OEE

 

OEE

    Hallmark 5 of Notre Dame de Namur University is “We embrace the gift of diversity”. During the Orientation Engagement Experience within our first weeks at Notre Dame as incoming freshman, the Freshman Seminar professors came together and held one large class for all sections at the Chapel and Taube Hall. They made sure to introduce both themselves and other staff or school ground leadership members to the students. For our first meeting, they divided everyone into their respective classrooms and then allowed us to meet one another. The point was to express our diverse upbringings and personal interests, which is what hallmark 5 consists of. One of my highest values I have held for as long as I can remember is the willingness to keep an open mind when meeting or being introduced to new people from all over the world with diverse mindsets to what I would normally be exposed to. The OEE helped me meet new people and exercise that value I hold at all times and allowed me to be able to express my own diversity.

 

Martyr of the Amazon Study Questions

Martyr of the Amazon 

1) Born Dorothy Mae Stang, Sister Mary Joachim valued knowledge and the rights of land preservation as a close second in comparison to the value of the human spirit along with the faith that has driven it thus far. Sister Dorothy, having recently worked with the poor in Coroatia, had made her presence known within the rural areas of Sao Antonio, Brazil and surrounding communities by connecting them with one another to create the ability of empowerment by their willingness to stand for their rights to work with land-owners as equals. In a letter prior to beginning a new mission, Sister Dorothy described the experience of her transition into the deeper areas of the Transamazonian forest, "we all learned together how to walk the road of liberation...I would carry with me the spirit of Coroata" (Stang, Pages 48-49). The missions Dorothy selected enabled her to reach out to the poor citizens of Latin America and form bonds with them on personal levels that allowed her to enrich their lives in love and knowledge by treating them with the dignity they were seldom shown as people of lesser economic standings. She gave them a sense of importance as a whole and put forth the needs of the most desperate while balancing the duties she had at uplifting the community financially with only the help of minimal donations, willingness to work, and the support of her counterparts of Notre Dame across the globe. 

At any point in time, Sister Dorothy maintained productivity in every task and errand she ran, often times stopping to speak to the youth and anyone in need of help in any form, "wherever there was a need for human support of the poor and simple people, this courageous and self-abnegating woman was present" (Br. Geronimo, page 73). Putting another beings' needs before one's own is an act of greatness in any instance, however, when the life of one is threatened, it is a natural human response to back down or lessen the aid one had originally given. In Sister Dorothy's case, she had been delivered countless death threats, both in person and by letter. This did not in any way affect the amount of involvement she had with the people she grew to love and cherish, merely made her strive for those alongside her to continue to stand up for the future they want to provide for themselves and their families. The abundant land disputes began as just that, but when they turned to violence in a short time period, it wasn't just the worker's land being damaged and destroyed, but their dignity and sense of value as well. Dorothy made sure to encourage and provide strength in these times the most, as it is when the farmers were most vulnerable and susceptible to those who were believed to hold evident power over them. She was the difference that gave way to the dignity within every member of the community to surface and fight for the simple human rights they deserved that were slowly being taken away. Although caring for the sacredness of strangers and honoring their dignity may seem to most something anyone is capable of, Sister Dorothy exceeded her duties in service to the Lord and those she reached out to throughout her life. 

 

 

2) Sister Dorothy's duties was to minister the people of the Amazon for as long as she remained within its perimeters and help extend the knowledge given to her as a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur. While doing so, she extended her help and showed the people she reached out to results of what greatness could become of the empowerment of the community that she was offering. On many occasion, Dorothy was involved in the earthly politics of the region much more than what she seemed to be involved in the spiritual needs of the people, however, the land itself was a need for both herself and those seeking religious enlightenment. Finding peace with themselves seemingly came along with finding peace within the beauty and gifts of the Amazon that was being destroyed at a devastatingly quick pace, "'more destruction each day and our mayor supports big business'...She continued to believe that the government would be able to stop the killings" (Roseanne Murphy, page 125). Sister Dorothy's concern for the receding forest went far beyond her desired involvement in politics, it extended to the needs of the people and the lands they lived on. People were being threatened and proper investigations on murders were scarcely made, leading to a much larger yearning for justice by the people.  

It is not often heard of for a clergy person to get as involved in social transformations to the extent where it could endanger lives or take sides on legal and political views, however, Sister Dorothy managed to keep a constant balance between the spiritual needs of the people and the needs of their livelihoods. Dorothy made a vast change in the lives of many communities as a whole by managing two subjects that can often be classified as separate and rarely paired when considering the benefits that will come of the results. The end results of the involvement of Dorothy was praised and acknowledged all around the world as something great, one of the largest stepping stones in the battle she died fighting for. She expressed her troubles often through prayer and in letters, but more often than not, she was learning of the bond that was being spread out throughout the Amazon because of the action she and the community were taking, "the people were learning to care for one another and share with each other. They were becoming a Christian community and learning what it means to put the lessons of scripture into practice" (Stang, page 83). There comes a point in every major event where a line is to be either drawn or crossed that can lead up to ultimate greatness or a tragic disaster, in which case, ended in a balance of great loss and awaited justice. 

 

 

3) At a young age, Dorothy Mae Stang was set on beginning a life with an extraordinarily devoted path alongside her best friend, Joan Krimm. The two were companions before they had sent in their applications to join the congregation and remained so, if not closer, after they were sent on their first mission as Sisters of Notre Dame. Although happiness is not measured by one's company, being alongside a loved one through the most important events in life can make a drastic change in one's persona and will power to accomplish what deems one happy in life. For Dorothy Stang, joining the Sisters of Notre Dame was a thought triggered by Joan having submitted her application in her last year of high school, which she soon learned was indeed her greatest calling in life.  

The world in which we live in holds many groups of individuals representing eras that differ by generation and the way they are represented. In today's world, the prospect of living a happy life tends to consist of materialistic goods and high quality alteration on anything and everything. The rate of both emotional and spiritual contentment however, is driven lower as the earth ages. Tragedy, for the most part, causes many burdens on the road to happiness, but Dorothy did not mourn the oncoming tragedy of her life nearing its end but embraced the will of her devout teaching being passed on by those who's lives she had entered, "she grew to love her work so much that she was said to have told her sister, 'someday I want to be buried under a saguaro cactus here'", (Murphy, page 22). From the time she first entered the congregation, Dorothy's dream was to go on missions to a foreign land to help those in greater need. Although happy with her ongoing life in Arizona, she had the desire to accomplish her duties as well as fulfil her own wishes, so when she was given the news that she was selected for a mission in Brazil, she felt her "lifelong dream was coming true" (Murphy page 24). Dorothy, always depicting herself as joyous, found herself much more pleased at the larger level of work she was accomplishing in Latin America and found herself growing fond of the people and their culture, along with her ability to improve their communal and spiritual needs, "Dorothy grew even more convinced that her pastoral work involved helping the poor farmers to understand their rights and their dignity" (Murphy, page 35). 

 

 

Chapter 2 Reading

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 2 

Section 1) Three major aspects of sustainable development are social inclusion, economic development, and environmental sustainability. Gross Domestic Product is one measurement of our nation’s economic development. This is normally expressed within the time span of one year. Growth represents market transactions, domestic is the economic measurement activity, and production is what is output into capital in a certain time period. Measuring GDP per capita is achieved by dividing the total production within the country by the population. This is why larger countries have higher production rate. All countries are placed within three categories, high, middle, and low-income, based on gross domestic product per capita of the country. Price-level differences are  the purchases of "power parity", or PPP. These consist of haircuts, legal fees, basic necessity purchases, and luxury spending.

 

Section 2) Each country has varying sections of economical standards of living, but the country is labeled under the average GDP of the entire country. 90% of the world's population had lived in the rural area before the Industrial Revolution, but is now transitioning into urban lifestyles and changing fundamentals of lifestyles within multiple countries. Urbanization varies across the globe but generally means the tightly packed living spaces within settled areas due to the population. The higher the urbanized area one lives in, the higher their income tends to be. A population density is the amount of people living per square mile in one area. Providing buildings located in rural areas with water and electricity becomes difficult.

 

Section 3) 

 

Call To Action Day

Potrero Nuevo Farm

 

     Notre Dame de Namur University is based on Hallmarks that focus on service learning. Call To Action Day is a day to provide service to others and give as much help to those proving that service as much as possible. Half of NDNU’s Lacrosse team and the Sustainable Development class met up at the school’s quad early in the morning and headed to Potrero Nuevo Farm, run by Jay and Suzie Trexler. There, they showed us around the farm and what kind of activities they normally liked to run for either visitors or volunteers. Since it is fall and the majority of their pumpkins were fully grown, they took us to the pumpkin garden and handed out gloves, stem cutters, and plastic bins to collect the smaller sized pumpkins or squash and to cut the larger ones. We collected a total of nearly 100 pumpkins and carried them out to the van, where Jay and Suzie drove them to the main building and had us separate and organize them by species as a group. Everything that Jay and Suzie do on the farm supports after-school arts education, gardening programs linked to schools, and sustainable agriculture for families with lower economic standings within the community. Having participated in this event on Potrero Nuevo Farm reminded me that even the smallest effort from a group of people willing to help the community can make the greatest difference in both an outstretched hand and in time spent on work that can easily be completed in at least half the time it would have taken without them. I come from a small, close-knit community that is built upon many generations of interactive community members that help need based families by creating events and sales in order to bring them a sense of security and a better livelihood. Since the bay area is so large, I did not expect there to be many organizations that helped the community at little to no costs and give me the opportunity to develop a new meaning for the community with organizations outside of my own hometown.

 



Serving vs. Helping/Fixing

Serving is Different From Helping and Fixing

    The difference between helping and serving is that helping often means providing one’s self as a crutch or leading someone to a certain point and is done so as two unequals. Normally, helping others comes from being stronger in one way or another than the person being helped. Often times, help is seen as an embarrassment, especially in families or people of lower social standings and higher necessities. I have seen many families who have preferred to suffer more than necessary because of pride and their reluctance to admit they need to depend on outside sources for basic living necessities. Service on the other hand, is an action between equals who are aware of their strengths and serve with both their positive and negative experiences. “One man’s treasure is another man’s gold” comes to mind whenever someone perceives something as broken while another considers it is serviceable. Fixing, as the article mentions, is about the perception of an individual rather than a collaboration. The only thing that will set individuals apart in this aspect is the approach they take to go about being a part in someone’s life in a positive way.