blog.shimer

Well Hello There

Hello all,

My name is Isaac Marchant-Shapiro, a first year student at Shimer College. No, more than that, I am a Shimerian. I am not simply a student, a replaceable part of a couple classes; I am a member of the Shimer community, and that community is what I would like to talk to you about today. As a whole, Shimer is a very tight-knit group, and there are several factors contributing to that.

For one, Shimer is tiny. When I say "tiny," what do you imagine? One-thousand students? Two-thousand? Try about one-hundred-and-thirty students, and about fifteen facilitators (Shimer word for 'teacher'). So, when I say "tiny," you are now aware that I don't mean the 'comparatively small' kind of tiny. I mean the 'Everybody knows you, greets you, and asks how that one-thing-you-said-you-were-going-to-do went" kind of tiny. I personally consider this a strength, since if you really need to study (and get away from your classmates to do it), you can simply walk a couple hundred feet down the sidewalk to the Galvin Library where the vast majority of people are IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) students, and study there.

Second, there is the Assembly, Shimer's method of shared-governance. It takes the place of a student-government, and consists of the student body, the staff, and the faculty. The Assembly is (on the most basic level) responsible for safeguarding the ethos of Shimer, and everyone involved has an equal stake in that pursuit. At its core, the Assembly stands for equality, truth, and intellectual honesty at Shimer, all of which I think lie in the hearts of Shimerians. The aforementioned pursuit is a serious matter, and I have found in my past year that taking part in it not only helps protect the ideals of the college, but also binds Assembly members together in unique ways.

Honestly, I could go on and on about other things that contribute to the closeness of the Shimer community, but I have class in fifteen minutes. Natural Sciences 2, to be exact, where I will be discussing Darwin’s The Descent of Man. Then, when I am done with that, I will be finishing up my readings for tomorrow’s classes, which will be on Rousseau and Beckett. The point is that I am out of time. It has been fun writing this, and I hope it was just as fun reading it.

'Sine cera,
Isaac.

(Editor's note: Isaac is the one standing with arms folded on the right.)

The Encouragement of Light

Hallo!

As a student ambassador, I’ve been asked to introduce myself to you fine blog-readers. My name is Jo Becker, and I’m a first-year. Some general interests of mine include philanthropy, literature, art, feminism, French, philosophy, astronomy, nature, poetry, crocheting, lucid dreaming, exploring, yoga, radio, and crusading for bare feet.

This is our last week of classes before writing week, but I knew by the end of orientation how incredible Shimer is. I’ve met so many interesting, brilliant, and kind-hearted students and facilitators. I know that I’m feeling nothing but love and gratitude for humanity when I start to tear up in the middle of a conversation, and I can't count the number of times this has happened.

One of the times was with another student ambassador (Sam Klein) when he was describing a short story of his: in it, he runs into God on the street, but instead of the typical image of God being a Zeus-like father figure or a vague bright light, he is a child--a very small, black child, as Sam described, who is lost and crying. He cries and cries, and Sam keeps asking him where he’s going, if he needs help, if he’s lost; finally, he just looks at him and says, “Well, aren’t you?” This just struck me as one of the most beautiful things I’d ever heard.

And that’s just one example of many. A community of people learning and living together means I get to see the best of them. I’ve met a naval officer, a volunteer in Haiti, a 19-year-old classical composer, someone who lived in Cuba, someone who plans to be a Mormon missionary, freight train-hoppers... really truly fascinating people who I am privileged and humbled to talk with.

I’ve had my eyes opened already to everything from pansexuality/polyamory to why someone would willingly start smoking to Sufi mysticism to how Lady Gaga’s attempts to recognize high art in low art’s form reinforce a culture of post-modern non-art. Two of the best surprises I’ve experienced so far are:

a) playing Dungeons and Dragons (a lifelong dream), and

b) discovering that the motto of Shimer is "to serve rather than be served."

Looking back, I really shouldn’t have been surprised by the latter, partly because I probably should have known what the motto was before coming here, but mostly because Shimer is an institution with ideals.

I was afraid before coming that pursuing higher education was a selfish goal, but now, from experiencing my life here and also experiencing the very relevant texts (see: Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice, a favorite among Shimer students) we've been reading, I've really come to see that you can better improve the world once you improve yourself.

In high school, I failed to motivate myself; I could never really see the point. Now I understand it was the process and purpose that I didn't believe in, not the material. Here, having to take an active role in classes empowers (forces) you to accept an active role in the world at large; being on the same egalitarian level with everyone else (including the facilitators) forces you to step down from whatever self-constructed ivory tower you may have placed yourself in.

This is why I’m thrilled to be here! I’ve been told time and again that Shimer is what you make of it. It’s also what we 130-something students and faculty make of it, and gosh dangit if we don’t form the best school I’ve ever known.

 

(Also, here's the requisite picture. That is a sonic screwdriver.)

Hello!

Good day (or evening) readers! Cassie Sherman lately requested that I contribute something to the Shimer blog, so here is my introductory post. My name is Leo Carton Mollica, and I shall be a second-year student at Shimer College come this autumn. I am interested primarily in philosophy, my favourite philosophers being St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle (any list longer than that would be arbitrary). Hobbies include calligraphy, occassional attempts at writing, and the reading of sundry philosophical texts.

I have never been particularly good at relating "personal narratives," and I shall not attempt to remedy that defect in this blog post. In lieu of such, here are a few memories that come to mind whenever I'm asked what drew me to Shimer:

0. I am, to begin with, a native of Chicago, and for the first two years following my graduation from middle school I attended a Jesuit high school in the city.  I enjoyed those first two years very much and did fairly well academically.

1. In my junior year, I was forced to study from home for a semester. Not needing to move to and from school, I found myself with considerably more leisure, which I largely spent reading books I otherwise would not have had time for.

2. Some time during this semester, frustrated with the required readings for my religion class, I wrote a truly foolish letter to our religious studies department complaining about the dearth of primary sources in the junior curriculum.

3. Either that year or the year before, I attended a mock radio-play at Shimer. I remember looking enviously at the library during my visit.

4. After having taken a tour of Shimer College as a prospective early entrant, I sent the aforementioned letter in the mail once more, this time as a piece of representative writing for my application to Shimer.

5. I met some time later with Cassie for my official admission interview. For the first time in several months, I had the occassion to discuss, intelligently and in delightful detail, the books I had been reading and hear articulate sympathy for wishing more primary sources to be used in my classes.  

6. I have rarely found like occassions lacking since my entering Shimer the following autumn.

I have, overall, loved what I have experienced of Shimer. The classes present a challenge to be attentive to the text and form, articulate, process, and reply to arguments quickly and intelligently in a way I had never been faced with before. Not every school, moreover, boasts admission officers happy to talk about Milton and St. Anselm, nor physics professors eager to discuss Aquinas' epistemology. I'm looking forward to the next three years. Very much.

Shimer SIM Internship: Landis in Haiti

 

I am a second year Shimer student who is involved in QLC, Student Life, the Br. David Darst Center, school history, and Promulgates (Shimer's paper).  I am interested in issues of oppression, social justice, and personal and corporate responsibility.  My favorite book at Shimer thus far has been The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass-- great read.  

This summer I'll be interning with Fonkoze, a successful and growing microfinance organization in Haiti, and CLM, a program of Fonkoze that prepares women who live in extreme poverty for micro financing.  I'll be working with current Shimer Facilitator, Steven Werlin, who has spent significant time with Fonkoze and even more in Haiti.  To prepare for the internship I've read Banker to the Poor and studied some Creole.  

For my first two weeks I'll be staying with a Fonkoze manager named Lamartin.  This time is meant to help me learn the language and the basics of Fonkoze before beginning work at the CLM base.  

 

Interning for the Sergeant-at-Arms (No, I don't carry a firearm).

 

 

Hello there,

    Since some of you know nothing about me, please allow me to bore you with the important formalities. My name is Zack Fazio. I've just completed my first year at Shimer College. I love the smell of a fresh rainstorm, blah, blah, blah.

    I've technically been interning for the Sergeant-At-Arms office at City Hall in Chicago, but most of my time has been spent in the Legislative Reference Bureau. The LRB is an agency that operates under the committee on Committees, Rules, and Ethics. Yes, I know that it's hard to believe that such a committee exists in the bare knuckle political arena we call City Hall. As I've said in the title, no, I don't carry a firearm. But, what I do do is sit in an office above Lasalle and Washington with the most gorgeous view of Roger Brown's "Daedulus and Icarus," a tile mosaic(pictured above) that spans the sheltered entrance of 121 N. Lasalle 

    Lately I've been reading and summarizing legislation for Alderman Dick Mell's Legislative Director, writing resolutions, and other insignificant task that any intern in any office has to do. I was able to attend the Health & Environment committee hearing yesterday. They were discussing the cleanup of the Chicago river, which if you haven't heard has been designated one of the most polluted waterways in the country by the Environmental Protection Agency. After hearing testimony from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and various environmental groups. The problem is that the MWRD isn't properly treating the water that overflows from the sewer system into the Chicago river when a heavy rainfall occurs. By the way, if you ever hear the word "effluent" don't be fooled, because it's merely a fancy word for the feces that is caked on the bottom of the Chicago River.

    So far I've thoroughly enjoyed my time at City Hall and look forward to the coming weeks and the politicking that will surely ensue. Tomorrow is the Finance Committee meeting, which I'll be attending. This meeting will be interesting, because some of the most important pieces of legislation is funneled through this committee whose Chairman is the powerful and longest serving member of the council, Alderman Ed Burke.

Ta

A Montezuma Welcome!

Hello everyone!

My name is Renee, and I just finished my first year at Shimer College. This summer, I am completing a three month internship at the Montezuma Mariposario Bed & Breakfast and Butterfly Garden in Costa Rica. (www.montezumagardens.com)

It is an extremely diverse place to work, and truly gives meaning to the phrase “wearing many hats.” My main objectives while I am here are the following:

*To learn the inner-workings of the tourism industry in general, as well as eco-tourism
*To gain a better understanding of international business and advertising
*To learn about tropical biology
*To experience communal living
*To learn how to transition to a more ecologically sustainable way of life

In many ways, I feel like I am getting to know the proverbial “man behind the curtain” in this internship. Tourism and Hospitality are about creating an experience, which is a lot like putting on a show. When you are the member of the audience, the show is made for you. You do not see the techies working in the dark, aiming lights and responding to sound cues; you don’t see the hours of rehearsal each actor has to endure in order to be flawless on stage. You do not witness the usher sweeping the empty auditorium late at night after the show is over and everyone has left. You experience the final product, which is but a faceplate of the entirety.

Having been a tourist, I understand how places can seem magical. Any exotic place offers intrigue and an element of fantasy, if for no other reason than because it is free from the chores and monotony of every day existence that epitomize home. Personally, I’ve always had this quixotic dream of running away to a tropical country and starting an intentional community, living off of sustainable farming and extra income from a bed and breakfast or retreat center on the property. Tropical countries, intentional communities and farming all have their respective challenges, and it is a main objective of mine to get slapped in the face by reality a few times. So far, so good.

Oh, and since I’m introducing myself, here is a picture of me with some crazy jungle curls sitting at the desk in the front office. In Chicago, my hair does not do this.

Stay tuned for a virtual tour of the butterfly garden, the cooperative fruit and vegetable garden, and the communal living quarters!

Until next time!

ShimerBlog2011.SF1 (In which Stephanie introduces herself and her Shimer-Sponsored Internship, a bit unconventionally)

 Shimer Internship/Mentorship Program (SIM), May-August 2011: Finding Aid for Stephanie Fong

 

Creator:  Stephanie Fong 

Extent: 0.25 linear foot (projected)

Processor:   ...also Stephanie Fong, as well as Cassie Sherman, 2011 

 

Administration Information

Access Restrictions: None, although some information may be withheld in the future for confidentiality reasons.

Usage Restrictions: Copyright for materials created by Stephanie Fong in this collection have been transferred to Shimer College.

Preferred Citation: Shimer College. blog.shimer. Stephanie Fong's SIM Program Blog Posts, 2011. Post ID. 

Provenance: Stephanie Fong submitted her first post to the Shimer blog beginning on May 22, 2011 as original accession ShimerBlog2011.SF1. Anticipate forthcoming addenda ShimerBlog2011.SF2,  ShimerBlog2011.SF3, ShimerBlog2011.SF4, etc..

Separations: Overly personal and/or uninteresting information.

See also: Upcoming Shimer blog posts from SIM program participants Renee Meschi, Zachary Fazio, and Blake "Landis" Masnor. 
 

 

Biography

Stephanie Fong was born on March 8th, 1991 in La Grande, Oregon, where she lived for a few years before moving with her family to the suburbs outside Portland, OR.  She is the oldest of four children (Kristi, Jordan, and Selena).  She graduated from Oregon Episcopal School in 2009.  During her high school years, she stage-managed half a dozen theatrical performances and enjoyed studying languages, history, and  science.  Last month, she completed her second year at Shimer College in Chicago, IL.  Some of her favorite readings this past semester included Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, Confucius's Analects, Alpers's and Baxandahl's Tiepolo and the Pictorial Intelligence, and Keller's "Feminism and Science".  When she is not reading for class, working in the Dean's/Registrar's office, or in Administrative Committee meetings, she likes to go thrift store shopping, attend the opera, and bake bread.  After Shimer, she is thinking about pursuing a career in historic preservation.       

This summer, she has an internship at the Women and Leadership Archives (WLA) on Loyola University Chicago's campus in Rogers Park.  Open to the public, the WLA houses collections from regional organizations and individual women alike with a focus on social justice activism, feminist theology, and the records of Mundelein College.  The WLA also works closely with "projects and programs that support women's scholarship, education, and networking." (For more information, visit the website here.)

 
Due to the organization's small size--the current staff consists of three graduate students in the combined degree program at Dominican for MLIS and Loyola for a Master of Arts in Public History, and two interns--the environment at the WLA is comfortable and flexible.  As an intern, Stephanie will have the opportunity to work on a variety of different projects throughout the summer related to the management and maintenance of the collection, including processing collections, conducting research on peer institutions, reviewing and critically evaluating current materials, reorganizing the collection, and creating both physical and online exhibits for display.

Scope and Content

Stephanie's blog posts will measure approximately 0.25 linear foot when completed and will span the summer of 2011.  The internship began last week (May 16, 2011), and will continue through mid-August, 2011.  The posts will be organized chronologically and will contain written information as well as photographs and maybe other things, too.  Subjects that will be covered in the collection include the SIM-sponsored internship as well as her personal life, Shimer College, the city of Chicago, summer-related events, and more.   

 
Check back later for further developments.

Extra Time

Greetings!  It’s time for some fresh faces round these parts.

I’m a third-year at Shimer, having found my way here after an uninspiring high-school experience and a year spent abroad as an exchange student. I started here as an early entrant, which allows high-school students who have not graduated the opportunity to matriculate as a "normal" college student.

I hail from a small town on the East Coast, but have slowly been forming a home for myself in Chicago. When not diving into the Great-Books, I enjoy flipping through journal articles about identity-formation, consumerism, postmodern feminism, and value theory. I spend a good deal of my time buying produce, or thinking about buying produce (right now it's asparagus, more eggplant, and some bell peppers).

This current semester is winding down, paper deadlines are looming, and one would assume that my mind would be geared towards planning out my senior/last/final year here. Instead, I decided to take an extra year to complete my undergrad degree. Considering that most of my post-secondary education has been unconventional, this really seems to follow suit.

When looking at what was in store for next year, in order for me to complete the core and a senior thesis, I envisioned a wave of never-ending work. I was also gradually realizing that as my graduation approached, I was less and less sure of what I wanted to do when it finally got here. It seemed quite silly to continue running full steam ahead with no direction in sight. Luckily, I really enjoy being at Shimer and feel that spending an extra year here will only allow me more time to better develop a sense of what to do with my education. It will also grant me more time to spend exploring other disciplines in academia.

I've been learning how to cope with ambiguity in many different ways at Shimer. And I've started to understand that it's ok to admit that you don't know what you want to do or that you don't have everything figured out. While I work at sorting things out, I've got more immediate aspirations to meet. I'll be spending this summer in the city, hopefully growing some vegetables, spending ample time bicycling, tackling a huge pile of books, and enjoying the sunshine.

Moves & Mobiles

Dinah, first year Shimer student, joins us to show what she did with her writing week - a week which at Shimer is similar to exam week at other institutions.  During this week, students either take comprehensive exams or do semester projects, which require 40 hours of work on some approved topic.  Semester projects are always at least partially essays, but many have a creative component--as Dinah's does.  On page 21 of our catalog, you can read more about comprehensive exams and semester projects.  We hope you enjoy Dinah's reflections on how she got to Shimer and how it's changing her, and how she used writing week to reflect on it all.

      This is the written portion of my writing week final, along with pictures of my final project.  I wanted to show how  education re-ignited and connected my passions.

 

                     I left Indiana as a beginning graffiti artist and activist. I moved to New Jersey for a day, then realized I did not want to live in New Jersey. I got rid of 2/3 of my possessions. I came to Chicago with 3 bags of laundry, 4 milkcrates of books, a mattress, a job, a couple boxes of odds and ends, and a rented room. My craft supplies and spraypaint were lost to my mother's attic, and my creativity was lost to my confusion. The first four months or so moved like a blur; wake up, bike to work, bike home, sit in room alone and read, go to bed, repeat. I read over 20 books that fall. I read more about labor movement and organization. I read a lot of Hesse. I still had no idea what I was doing, or wanted to do; I just knew that this was not it. I had spent the previous year working with community organization, activism, and radical politics. There wasn't a shortage of information to stop me from doing anything, just an inability to use it properly.
                              I have always had trouble formulating ideas and thoughts into coherent sentences or art forms. This was not helped by a year of instability and confusion. The creativity block I experienced was possibly the most painful experience I've encountered. I realized I did not have the ability to express myself, because I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to say. Ideas were constantly swirling around my head: statistics and figures, radical theories, beautiful and horrifying historical documents. They all hung over me. I could not decipher this. The year I had spent trying to learn, and the following year spent trying to effectively apply it, were fruitless. These were ideas I did not fully grasp. I couldn't bend them to fit, I couldn't shape them and view them from every angle, I lacked the true understanding to really make anything out of my own thoughts. Philosophers and historians dangled over my head, intangible. I became more uninspired; I hid my paints under my bed, and the dogs eventually chewed up all of my art pencils. I drank more tea and picked up a third job.
                       The decision to go back to school had more intense consequences than quitting a job or two and racking up more student loans; I was engulfed with creative energy. As this year pushed on, it has only become stronger. I have introverted greatly. I have found that I am in my head 80% of the time. As I bike to work I try to wrap my mind around the previous day's Sociology reading. I laugh at the similarity of drivers throwing temper tantrums to the tantrums of chimpanzees. My people-watching skills are now verging on creepy. I do math problems in my head for fun; this is the most surprising, really. I am astounding myself daily.

                              This mobile took me an obscene amount of time to make. I started working on it early, and sacrificed a lot of sleep. I gathered all of my focus statements, written papers, handouts, homework, notes, and more than a few journal entries. I attempted to cut them all into perfect squares. I drew a scaled design of a mobile, calculated how many paper birds I would need to really make this happen, and tried to figure out the paper crane size in relation to how big I wanted the mobile to be. . I hand-cut then hand-painted each piece of paper with water colors, ironed, and folded each bird. The folding and stringing process are what took the longest; the most intricate steps are rarely seen. I skimmed each paper as I painted and folded it, and it was mind-blowing to see just how much I came across this semester, even in the course I dropped after four weeks.

                          This mobile represents a lot to me. On the most superficial level, it is a reminder to all the first year students as to just how much we have accumulated thus far. This project, for me, is the manifestation of my last year. I have taken the things that I wanted so badly to know and have conceived my own ideas from them. I can take ideas apart, I can reshape them, I can combine and reduce them to my liking. They are no longer foreign, unreachable ideas floating above me. I have found a new creative medium through understanding. In Natural Science we discussed the opposition to science due to the idea that knowledge takes away from the “magic” of nature and the beauty in the unknown. This concept has never made sense to me, especially now. The only thing ignorance does is keep one in the passive position. I've found more than empowerment in knowledge though, I have found comfort, and I have found immense beauty.

Third Time's the Charm

My name is Noah LeBien and this fall I began classes at Shimer College. This is not my first shot at College; after graduating high school I went to the College of Wooster in Ohio, before transferring to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When I found neither to be a good fit I took a year off, unsure of where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do, wondering if it was worth it at all to take a third stab at the academic world.

Then I found Shimer. I stumbled upon an article about the Great Books programs on Wikipedia, of all places. I was intrigued by the whole history behind the program and was drawn even more into it when I read about a small Great Books College in Chicago.

I decided to give Shimer a call and set up an appointment to visit and sit in on a class. After the first visit, I remember being surprised at the size of Shimer. The intimacy and friendliness of the staff and students that I spoke with made me realize how much the community knew when to take something seriously and when to be relaxed. I left satisfied, and though I did not participate in the class discussion, it left an impression.

I remember a few days after my visit, my father, who works for the Chicago Tribune, approached me about this small school he had heard about that he thought might interest me. A Tribune article about the controversy involving Shimer’s president had just appeared. I took the coincidental timing of the article, my father's advice, and my visit as a good sign, so I started an application.

When I was invited to do an interview after submitting my application I was excited, not only because I had another chance to visit the school, but because I would get to support my application and my essays personally. This more personal touch to the school is something unique and it is strange to try and explain it to someone who hasn’t been here. Though my experience here hasn’t been that long, it seems like an environment that is small but not constricting, intimate but not overwhelming. I assume my interview went well, because within a month I was moving into an apartment in Bridgeport and participating in orientation.

A specific discussion early on in the year inspired me to write this post:

In my Natural Sciences 2 we were given parts of On the Soul by Aristotle as our first reading assignment, and someone brought up the point that we have come so far in our knowledge of the mind and soul that there isn’t much we can get out of old text anymore. The writers of the Great Books did not have our technical advantages, true, but in spite of this they managed to make things  so influential with so little. Even 100 years from now many things we know and take for granted will be considered irrelevant, but these thinkers will still be relevant because of the weight their ideas have had on human history. This is what permits worthwhile study.

My first thoughts and experiences at Shimer have been centered on the question of why the Great Books have this continually potent freshness, and why it feels necessary to study them. I realized that it seems one can’t dig deep into this question anywhere else.