What I Expect from Paideia

I signed up for Paideia for several reasons. I thought that it might stretch me, for instance I'm a bit uncomfortable with the idea of studying abroad, but I know it will be a very enriching experience, and by being involved with Paideia I will be forced to do that and hopefully some other things that will give me great learning experiences but that I might not otherwise do. I also chose Paideia because I knew that this year would be my only opportunity to join a Paideia cohort and I didn't want to regret not getting involved in Paideia. Another reason that influenced my decision to join Paideia is the opportunity to learn from others prospective. I spend a great deal of time absorbing information through a psychology perspective and that’s great because I’ve been inspired by another discipline quite the way that psychology inspires me, but I also know that there are many other valuable and interesting perspectives to consider (especially at a school like SU) and I want to be able to learn as much about as many different things in as many different ways as I can. And to be entirely honest I can’t complete this section without including another motivation for doing Paideia – the McCombs apartments. I also wanted a shot at having my own room and bathroom my sophomore year, and to be entirely honest I couldn’t be happier with my living situation. This is the first time ever I haven’t had to share a bathroom with someone and it is heavenly. The main reason I chose the section “Understanding Human Behavior” is because that is really what drives me. Many of my life and academic goals revolve around a deeper understanding of human behavior and I think that in coming to understand humanity in a deeper and more honest way will lead to greater peace and stronger community ties in our world.

My goals for the Paideia experience involved a lot around the idea I mentioned before about stretching myself, going outside my comfort zone if you will. There are quite a few things about Paideia that are not the most comfortable. For instance I really like structure it makes me comfortable and I feel that I have things more under control within structured environments. For me structure does not have to be imposed from the outside, I am perfectly happy to enter an unstructured environment, but then I create a structure for myself. However one of the unique things about Paideia is that because of the group dynamic I can’t really create structure without forcing it on others (something I certainly do NOT intend to do). So I hope to become more comfortable with fluid programs during my time in Paideia. I’m also typically not a huge fan of group work because in my past experiences I’ve been left having to do everything at the last minute a lot and that really sucks. I’m hoping Paideia will give me a new prospective on group work and help me to trust others to do their part while learning to better collaborate constructively. I also expect Paideia to change my mind about some things, I think that sometimes people just decide that their opinions are right and then close their minds to all other options but this past year I learned a lot about there not ever being one right answer to any question (unless of course a professor is asking you). And through some really interesting discussions I was able to listen more without assumptions about “right” and “wrong”, learn new ideas, facts, and ways of looking at things, and ultimately form a more well rounded opinion of certain issues.

I really have no idea where I want to study abroad, but I do know that wherever I go I want to find a place that will allow me an opportunity within my field of study that I would not otherwise have. I think I’d also like to go somewhere that I haven’t been before. I’m very hesitant to consider any program that only has classes in a language other than English because honestly my Spanish is pretty weak and that is the only foreign language I’ve ever studied. But I would be willing to go to a place that has a native language other than English, just as long as I can write my papers in my native tongue.

I’m excited about the idea of the civic engagement project because I think that it is such an important part of being a good global citizen. Although I am often far from successful I try very hard to maintain a certain level of involvement in whatever community I am in through volunteer work. I’m really open to most issues we could work with in the area of civic engagement, but some areas that I have done work in or have interested me in the past include; AIDS/HIV, mental health, care for the under/uninsured, environmental issues, living wage/rights of the worker, the chronically homeless, and educating voters on issues important to elections.

I’m not really especially concerned about anything in Paideia yet, but that could easily change as the semester wears on. I’m not really worried about this but I will be curious to see how the dynamics of our cohort change next year as we leave to study abroad at different times. Also I really don't like that I can't use the tab key to indent in this program when I'm typing.