Breaking out of the bubble
Drew Olejnik
For a More Just and Humane World
We painted walls in a school, put up ceiling tiles, shadowed students and picked trash from one of the many illegal hillside trash dumps. Knee deep in filth, wading through the dirt, garbage, bones, dog carcasses and syringes, we worked with dozens of other college and local students and left David, Kentucky, the site of our Appalachia Seminar experience, with the understanding of what service to and by many people can accomplish. Communities can achieve greatness if willing people communicate, work hard and have a vision.
Lined up in a row of 12 with a bag of seeds tucked under our arm, we began the laborious process of planting two to three seeds every small step in the tilled fields. Droplets of sweat poured down our faces under the 95-degree heat. The plants that were to grow from our work would prevent further erosion of the surrounding land. Twelve Notre Dame students on the Mexico Seminar discovered how demanding life is for many other people throughout the world.
Sitting around a large circular table in a cold, damp church, the ND/SMC participants of our Chicago Urban Plunge, conversed with two gang members from the local neighborhoods. Although the two young men left at 10 p.m., most of the group stayed awake until well after 2 a.m., discussing and debating critical social questions and issues spurred by the dialogue that night. Away from the classroom-based learning, we breached real life subjects and formed opinions on how to improve our country.
The experiential learning opportunities offered through the Center for Social Concerns are an essential part of the educational experience. For my first three years, I was involved with various opportunities as a participant, drinking the nectar of knowledge. But this year, as a seminar coordinator, I saw others expanding their minds and broadening their life experiences to become more concerned, professional and analytical students.
On the Washington D.C. Seminar, participants met with various government, non-government and religious organizations during the day to discuss international humanitarian issues. The topics included sweatshops, third world development, refugees, human rights accountability and the Catholic Church's role in global issues. In the afternoons, they explored the city: Arlington National Cemetery, the Smithsonian Museums, Congress and much more. In the evenings, they familiarized themselves with the different neighborhoods of Washington including Georgetown, Union Station, Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle.
Now, more globally aware, politically conscious and familiar with the city of Washington D.C., the participants returned from a week outside of the bubble of Notre Dame. And, they had grown in ways that could not be measured by paper and pencil.
Experiential learning opportunities help students connect classroom-based learning to real world problems and occurrences. Through the Center for Social Concerns, students have the opportunity to meet the outside world during the academic school year or over their breaks. Whether it be as a summer service project, spring or fall break seminar or a study abroad experience, no Notre Dame student should graduate without participating in one of these formative experiences.
Notre Dame is a great place for a college education, but it could become an even better place if everyone were to bring back and share the experiences which occur away from campus. We should sit down with a friend who spent a semester "around the world" or "down-under" and find out what the people are like in another part of our global community, what is unique about another culture's way of life, what his favorite part of the experience was. You may be surprised to find that there exists ways of life that are more appealing than the American way.
I acknowledge that spring breaks on a cruise, summer jobs on the Jersey shore and skiing in the Rockies are incredibly fun and relaxing experiences. Our breaks are meant for that — to recharge our batteries. But ask almost anyone who has participated in at least one of these experiential learning seminar opportunities and you will likely hear how enriching the experience was.
The seminars are fun. You learn about new and exciting topics, meet other great Notre Dame and Saint Mary's students and experience something completely different and novel to your daily lives at Notre Dame. Try one. It may be one of the most rewarding experiences of your time at Notre Dame. What do you have to lose? The beaches and mountains will still be there after you graduate. But these opportunities may not.
The CSC column, "For a More Just and Humane World" is a bi-weekly column in The Observer. Drew Olejnik is a senior government and economics major with a concentration in peace studies. Drew developed and organized this year's Washington D.C. Seminar.
The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, November 15, 2000
