Midterms don’t always have to be tortuous, as students in the Wellness Living and Learning Community discovered when assigned to visit and experience a spiritual or religious event unfamiliar to them.
Living and Learning Communities (LLCs) are programs in which students take seminar classes every quarter revolving around certain themes, live on the same floor of a residence hall and explore concepts in real-world settings with professional faculty and staff.
“One of the big themes of this course is to help students explore their own opinion of spirituality and religion and its connection to emotional well being,” said Kathryn Ross.
Ross is the Faculty Director for the Wellness LLC and the instructor for Spiritual and Emotional Wellness, the course taken by all students in the Wellness LLC.
Wellness students can choose to visit a location from a list of 22 different places of worship. Among these are two Buddhist temples, two Quaker meetings, three Evangelical churches (one Ethopian and one Chinese) and four Jewish Synagogues.
“It’s definitely a unique opportunity. I’m visiting a Quaker service for the project, and I’m not sure whether to be nervous or excited. I’m a little of both, I guess,” said Noel McKillip, a first-year member of the Wellness LLC.
“Our goal is to make students go out of their comfort zone and, thus, be able to compare and contrast an unfamiliar system of religion or spirituality with their own. I’ve taught this course for three years now. This quarter consistently sees students becoming more open-minded and tolerant of other religious cultures,” said Ross.
Before visiting their spiritual location of choice, Wellness students research background information about the religion or system of spirituality and learn about the type and purpose of the event or service in which they intend to participate.
“Those in the 18-22 age bracket are in the process of creating their own identities, and spirituality is a huge piece of that. The Wellness LLC courses provide students with a fun time to talk together, and to slowly redefine who they are. It’s definitely something that students really seem to appreciate,” said Ross.
“I’ve learned that there’s definitely more to other cultures than you’d think,” said McKillip. “I’ve stereotyped many differrent religions, as I’m sure a lot of people have, and I’m coming out of this experience with a broader view of who these people are and what they do.”
After their spiritual visit, students will each create a poster board detailing their mid-term experience. These poster boards will be on display in Evans Chapel as part of UN’s World Interfaith Harmony Week 2012 this week.
