The recent Homecoming 2017 event at ValpU included festivities on Saturday, September 30, celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Christ College, and I was eager to return to the campus that served as the setting for an extraordinary time in my life, and to celebrate this special part of the university.
I arrived on campus right about 9:30 to get myself ready to participate in the CC 50th Celebration Quiz Bowl Challenge. When an e-mail was sent out from Christ College seeking volunteers to play on teams, I pretty much jumped at it. The game was a combination of Jeopardy and Quiz Bowl. Play started with a toss-up question, and the team that answered the toss-up question correctly was eligible to pick a category and a points amount.
After Teams Fingerle and Piehl played, I then moved into place at the table with my team, led by Richard Schiming.
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| I thank my friend Tyler Holle for getting this picture of me right before play started. I am second from the left at the table, in a yellow-colored sweater vest. |
And did I ever get pumped up seeking to answer questions, even though I had some close calls with improperly formatted answers. We triumphed over Team Schumacher, led by Russ Schumacher, a Jeopardy champion, which qualified us to compete for the championship. We played off in a series of 5 toss-up questions with Team Fingerle to determine the champion. Our team ended up placing 2nd, but in the end, we all had fun, and even those not on the championship team went home with a Christ College mug. Plus, we enjoyed ourselves playing a game answering questions on a variety of subjects, just as in our time in Christ College, we discussed knowledge in a variety of subject areas--so how fitting to have a trivia game as part of the Golden Anniversary celebration.
After the trivia game ended, there was an open house. I went around with my friend Tyler, who had arrived shortly before the trivia game started. We looked around Mueller Hall, and mingled with former professors and other fellow Christ College alumni. It was delightful being back in a place that served as the setting for many memorable learning experiences and then some.
At one point during the open house, Jennifer Prough, one of my former professors who now serves as interim dean, offered remarks, as did ValpU Provost, Mark Biermann. They both spoke well about the special role Christ College plays at ValpU. Dr. Biermann, who at the start declared his academic background in the sciences, even went so far as to counter the phrase "soft skills" that are part of the humanities-based Christ College program, alluding society's idea of their uselessness, saying that the skills students acquire in Christ College classes allow them to approach life with thoughtful critical analysis, and enhances their college education overall. After the remarks, a Lego model of Mueller Hall was unveiled--please see the picture below that I took--an effort spearheaded by Professor Andrew Richter, Dean Prough's husband.
Following the remarks, Tyler and I continued to wander around.
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| Here I am posing with images of former Christ College Deans Mel Piehl (to the left in the picture) and Mark Schwehn (to the right), which were out on a table in a Mueller Hall hallway. Thanks to Tyler for taking this picture. |
We ended up in a room with Professor Graber, who, along with two Christ College seniors, was leading a discussion about the CC freshman program. The two seniors are Teaching Assistants, who, one day a week, lead a discussion group of freshmen. It was a great opportunity for me to think back upon the texts we studied that first semester at Christ College, as well as our freshmen production, and to think about how it fits into our education and even our lives. One person in the room participating in the discussion was an alumnus who offered memories of the structure of CC when it was in its infancy back in the 1960's/1970's. I also enjoyed hearing the perspectives of current Christ College seniors.
Indeed, this session made me think about much, including my path to obtaining my MLIS. I realized that the path I took made a lot of sense, because Christ College gave me a good liberal arts backing to my education that helped me think broadly in a variety of subject areas, and I see that being put to use now in my LIS work, as I interact with a variety of subjects.
The afternoon was an open period, so Tyler and I met with our friend Richard, and made merry visiting over lunch, and then over to his apartment, chatting about our lives and things happening with us. Tyler and I then went to 4 PM Mass at St. Teresa's, which was a wonderful time to reconnect with a community that played a significant part in my ValpU experience--and actually factored considerably into the autobiographical essay I wrote during my Christ College Senior Colloquium as I reflected on my experiences at that time in my life. After Mass, I spent time reconnecting with Deacon Bob and his wife Karen, and Oleta and Jim Chester and Mary and Bob Emery, two couples with whom I shared an extraordinary week at St. Augustine in Nebraska during spring break of my senior year. It was wonderful to see them all.
Then it was time to attend the second installment of festivities for Christ College's Golden Anniversary, an evening reception. I arrived after the dinner buffet had already opened, which was catered by Don Quijote, a Spanish restaurant in downtown Valparaiso. (There were many dishes on the buffet tables that weren't really Spanish, like beef sandwiches and meatballs in different varieties, but at least there was paella. And there was good food there overall, in great abundance.) Dean Prough, ValpU President Mark Heckler, and Dean Franson all gave remarks. President Heckler extolled the place Christ College has in the large ValpU community and the significant role Christ College plays. In tribute to Dean Franson's work at Christ College, especially in providing academic advising services to students, Dean Prough named Dean Franson an honorary Christ College Scholar. Dean Franson was overcome by such great tribute in her honor, which is well-deserved, given how much she has done for the Christ College community, especially in aiding students through academic advising for classes.
Also during the reception, alumnus Frederick Barton talked about the various careers and other pursuits CC alumni have embarked on in life after ValpU. He organized his remarks around the theme of the Christ College alumni community is like being its own town, complete with teachers, pastors, judges, and church choir singers. I was intrigued to see the breadth of what Christ College alumni do with their lives.
Subsequently, there was a short break, which gave the chance for us to mingle. I talked with former professors, and even met some big names like Russ Schumacher. Also while mingling, a woman approached me and, like many others did throughout the day, complimented me on my spirited performance in the morning trivia game. When I looked at her name tag, I realized I had just been approached by Rebecca Pallmeyer, who is a federal judge in Chicago for the U.S. District Court for the Northern Illinois District.
Judge Pallmeyer served as co-moderator along with Dan McAdams, another alumnus, for a panel featuring all the living deans of Christ College, past and current--one of the early deans passed away.
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| From left to right: Dan McAdams, Rebecca Pallmeyer, and Deans Baepler, Schwehn, Piehl, Kanelos, and Prough. Picture is mine. |
Their remarks ran the gamut from discussing how Christ College got started to the challenge of how an interdisciplinary humanities-based honors college program, like that at Christ College, can remain relevant in this present day and age. I was also intrigued to learn that the Lilly Fellows program was funded by the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company, which has provided teaching fellowship opportunities, including some of my professors--not to mention offices in the Linwood House, a fascinating spot on campus. After closing remarks, I lingered a little longer, chatting with professors and others before beginning my nice, long drive back to Oak Park.
I left feeling so glad I participated in the festivities celebrating the institution that was a special part of my studies during four years at ValpU. The humanities-based program provided a nice compliment to my scientific studies for my major. Truly, the Christ College program distinguishes itself like no other program in the words summed up by what appears on the back of the Golden Anniversary t-shirts that were distributed: "Read Carefully. Interpret Responsibly. Discuss Thoughtfully." I think those sentiments express why the Christ College suited me so well. I like to spend time musing on the nature of life, to get a greater understanding of the question that was ever present before us in Christ College studies: "What does it mean to be human?"
In the quest to answer that question, I was able to engage with so many different ideas in a diversity of texts. Certainly, the freshmen program is defined by the structure that allows an intense look at several texts. In the first semester, we did looked at philosophers, most especially Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, a time-honored tradition by which Christ College freshmen are "broken in". We also looked at the Bible, St. Augustine's Confessions, and Marco Polo's travels, which many disliked, but which I rather enjoyed. The second semester's first half had a focus on social science, including William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Jane Austen's Persuasion, and stories by Lu Xun. There were also the big undertakings of the freshmen program, with more time-honored traditions like creating our freshmen production, which for my class was the story of a Western town called Nugget where the women, led by the mayor's Russian mail-order bride, rebel against the men and banish them. Then came the freshmen debates in the 2nd semester, giving us the chance to research and craft arguments about major issues at the international, national, state, and university levels. (At my debate, I gave a speech addressing the US government's plan to move Guantanamo detainees to a prison facility in northwestern Illinois--in a debate that was aired live on the Internet.) The 2nd semester also gave us the chance to be in research seminars focused on specific topics, resulting in large compositions. My 20-page essay was about a monument to Confederate soldiers in Oakwoods Cemetery on the Southeast Side of Chicago.
In subsequent years, I continued the Christ College quest with classes like Word and Image, which truly stands out among all classes I've had. This was the kind of class in which we would, for example, look at an image, and discuss the significance of the image's design and presentation. Then came a focus on theology with Christian Tradition, looking at the Bible and the writings famous theologians including Origen, G.K. Chesterton, and C.S. Lewis. Come senior year, I had a class on Justice in the first semester, in which I wrote an essay in which I incorporated ideas from Rod Blagojevich's book The Governor. Then, in the 2nd semester, I was in Creation Narratives, cross-listed with English and Theology, and taught by renowned author Walt Wangerin, who facilitated our discussions of creation narratives from different cultures.
Throughout all my years, I participated in time-honored traditions, like the freshmen production and freshmen debates of subsequent freshmen classes. I also enjoyed Thursday evening Symposium sessions, featuring wonderful speakers on subjects ranging from opera to the Higgs Boson particle. (We had weekly plenary lectures during freshman year, up until Spring Break, with speakers talking on topics related to our texts at hand, including freshmen program professors, ValpU professors, and outside speakers.)
All of this took place in the context of a close-knit community, underscored from the day in May of my senior year in high school when Dean Piehl personally called me to welcome me into the Christ College community. It continued an orientation the following month when I forged good relationships right away with fellow Christ College freshmen. And it continued throughout that first year since we as freshmen spent so much time together with our peers, sharing the joys of creating of freshmen production, and the challenges like attempting to understand Aristotle, and weekly essays. I made connections with other students outside my class, like my teaching assistant for Monday class during the first semester, who was also the same person who led my orientation group back in June. As a sophomore, I was a "CC big sibling" to two freshmen, which was a nice way to connect with the new group of students. I had some great professors, and especially during my freshman year, they were so good in helping me while I adjusted to college and the nature of Christ College class work.
Indeed, it's relationships that enhance our life's experiences so much, and certainly this Golden Anniversary celebration was enhanced by spending it with fellow alumni, from my class and others, along with Christ College staff. Together we muse over this place that is dear to us, reminiscing on the shared experience we had on campus as we thought about what it means to be human, and pondering its continued impact on us and our the world. For I think we have all come away from our experiences as more well-rounded and thoughtful people.
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| Here's to celebrating 50 years of Christ College. Thanks to Tyler for getting this picture of me. |
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