It seems my schedule for writing has adjusted such that three months or so is the usual… my new goal is to do better… maybe once a month. It is the middle of July and it feels like February was last week. As most of you are aware I am graduating in August, exactly four years from when I started college. Considering I have one major, two official minors, and two non-official minors, and am graduating with University Honors I think I did pretty well in completing my undergraduate degree in a timely fashion; especially considering that presently the average time to graduation with an undergraduate degree is five years.
Graduation ceremonies are on August 11th and 12th and will include a luncheon for the twenty or so of us that are graduating with University Honors (this is not a Greek accomplishment, it is a separate requirement above that of the normal requirements for undergraduate graduation, entailing extra work, more research experience, and a more diverse educational experience), University Convocation, and Commencement. I was officially notified a month ago that I would be the speaker at the Honors Luncheon. Consequently I have prepared a speech for the occasion and rehearsed it in front of the Honors administration this past week. I am looking forward to graduation despite the fact that I am simply returning to school at BYU in two weeks later to start a Masters in Sociology.
This summer has consisted of a lot of research work for different professors and continual enrollment in classes. For the first time since my freshman year here at BYU I did not have scholarships for tuition. The news of my rejection for the normal scholarships came as both a sad and ego enlarging experience. BYU sent me a letter informing me that I had reached the cap of available scholarships for undergraduate students. Despite having to pay for classes this summer out of my own funds I felt rather accomplished in actually reaching the limit of financial aid given to undergraduate students. I guess that means that I met my goal of taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible while an undergraduate.
In my new ward I received the assignment as one of the Gospel Doctrine teachers. There are two of us that rotate teaching every other week. I love teaching and am so happy to be able to teach once more. I think the ward is accustoming to my teaching style as well. After two or three lessons, and a few observed reactions from class members, I began my fourth class with an explanation that my primary goal as a teacher was to make class members uncomfortable, to provoke them, and cause them to question the reasoning behind their own beliefs. I explained that if they felt completely comfortable and un-stretched after my lessons then I had failed in my role as a teacher. My objective is to help each class member challenge their own standing and beliefs such that they can shore up their own convictions through greater personal inquiry and connection to God. As far as I can tell my methods are working. The class size has doubled in the past few weeks and I have noticed a new profundity in questions and comments offered by class participants.
Along with the normal work, school, church routine I have been working on a number of papers for publication. This next week I am going to the Rural Sociological Conference in Boise, Idaho to present a paper exploring the use of a statistical model of community experience which has gained acclaim in the USA to communities outside of the US, specifically those of Southeast Asia. In short the model completely fails to capture “community experience” in Southeast Asian communities, showing through statistical evidence that community is not experienced in the same way in all cultures. I am also preparing an article for the G20 (the group of 20 countries which constitute the G20 group, a large group from the G8) magazine on sustainability in development contexts. … Sometimes I wonder if all of this free labor will be of some benefit. Yes, I know it will, but the immediate effects are often unclear.
When I can I am also continuing my climbing and cycling. Below are a few pictures from my most recent climbs.
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