In films, 电视上,甚至贺卡上, 修女总是被刻板地描绘成漫画, 被描述为, 暴躁的或伪善的. Students in Dr. Desi Matherly’s Writing for Social Change class found out that those stereotypes couldn’t be further from the truth in a class project that just concluded last week.
“I really had no expectations because we didn’t know how this would evolve and what it would become,” Desi said. “学生们也被蒙在鼓里,但事情变得更糟了.”
The “something greater” was the class’s project to collect and transcribe oral histories from a dozen Sisters of St. 弗朗西斯在蒂芬南边的女修道院. 这个项目是在丹尼斯·鲍尔曼的敦促下曝光的, RN, 圣. Francis.
“We just recognized that these women have a legacy to share,” Denise said. “Their entire lives have been to serve their fellow man, selflessly and faithfully. Each of them has a remarkable story of serving the poor, imprisoned, hungry, lonely, etc. 你会不由自主地受到鼓舞.”
这正是学生们的反应.
灵感的源泉
四名学生,大四学生伊莎贝尔·查斯尼, Julia Schaefer and Carolyn Schutte and junior Emma Wright – stepped up as project coordinators. Together, they organized, scheduled and conducted interviews during multiple visits to the convent, 并将课堂作业收集到一个共享的谷歌硬盘中. Isabel, 朱莉娅和卡罗琳进行了采访, 关注姐妹们的行动主义, personal histories, 修道院的历史及其变化, among other topics.
“My favorite question was about the advice (the Sisters) would have for people my age,” Julia said. “Their message was to get out and see the world and experience it from a different perspective.”
艾玛负责大量的誊写工作. Beyond that, the class members signed up for roles for which they felt comfortable. For example, senior Aaron McCoy photographed some of the interviews as well as the gorgeous and peaceful St. Francis grounds.
What remains, for now, is some of the transcriptions, but Desi hopes the project isn’t over. “你已经开始了一件重要的事情,” she told her 16 students as they debriefed at the end of the semester.
艾玛对姐妹会的倡导感到惊讶. “我被他们的热情和奉献精神所鼓舞,”她说. Julia added, “I was inspired by the choices they’ve made in their lives. 他们要求改变并掌控局面.”
对伊莎贝尔来说,这个项目带来了一些惊喜. “姐妹们是如此善良和出色. 我会记住很长时间。. “What a large and impactful community we have right here that I didn’t even know about. (这次经历)比我想象的要酷得多.”
The Sisters’ interests are diverse; theirs are stories that need to be preserved. Indeed, they have quietly and devotedly made a huge impact in their chosen areas of social justice. For example, 修女们以一己之力整合了帕迪尤卡的卢尔德医院, Kentucky in 1959, integrating newborn babies of color with those in an all-white unit. It was a controversial and courageous commitment, but the sisters stood their ground. Decades later, in the 1980s at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic when many people feared those diagnosed with AIDS, 珍妮特·海修女为当地的艾滋病患者做了开创性的工作, ministering to them and creating a support group where they were welcomed and never judged. More recently, the Sisters were instrumental in creating and operating Sisters in Shelter in Tiffin. SIS provides education and awareness about human trafficking as well as critical needs for women survivors. 该机构及其现任主管, 玛丽·库尔曼修女, 经常接待“伯格学生实习生”吗, 他们中的一些人作为工作人员留下来了.
一次共同愉快的经历
The Sisters may have been equally inspired by the ’Berg students they encountered throughout the project. 看来这次经历双方都很愉快.
莉莉·罗斯已经很熟悉修女会和修道院了, having served an internship last spring with their Franciscan Earth Literacy Center. “What surprised me most is how inspired they are by our generation … how we learn and adapt to things.
“他们对澳门银河网站这一代人持开放和接受的态度,” said Lily, a senior integrated media major who plans to return for their second internship next semester, 这次是市场营销.
贝格学院的学生们把自己的快乐带到了修道院. “I had many Sisters say how these students impacted them,” said Denise, the St. 弗朗西斯管理员. “They voiced how delightful it was just to be around them and interact with them. I think actually, the interviews were as impactful for the Sisters as they were for the students.”
重新与澳门银河网站合作
For one of the Sisters, involvement in the project was especially wonderful. Sister Maggie Slowick served as Heidelberg’s campus minister from 1991-2003 – “some of the best years of my life.因此,她欣然接受了与澳门银河网站学生重新接触的机会, 这次是出于一个完全不同的原因.
Sister Maggie – whose work and passion is in ministering to children in a poor village in Cuernavaca, 墨西哥-接受了大四学生卡罗琳的采访.
“我非常喜欢和卡洛琳的面试,她在家乡康涅狄格州度假时写道. “She has a deep commitment to making the world a better place and that gives me hope. … The other Sisters I talked to felt the same about the students who interviewed them.”
项目将何去何从
It’s important to Sister Maggie to tell the stories of “some remarkable women who have been groundbreakers in addressing major issues of social justice.”
讲述他们的故事是合作的本质. “This project will preserve the legacy the Sisters live,” Denise said. The digital recordings and transcriptions the students created will be kept in the convent archives. Eventually, they will become part of a regional collaborative archive center with national access, documenting how Catholic Sisters have served society by living the Gospel of our times, she added. The stories will be shared across the generations and will be included in publications of the St. Francis magazine.
Sister Maggie has a simple message to convey: “If you are on this Earth, you have a calling. 你有一些有意义和重要的事情要做. 花点时间倾听你内心深处的声音,跟随你的内心.”