Putting the Core in UCore 

Putting the Core in UCore

I have heard many students lament over the fact that every single Seattle Pacific University Falcon is required to sit through the "U-classes."

"It's like you're minoring in them!" says one.

"It makes it so hard for me to transfer to another school."

"It's too 'Christian' for me."

"What's geo-quizzes got to do with my chemistry major?"

All too familiar refrains. All too annoying refrains. I like to think of myself as a dissenting voice. I have loved and enjoyed each of my University-classes. I have done 25-credits worth of these classes with 10 more next year. And from each of them, I got lessons that I know are just beginning and will continue to enrich my life on this earth.

My University Seminar (commonly called USEM) class had a communications slant to its mission and ministering thrust. I realized in this class how powerful a well-prepared and memorized speech can be. I also came to appreciate the friendships I have formed in class, out of class and in the past. A University Foundations course (commonly called U-Found) encouraged me to celebrate the diversity in the Christian faith. It is in this diversity that Jesus worked to bring unity. In fact, He prayed for and commanded us to it--unity among Christian believers. So, I learned in another U-Found class called Christian Scriptures.

Two courses that has revived and nurtured the humanist in me. University Core (commonly called UCore) 1000 introduced me to opera. Oolala. With such a vibrant performing arts community that can be found in Seattle, no wonder I'm listening to KING FM 98.1 and trying to understand books like "Training Soprano Voices"! I came to UCore 2000 expecting dusty old books and history-date-memorizing galore. I came out with a growing need to read. Dr. Ruth Ediger is such an inspiring professor; her influence is greatly felt. It was in her class that I seriously considered working towards an English minor. It was in her class that I got introduced to Alexandre Solzhenitsyn. It was in her class that I grew to love geo-quizzes, a computer-based quiz of the political and geophysical parts of the world. I memorized and reviewed the capitals of nations of the world, the locations of these nation-states and the prominent geological features in the continents. Most of all, the class led me to rediscover the literary classics. I have seen and read references to treasured books but I haven't read them all. I think I know that some of my free time for the rest of my life is not going to be free after all.

Indeed my yet unfinished college experience has been life enriching: stretching, challenging and strengthening my faith and my sense of identity.