Education Outside The Library Posted on May 8th, 2012 by

Since I was a little kid, I have always been an Indiana Jones fan. Academic meets adventurer—not that they are mutually exclusive. In the latest installment of the Indiana Jones series, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the best line comes when Dr. Jones is cruising through the library on a motorcycle with his side-kick Mutt Williams and he runs into one of his archeology students. The student asks Jones for a few references for a paper, and Jones gives him some information, but also replies “If you want to be a good archeologist, you’ve got to get out of the library!” as the motorcycle peels out of the room between the bookshelves.

A little cultural education in lending a hand--Kopal in Karnataka, India.

Maybe I’m a romantic, in love with the life of high adventure and close calls that Dr. Jones attributes as “research,” but I think Steven Spielberg has got a point. Education is not one-size-fits-all. I went through a time at Gustavus when I was profoundly unhappy with my major and my commitment to academics. My classes didn’t feel relevant to my interests and I felt, despite my efforts, the results were unsatisfying.

Thanks to a unique opportunity at Gustavus, I got the chance to create my own major—Global Community Development—with the help of three brilliant professors. We decided to focus on an education that gets me out of the classroom more often. Since then, I’ve had more classes that are interactive with the community and teach concepts that actively apply to real life: the value of partnership, the importance of communication, and techniques for a project proposal.  I worked on a project with an organization in Minneapolis, I’ve done research with offices on campus, and I am even writing this blog as a part of my academic coursework! And I have even put in some productive hours at the library.

All school requires some library time—time focused on learning the building blocks in order to expand the renovation projects happening in our minds. Though I am often willing to accept the challenge, I have also found that my gifts and my passions lie outside the world of books. I have learned to enjoy decent exam scores, B level papers, and A level class participation, and I can honestly say that I am learning a great deal. I learn as much more about community by participating in choir or sharing conversation in the courtyard café as I do reading articles in the library, and that’s ok.

Education needs to be measured in a broad range of ways, and Gustavus has taken notice. Submitting your application to Gustavus doesn’t require an ACT score because we realize that successful students can be measured in different ways. This last weekend’s Honors Day recognized people’s achievements in all sorts of campus engagement: from 4.0 students to research awards to those of us more focused on our extracurricular involvement. Though I don’t spend a ton of time pouring over my classroom texts, I still feel welcome to explore my strengths and learn in the ways that best suit my passions. Well, almost. They still don’t sell whips or fedoras in the bookmark.

 

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