Reflection: A Complete Education

For my 4 years of undergraduate education in Oberlin, I did my Bonner service work at

• Oberlin Heritage Center doing public relations tasks and leading tours of the grounds
• Firelands Association for the Visual Arts watching the gallery and store on weekends
• My senior year I did a stint in the Creative Arts Therapy center at Kendal at Oberlin helping the elderly residents entertain themselves through art and other creative tasks

For my academic time at Oberlin College, I studied

• Biology, because it was a practical science with many applications and job opportunities
• Studio Art, because if I don't create things my brain overheats and explodes (yes, it's messy)
• Religion (mostly the text and afterlife of stories in the Hebrew Bible) to understand what I saw around me and because I like stories

I'm a fan of Oberlin College and the liberal arts education.  I am a life-long learner at heart, and it is useless for me to pretend otherwise.  There's a certain thrill to camping in the library with a pile of books on one side, a stack of notes and highlighters on the other, and a blank screen in front of me waiting for me to detail how the character of Leah, Jacob's wife, transformed through the ages.  There's a satisfaction from having 10 sketch books full of charcoal drawings that no-one but me will ever see.  I enjoy reading the scientific papers debating what, precisely, killed the dinosaurs.

When I started my service freshman year, it was honestly something to bring in money for tuition, fulfill Bonner requirements, and occupy me in my spare time.   I had benefited socially from service work back home and sought the same benefits in Oberlin, so I came with the mindset I wanted to get involved in the community.  So I did---I started at the Oberlin Heritage Center within the first month of school.  I expected it to take a sort of back-seat to my classroom education.   I was here to get some smarts and change the world, darn it, and the books and professors were going to show me how.

The longer I was in school, the more I grew frustrated with....school.  Academics.  Taking tests.  Arguing about topics only PhDs cared about.  Quibbling over the details that didn't and don't really matter in my day to day life.  Will knowing how the dinosaurs died pay my cell phone bill?  Does writing about Leah give meaning to my life?  Will figuring out how to draw foreshortened limbs solve world hunger?  I enjoyed my work in the classroom, but did it make a difference?  On some level it did, but it was hard for me to see it.

But at my service sites, under my supervisors....I worked to compile, stuff, and stamp bulk mailings asking for donations for my non-profit, and saw the results when I opened the mail and a check fell out on to my desk.  I made posters, and they were used to advertise events that people came to.  I learned how to calculate sales tax using 3 different methods.  I had people thank me for opening the gallery because they'd traveled a ways to come see the show.  I helped cater gallery openings.  I manned the phones.  Almost as a by-product I picked up the practical skills that did not come from book learning or lectures halls---of how to be professional, socialize at fundraisers, and set out a spread for a large gathering.  The more educated I became in the liberal arts, the more grateful I was to have Bonner to support me in my pursuit of practical skills I could bring to the workplace.  I am a life-long learner, but I relish the practical.

Practical (www.thefreedictionary.com)
Of, relating to, governed by, or acquired through practice or action, rather than theory, speculation, or ideals

It is wonderful to make a practical difference in the Oberlin community in a way that papers and tests don't.

I am sad to see the passing of the concept of apprenticeship.  There is a balance to book learning and real-life experience, and sometimes I feel our current culture puts too much emphasis on the book part.  There seems to be a growing movement in college admissions to require internships and volunteer work, but I suspect it's still heavily weighted in favor of test scores.   Bonner Scholars, Community-Based Learning, and Community Service Work-Study all work to integrate service work and associated skills into regular academic life.  In my head, they fill the need that regular academics don't meet.  Community service completed my education.