I met recently with Annie, who is a Pastoral Associate at St. Mary's. We first discussed some different volunteer/outreach options for my experience. Two programs that are on St. Mary's campus are the Maria House and the Lantern Center. The Maria House is basically a women's shelter for those who have been abused. The Lantern Center is a place for people that provides those who are new to Dubuque (mostly for those who do not speak English) an opportunity to learn how things in Dubuque work, like the bus system. Also, another type of outreach program, not necessarily associated with St. Mary's, but to whom they often refer people, is to the St. Vincent De Paul store where they are provided with vouchers and help people buy groceries and others supplies that they need.
After we discussed these programs we decided to go look at the church. As I walked into the church I was immediately overcome with emotion. This may be the most beautiful church I have ever seen. I was only in the church for about 10 minutes and already felt that the closing of this church was a huge loss for not just the Washington community but Dubuque itself. I learned that the church was built by a congregation of 60 German immigrants. All of the glass pane windows were made in Germany and shipped over on a boat. If anyone has not yet been in this church I would strongly recommend visiting before the Church closes. Right now they don't have a closing date, and it's not really sure what's going to happen to the church after they close. So go see it now!!
On to the second topic....Liberal arts to me basically means "well-rounded." At Loras, I feel that while we do have individual majors and all take different classes, the required classes that we are to take are intended to make each of us a more well-rounded person. This, I'm sure, is probably supposed to help out in the real world. You know, that whole life after college thing that's looming over our heads. But since I haven't experienced the real world yet, I do not know to what extent any of the stuff I've learned in in my liberal arts classes. For instance, the calculus I was required to take, or the one about Brazil might help me somehow in my future, but I cannot at all think of how.
Martha Nussbaum believes a liberal education should be "committed to the activation of each student's independent mind and to the production of a community that can genuinely reason together about a problem" (Nussbaum, 19). She spends a lot of time discussing how colleges and universities are Socratic and and why that is a good thing. However, many people believe that all these institutions do is force young people to question tradition. Nussbaum clearly views this as a good thing, but there are plenty of people who do not want their traditions questioned and get very angry when their kids come home from school suddenly challenging the views they've been raised to believe. In regards to service, I think her definition of a liberal education clearly supports service and makes people want to help those less fortunate than themselves. Activating one's mind and question social norms can help point out obvious faults in the status quo. Once these problems have been recognized, service is one solution that communities come up with to help solve these problems.
Liz,
ReplyDeleteThose two service opportunites at St. Mary's sound so fun! It would be great to get to know some of the people at the Maria House and get their perspective on life! Reaching out to the new people of the community would be fun and exciting too!
After reading your description of the church, I really want to visit. Either you're a really good story teller, or this is something everyone in the class should see! I've been to many beautiful churches, but it sounds like this one might be at the top of the list.
It's very intersting that we had about the same definition of "liberal arts"--well rounded, applicable to the real world, etc. I have noticed how this has helped a little bit with my grad school interviews, but feel slightly the same way you do. For example, this law and American lit class we're in--no idea when that will come in handy!
Amazing, too, is that we found the same quote to explain how Nussbaum describes liberal arts. It really is the best one, though, as it describes how we learn to think independently but come together to make group decisions by attending a liberal arts school.
Side note: This is one thing that I have become very good at outside of the classroom this year with Dance Marathon. For some reason, we've had lots of drama in a short three weeks coupled with very strong personalities. The sum of that equation equals lots of discussion and argumentation before we come together to make the best decision possible! If I wasn't at a small liberal arts college, I probably would not be as involved nor would I learn how to deal with these problems. I think it's more than just the courses at a liberal arts college (of course if you choose to participate in organizations outside the classroom) that help us with our decision making skills!
Any way, back to the blog response, I also noted about the questioning and I really do believe it can strengthen one's beliefs! It's all about that critical and reflective thinking we're learning with liberal arts! I really like how you related the reading to service. It's really not until we reflect on the challenges in the world that we recognize the types of people that truly need our help. Again, we need to use the reflective process to determine ways in which we can help these people--a process I might be perfect at after completing this course!
Happy Serving!