Good morning ASTU! I hope you are all enjoying this lovely long weekend. I really cannot believe that this is the last blog post for this year’s ASTU class. I have really enjoyed getting to know all of you and reading your blogs every week! This week’s blogs were filled with reflection on everything we have done this past year as ASTU students.
There was so much praise in these reflections for what ASTU has taught us as students, and as Global Citizens. In Andrea’s blog, she expressed how ASTU has helped build her as an academic. Through the constant practice of reading, somewhat daunting, scholarly work, communicating and learning, Andrea says that she “will continue to apply the lessons of this class, the base for me to continue to grow in my knowledge of the academic and scholarly world.”
Devon praised ASTU for the “close knit” community it became, and the discussions that we were able to form because of this. Devon explained that it was from these qualities which helped her grow as a student, and learn that university is not “like the Hunger Games, where everyone is for themselves,” it is a place where we can each build off each other, discuss, disagree, and all grow as students and as young adults, in a safe and supportive environment.
Many other students explained how grateful they were for our Global Citizens program, and especially what they had gained from our ASTU class. As in our ever changing and interconnected world, many students commended the relevance of our Global Citizens stream in “real life.” I think that Ben did an excellent job at summing it up when he said,
“While my peers and I may not be engineers, Sauder students, or science wiz-kids, I think what we’ve learned and the way we’ve learned it allows us to contribute to society in different, yet highly important ways.”
It seems that through our studies of memory, trauma and the importance of these topics in literature, we ASTU students and Global Citizens have grown to see the complexity of our world, and realize that, as Matt says in his blog, “the more and more I learn the more I realize how much there is that I don’t know.” However, ASTU has given us the tools to grasp such complexities, communicate with each other, and to continue to grow as global citizens, as well as academics.
Thank you all for reading. I hope you all will continue on your search to find out what a Global Citizen truly is. It has been a pleasure getting to know each of you throughout this past year and I know you will all go on to do great things!
Jen Paxton