Vocation, Values, and Taboo Topics

As we mused on themes of values and post-Olaf life, we realized that there was a crucial element missing. The typical college student in our generation is career-focused, vocation-seeking, and professional-future-oriented, and it is seen as detrimental, archaic, or unambitious to also pursue a life partner during our college career. How did we feel about this as a community?

Sudip sent us two fascinating articles to read. This one explores the modern trend of women embracing career-driven roles and avoiding romantic relationships in college, and this one discusses the advantages to marrying young, offering a perspective with which many of us were unfamiliar. After reading each piece, we had a discussion about our perceptions of the culture of dating, hooking up, and relationships at St. Olaf and about our own personal visions for how we see this incorporated into our lives.

In general, we found that the New York Times piece was too binary and assumptive. Does one have to completely sacrifice one's dating life in order to be academically and professionally successful? We certainly hope not. Many of us see ourselves eventually being married/having a life partner and/or starting a family. As a group of students hoping to lead a holistic and balanced life, this seems counterintuitive. Also, we generally found that the cases mentioned here were on the far end of the spectrum. While we acknowledge that the St. Olaf campus still does foster a certain element of a need to be in a relationship, we thought that this practice may be more unhealthy.

At the same time, we all believe that most St. Olaf students have very little experience being independent outside of campus life, perhaps some time a abroad, and maybe a summer or two at a summer camp. And we feel that these experiences really aren't enough of an exposure to a non-cushioned life to give us the perspective we need on what matters to us in a life partner. While we acknowledge that it can be valuable to find long-term relationships in college, it may not be wise to commit to them in the very long-term before living after graduation.

We posed several other questions for ourselves. Why do many women our age reject the feminism term? What are things everyone would not bend on when it comes to selecting a life partner? How is love for a partner different than the deep love in a close friendship? How do we balance being passionate about service with wanting to raise a family?

Talking about something that is generally taboo to personalize made us think critically about how we've evaluated our values this summer and how we tangibly see them as present in these sorts of situations.

Ethics and values

We at the St. Paul House have often talked of the importance of enacting our values in all sectors of our lives. This integration is a key component of social change. For us, it is an enormous privilege to have internships that are meaningful often align with our values. There may be times where we will have to find a paycheck just to survive, but we will keep our values and our passions close, finding venues to express them. 

Things we have learned

In Japan, all there of us interned for an organization called Asian Rural Institute,. Although, we all interning at the same oIn Japan, all there of us interned for an organization called Asian Rural Institute,. Although, we all interning at the same organization, we wanted to explore difficult topics. 

The Art of Value

Paul Knutson is Rice County’s Assessor; his job is to go to each property in Rice County and declare how much value each property has. When asked what method he used to measure “value,” Paul responded, “What I do is not a science. It is an art. You might tell me that the house across the street from here is worth $100,000. But I’d tell you that it’s worth $150,000. Value is completely subjective.”

Class room learning can be very theoretical. The books we read and topics we cover in our courses can be very abstract.

Leadership Conversation over Shortcake

During our community conversation this week, Sudip started us off with an interesting fact: the lag between research and implementation of research (especially in politics) is 20 years. 20 years for something proven to work or make a system better to be put into action! We all thought that that does 

A Brief Conversation about Leadership

Leaders are the face of organizations. In the social impact sector, we believe that leaders hold the role to make connections with people, offer support, and become involved with the people who can help create change. Good leaders should have a strong sense of the organization’s culture and values that they bring into practice in daily life, they should be humble yet conscious about the power they hold, and always look for innovative ways to reach their goals. 

What Makes You Happiest?

In his article "The Way to Produce a Person," David Brooks relates the story of Jason Trigg, a Wall Street hedge fund manager who lives well below his means and donates the majority of his earnings to fighting malaria. Brooks urges caution to anyone thinking of doing the same, outlining three main concerns.

"I believe consenting to society is an active choice, unless you’re Mountain Man Walden or something."

Over zucchini spaghetti and cookie dough cheesecake, our community discussed  David Brook's New York Times op-ed "The Way to Produce a Person", which was written in response to Dave Matthew's "Join Wall Street. Save the World" this week. The articles are about Jason Trigg, who works at a hedge fund on Wall Street and gives back the majority of his money to charity.

Community Conversation on Community (St. Paul House)

Sonja got us off to a rousing start this week, sharing some examples of the local rules and regulations sometimes passed in the name of community, such as codes on building appearances and the sale of alcohol.  From there, we moved back to address some of the fundamentals in talking about community...

Conversation and Community in the Northfield House

After a draining and nit-picky week, many of our internships and research positions were finally coming to fruition. Matthew started his position at the Arts Guild, and many of us now felt more comfortable in our new experience.

Coming out of an intense Twin Cities seminar, many of us had the idea of community on our minds. What is community? What does it mean? What’s the goal of a community? What makes a good community? 

A rousing conversation followed.

Asian Rural Institute: Culture, Community, and Conversation

Hello from Japan! David, Hawera, and I have almost completed our first week at the Asian Rural Institute. During our conversation last night, we discussed our initial impressions of ARI and how the culture compares to St. Olaf.

Pickles, Northfield House, Social Change ...?

Our refrigerator has a paper with a running tally of quotes on it. Some of them came from our time cooking, some from excursions outside the house, but one thing remains constant: all our quotes came from extensive conversations with our housemates.

Real Talk with the St. Paul LSC-ers

During our discussion, when Mike was describing his organization, he said: "I feel like I hit that nail on the head there. And, also, probably missed a couple of them too."  In other words, we are still getting a feel for our internships - we learned a lot in the past week, but also still have some stuff to figure out (how many times have we gotten lost biking or busing? You don't want to know). 

Northfield House Summer Goals

Summary of Community Goals:

St. Paul House Summer Goals

Summary of Summer Community Goals: