In the first semester of my third year I decided to take a course called Literature & Theology taught by Dr. Paul Doerksen. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I made during my degree. Paul taught the class in a different style than he had before; we spent the whole semester studying the work of one scholar named Marilynne Robinson. Robinson’s confidence in her writing and awareness of the world are some of the qualities I admired in her.
Category: academics Page 13 of 14
Choosing to go to university is one very big decision. Choosing which university is another. I like to tell people that I chose CMU because of the Great Hall and I’ve always wanted to go to Hogwarts. There is some truth to that, but the real story is a little less easy to explain in a single sentence.
On the daily, I am impressed by this school’s ability to inspire kindness and a passion for learning. How is CMU able to reach students in such a meaningful way, you may ask? That would be because of our size – we’re a small university! Here are 10 reasons why studying at a small university is a smart choice.
Writing does not always come easy for some of us, and the thought of handing in your first university essay, proposal, etc. can be very frightening. Prior to joining the CMU community, I had taken an AP English class that I felt had given me a decent grasp on essay writing. However, as classes began to pick up and I received syllabi, a stomach-wrenching realization came over me as I failed to recognize most of the academic writing styles in which I would have to write future essays. I felt a little embarrassed to ask for help and thought I would have to resort to the all-knowing gurus known to our generation by the names of Google and YouTube.
As the end of the school year becomes a reality, those of us like myself who are graduating from CMU in April have begun to reflect more and more on our time here. Now I know for myself that we often talk a lot about the great things that we experienced during our years at university: the community, the mentorship that develops between professors and students, the classes and classmates that made our days here so memorable. But as my time as a student at CMU draws to a close I have begun to ask a new question: what will I take away from my time here? How have these experiences shaped me into the person I am as a transition from the life of a student to one of a full-fledged grown-up in the “real world” of post-university adulthood? The answer has found its way to me under three ways: learning to live outside your box, thinking and living bigger, and coming into your own.