Lifelong Learner

Paideia. One month before I left the west coast for graduate school at the University of Vermont (UVM), I decided to get a tattoo of the word paideia on my left arm. I first learned of this word through Cornel West’s (2010) memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. I was gifted Cornel's memoir from a friend of mine whom I met through the Diversity Equity and Education Program (DEEP) at Seattle University. In the memoir, Cornel West (2010) describes paideia as:

 

     A deep education that connects you to profound issues in serious ways. It instructs us            to turn our attention from the superficial to the substantial, from the frivolous to the              serious. Paideia concerns the cultivation of self, the ways you engage your own history,          your own memories, your own mortality, your own sense of what it means to be alive            as a critical, loving, aware human being. (p. 22)

 

As an individual invested in learning, I try to live my life by engaging in the process of questioning, of seeking to understand and connecting deeply with the issues of our present world. I am committed to embracing intellectual challenge in my daily life and through my vocation as a student affairs practitioner. In the UVM HESA program, I have worked to embody paideia with my engagement in coursework and writing. Some of the ways I’ve exemplified this value during graduate school include:

 

• Published article in the 36th Volume of The Vermont Connection. Small Town Kid in the Big City: Toward an Understanding of Rurality in Student Identity Development

• Literature Review on the Educational Pedagogy of bell hooks. Teaching Love: Expanding bell hooks’ Engaged Pedagogy

• Final Paper in Student Development Theory II Course. Exploring Theory in Professional and Personal Development as a Scholar-Activist-Practitioner

 

My own learning will not stop when I receive my graduate degree in one month. I know that I will continue challenging myself to grow and connect with the world around me. I am excited about the learning that will take place in the next step of my journey.