A castle kind of vacation
Sadly, my vacation time is over for the year. I hope I'll be able to go home for Thanksgiving weekend, but I haven't looked into it yet. I've also got 2 weeks in August between my summer semesters and fall semester during which I may take a day or two off to do some various things that need doing before classes begin again. My vacation week was spent going to class in the morning, catching up some of my domestic chores that needed attention, and helping L. look for an apartment. Her bad credit kept her from even having the option at most places, but she finally found one. I'm so glad she's finally cut herself loose from her boyfriend. Things are finally starting to fall in place for her now. The best part of my escape from work was going to the Mennonite student college retreat hosted by Faith Builders in PA. We stayed at a castle in Franklin, PA that was built by Joseph Sibley in 1913 after a distinguished political career. Life Ministries acquired it in 1969 and it serves primarily as a retreat/conference ministry. This place had enough bedrooms that everybody got a bed and we didn't even fill it up. Some of the rooms were set up as dorms with bunks, and others had just one bed.
The theme of the conference was based on the struggles we as Mennonites face in the conflicts between home (church/community) and college. It was quite interesting listening to the different situations others face. I can't say I've ever faced real conflicts with my professors because they've all been very respectful of the fact that my beliefs are more conservative than the norm. In fact, one of my English professors told me privately that if we discuss issues or if she gives assignments that I'm uncomfortable with, I should just let her know, and we would work something out. Some of the other Mennonite students weren't as fortunate as I have been so far. A panel discussion addressed the question whether we should view our education experience as "getting in there, taking the class, and getting out" or if we should try to develop relationships and make an impact. There were opposing views, of course. I find my own experience to be a bit of a mixture. My busy schedule doesn’t allow for much relationship building so I’m probably a little more on the getting in/getting out end of things. I have made a few connections though that I’ve found to be very beneficial. I can also see how getting really involved in the social aspect of college could validate the typical Mennonite concern against higher education—if you go to college, you won’t stay Mennonite.
On the home aspect of our struggles, we discussed the role of the educated woman in the Mennonite setting. Not only is going to college not the norm in our circles, it’s even more exceptional for a female to do it. Although, it was interesting to note there were more females at this college retreat than there were males. One young lady voiced a concern that was shared by others: does going to college basically mean you’re giving up on the possibility of marriage? How many Mennonite men are going to want to marry a woman who is more educated than they are? And as one young lady so impishly put it: “I’m not sure I want to marry a man less educated than I am.” And then there’s the old salvo we often get, “What’s the point in going to college if you’re just going to get married?” One that was brought up that we didn’t have time to discuss was the issue of men making more money than women doing the same job. This was particularly relevant to the education field. Given my own 7 years of experience in that, I was a bit disappointed we couldn’t discuss it.
Along that line of reasoning was another question that a few major-specific people get: “What are you going to do with that major?” This is a particular frustration to some of the music majors among us. Mennonites are ever the practical people, and if doesn’t appear to be useful to them, what’s the point? Never mind that it happens to be what the person loves and is passionate about.
I thoroughly enjoyed being around “my own kind” having intellectual discussions or just comparing notes. I was amazed at the variety of majors there. By far the most prevalent were the nursing majors like myself, but I think only one was going for a BSN, and none that I know of were planning for graduate school. We had 3 in various stages en route to being medical doctors and 1 thinking about it. 1 majoring in optometry and 1 was in veterinary school. 2 were going for accounting, 1 for finance, and 1 for healthcare administration. At least 3 were going for English. 1 was majoring in chemistry (God bless her!). We had 1 dairy science major and 1 geography major. There were 3 music majors—2 vocal, and 1 instrumental. That’s all I can think of right off the top of my head.
We had several main sessions which involved everybody then we broke up into small groups to discuss things on a more personal level. One of the main sessions was the panel discussion referred to earlier. In another one we did some role playing/skits about our experiences at school or home. They were quite funny, and we may even have some budding actors/actresses or possibly even comedians in our realm.
The theme of the conference was based on the struggles we as Mennonites face in the conflicts between home (church/community) and college. It was quite interesting listening to the different situations others face. I can't say I've ever faced real conflicts with my professors because they've all been very respectful of the fact that my beliefs are more conservative than the norm. In fact, one of my English professors told me privately that if we discuss issues or if she gives assignments that I'm uncomfortable with, I should just let her know, and we would work something out. Some of the other Mennonite students weren't as fortunate as I have been so far. A panel discussion addressed the question whether we should view our education experience as "getting in there, taking the class, and getting out" or if we should try to develop relationships and make an impact. There were opposing views, of course. I find my own experience to be a bit of a mixture. My busy schedule doesn’t allow for much relationship building so I’m probably a little more on the getting in/getting out end of things. I have made a few connections though that I’ve found to be very beneficial. I can also see how getting really involved in the social aspect of college could validate the typical Mennonite concern against higher education—if you go to college, you won’t stay Mennonite.
On the home aspect of our struggles, we discussed the role of the educated woman in the Mennonite setting. Not only is going to college not the norm in our circles, it’s even more exceptional for a female to do it. Although, it was interesting to note there were more females at this college retreat than there were males. One young lady voiced a concern that was shared by others: does going to college basically mean you’re giving up on the possibility of marriage? How many Mennonite men are going to want to marry a woman who is more educated than they are? And as one young lady so impishly put it: “I’m not sure I want to marry a man less educated than I am.” And then there’s the old salvo we often get, “What’s the point in going to college if you’re just going to get married?” One that was brought up that we didn’t have time to discuss was the issue of men making more money than women doing the same job. This was particularly relevant to the education field. Given my own 7 years of experience in that, I was a bit disappointed we couldn’t discuss it.
Along that line of reasoning was another question that a few major-specific people get: “What are you going to do with that major?” This is a particular frustration to some of the music majors among us. Mennonites are ever the practical people, and if doesn’t appear to be useful to them, what’s the point? Never mind that it happens to be what the person loves and is passionate about.
I thoroughly enjoyed being around “my own kind” having intellectual discussions or just comparing notes. I was amazed at the variety of majors there. By far the most prevalent were the nursing majors like myself, but I think only one was going for a BSN, and none that I know of were planning for graduate school. We had 3 in various stages en route to being medical doctors and 1 thinking about it. 1 majoring in optometry and 1 was in veterinary school. 2 were going for accounting, 1 for finance, and 1 for healthcare administration. At least 3 were going for English. 1 was majoring in chemistry (God bless her!). We had 1 dairy science major and 1 geography major. There were 3 music majors—2 vocal, and 1 instrumental. That’s all I can think of right off the top of my head.
We had several main sessions which involved everybody then we broke up into small groups to discuss things on a more personal level. One of the main sessions was the panel discussion referred to earlier. In another one we did some role playing/skits about our experiences at school or home. They were quite funny, and we may even have some budding actors/actresses or possibly even comedians in our realm.
posted by Sara | 6:44 PM
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