, the woman who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus to a white man in 1955, is second while President Abraham Lincoln is the number one greatest American.
“Rosa Parks was the hugest surprise for me with the students’ list,” said Professor Taso Lagos. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a list where she was in one of the top two spots. That’s what is great about these students—it was a very inspiring process.”
Many of the nine students think Rosa Parks deserves a top spot because she was an “ordinary” citizen who rose to the challenge of segregation. They believe she is an example of greatness rising from the bottom and working its way up, which is “the wellspring for the greatness of this democratic nation,” said Lagos.
On the other hand, students feel Lincoln is the perfect example of greatness coming from the top and working its way down.
“Lincoln was the first president, well politician really, to step up to the issue of slavery,” said student Brandon Ing, “and that’s why we put him in the number one spot.”
Lagos said he always wants to “share the power” with his classes, and that’s exactly what he did. The nine students were responsible for the research, the work, and always came to seminar ready to debate and advocate for their picks.
“I started the class with maybe 20 to 30 people on my personal list,” said sophomore Kelly Gustafson. “I tried to think of people for my list that wouldn’t be replicated by others. We all have different backgrounds, so it was interesting to see all of our lists.”
Senior Carmen Lau said, “In theory we would have brought 100 names of our own to class, but most of us were somewhere between 30 and 45 probably. It was a long debate process to bring all of our lists together.”
Lagos said the process occasionally included students having to really fight for a particular person to make the final list despite objections from classmates.
For example, Torrance was adamant about Disney making the list, which not all of her fellow classmates agreed on.
“Most of them saw it largely from a social justice perspective, but I was also looking from a money and power perspective. I think that he’s made a mark on America, and the fact that he was able to take Disney overseas and it’s just as popular there—I think that puts him on the list.”
Lagos said he was amazed by the work his students did for the two-credit class which included research and reading bibliographies of various Americans ranging from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Julia Child.
“They would actually read the material—really read it and know it. It was amazing. The students really tried to be as fair and as honest as possible.”
