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Class of 2016
Whether it is discussing agricultural reform with the Secretary of Agriculture, immigration with a Florida Senator, dystopian literature with renowned professors or the elfish hymns in Lord of the Rings with a professional musician, one of the greatest opportunities the McConnell Scholars Program has to offer are the seminars. About once a week, we are given the opportunity to gather with our peers and a McConnell Center guest--who range from national and international professors and scholars to professionals and politicians-- to discuss a topic within literature, history, philosophy or politics (and many times it is a happy mixture of several).
The seminars spark ideas and conversations. They stimulate you intellectually; they can change your way of seeing something or they can validate a previously held conviction. However, one of the most incredible aspects of these seminars is that oftentimes the discussion continues long after the lights have been turned off in the seminar room and the Center has been locked up for the day. And they continued as we travelled to Great Britain.
This year, several of us had the opportunity to participate in a more focused seminar curriculum. With emphasis on British history, literature, philosophy, and politics and their respective influences on society, we participated in extra seminars and sessions to prepare for a culminating trip to Scotland and England.
Having never been outside of North America, I was ecstatic to be visiting Great Britain. After spending a year studying British subjects, the opportunity to visit the land from which these historians, authors, philosophers, and politicians hailed, walk the streets they walked, dine in the cafes where they exchanged stories and ideas, see the landscapes and peoples that inspired their works was a unique opportunity in and of itself. But this experience, in the company of a dynamic group of students and teachers like those found in the McConnell Scholars Program, was a privilege. For the conversations that started in the walls of the McConnell seminar room continued. They continued in places like C.S. Lewis’s home, in the pubs where the Inklings met, and on a tour bus through the Scottish countryside. They continued as we walked to grounds of a medieval castle and perused the historic streets.
Some of the greatest gifts the McConnell Scholars Program gives to McConnell Scholars, I believe, are the tools, like seminars, to start conversations. As a rising senior in the McConnell Scholars Program, one of the things I will miss most is the conversation. However, because the tools the McConnell program has given us, such as the seminars, sparked conversation as we travelled across the ocean, I am confident these same conversations will continue after graduation--and what a relief it is.
Mary Elizabeth Young, of Louisville, Ky., is a senior McConnell Scholar studying English and Spanish.