Week 7:

This week I met with a Hindi Loyola student, and it was a completely different experience from my last interview.  VN is a sophomore whose parents live in the Chicago area.  Her sister is a freshman at Loyola, and they have a very close relationship with each other and with their parents.  MA, the Hindi student, is a graduate student from Tibet.  Her family lives in Tibet, and she is struggling with whether to remain in the US after graduation or to return to Tibet to be closer to her family.  MA was extremely shy, and for every question I asked, I had to practically pry the answer out of her.  She seemed almost embarrassed to be talking about herself, and was very uncomfortable discussing Hinduism.

MA was raised in Tibet, and attended Catholic school there because of the poor quality of the public school system.  We talked extensively about the religious teaching she experienced there, which she said was extensive.  It seems, in her experience, that a pressure to learn about Catholicism is considered a fair trade for a higher quality education, but she said that it had no impact on her as a child.  She was never interested in exploring Catholicism as a religious option for herself.  I told her that it sounded like a negative experience, and she shrugged.  She said that she appreciated the education, but she wouldn’t consider it an enjoyable experience.  So how did she end up in the US at a Catholic university? 

MA had quite a bit of trouble answering this.  She said that the morals of the school were appealing, as was the focus on having a broad world view and a commitment to social justice.  She also felt that she was familiar with Catholic institutions and would be able to navigate well through the religious aspect of the curriculum.

Yet when MA arrived at Loyola, she found herself in somewhat of an identity crisis.  She said that she has struggled to find her place, to find friends, to form bonds.  She does not feel connected to the Hindi student group, but also does not feel completely comfortable with non-Hindi students.  She is interested in learning more about Catholicism, but conflicted about what that means for the faith tradition she was raised in. 

At this point in our discussion, MA told me that she thought she was the exception to the rule, that many of her Hindi friends are happy with their Loyola experience.  I asked her what it was about herself that she thought caused this discontent with the experience, and she was unable to articulate an answer.

She said that she is extremely nervous at the prospect of returning to Tibet, that she is scared she won’t fit in there any longer, either.  She is waiting to hear if she will be offered any of the positions she has interviewed for and, if not, will be leaving the US.  This seemed to be an emotionally difficult time for MA, and I ended the interview wondering if our conversation would have gone differently at a different time in her university experience.

Week 6:

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to interview a Muslim undergraduate student.  When I received an invitation to MSA’s Muslim awareness week, I was disappointed that I could not fit any of the events into my schedule (they were all in the late evening at the lake shore campus).  I emailed back and forth with an SBA student who is active in the MSA, and he arranged to introduce me to VN, a female Muslim undergrad here at Loyola.  In our initial conversation, I was struck by how open and approachable she was, so I asked her if she would be willing to meet me for a more personal conversation.  She was excited to hear about the Voice project, and agreed to talk with me the following week.

The first thing we discussed was the veil that VN proudly wears.  She commented that it was the first thing people see when they meet her, and is therefore a significant part of her identity.  She confessed, however, that she often forgets that it is there, and wonders why people look at her with an inquisitive expression.  She told me the story of how the veil came into her life: although her mother began wearing a veil when her brother was born, she discouraged her daughters from doing the same.  In post September 11th America, her mother felt that it was an unnecessarily dangerous expression of their faith.  Despite this objection, VN began wearing the veil when she was 16.  The family was moving from the South to Chicago, and she felt that this dramatic life change was a good time to make a dramatic declaration of her faith’s importance in her life.  The morning of her first day at her new school, she put on the veil before coming downstairs.  Her parents were anxious, and tried to change her mind, but she persisted. 

I asked if she got any negative reaction from her new peers, and she said that the response was mostly positive.  She has felt more strongly tied to her faith since wearing the veil, and has not regretted her choice.  I asked whether she had found the same acceptance at Loyola, and she said that she felt completely accepted, welcomed, and embraced here.

As we transitioned to talking directly about her Loyola experience, I asked my most pressing question.  Why, as a Muslim, did she choose a Catholic university?  She laughed, and told me that her family had moved to Chicago for her dad to take a position at Loyola’s medical school, so she had very few other options than to attend Loyola.  Additionally, she graduated from high school a year early, so her parents wanted her as close to home as possible.  VN shared that they did not look into any other schools when she applied to Loyola.  Had she not gotten in, she would have waited a year until she was the traditional college age before applying elsewhere. 

In hindsight, VN feels that she would choose Loyola again, even if given other options.  The values of the institution are important to her, and she feels that they correlate closely to her personal values.  She has also found herself to be pleased with the required exploration of other faith traditions.  She has enjoyed her theology classes, and has felt more closely tied to her Muslim faith due to the consideration of other ideas.  I asked if she thought she was the exception in this case, or if other Muslim students she knew felt differently, and she told me she thought that most students feel that they benefit from dialogue with students different from themselves.  She has not heard objections to the theology requirements from anyone in her social circle.

VN shared with me that all of the religious student groups have their offices on the same floor of the Mundelein Center.  She finds this to be a wonderful example of the phrase “a home for all faiths.”  There are regular opportunities for interaction among the student groups, and opportunities for casual encounters in the common areas around the offices.  VN feels that this allows for a greater awareness of the events and activities of the other groups, and places them all on the same level of importance. 

I learned so much from my conversation with VN, and I was thrilled to hear that the “Home for all faiths” slogan is true in her experience.  The only suggestion for improvement that she offered was the possible creation of a prayer space on the water tower campus.  VN prays 5 times daily, and needs a quiet space to do so.  The facility on the lake shore campus is perfectly suited to this, but water tower only has a study space in the library allocated for this use.  It is not widely publicized, and she told me that she only found it by accident.  It seems like this could be an easy fix with a great benefit, so I told her I would pass the feedback onto a colleague in the mission and ministry office.

After our visit, VN and I emailed back and forth several times.  We really got along well, and both enjoyed the conversation a great deal.  She told me that it was nice to explain core aspects of her faith to someone who was unfamiliar, and that she learned/remembered a lot from the exercise.  We plan to keep in touch!

Week 5:

This week, in anticipation of student interviews happening soon, I concentrated on organizing my thoughts around my interview questions.  I plan to keep the interviews informal, but want to have a general outline of what I hope to uncover during my conversations.

·         Tell me about your background: your family, your high school, etc

·         How important is your faith tradition in your life?  How important is it to your parents?

·         Did you attend regular religious worship sessions as a child?

·         Why did you choose to apply to Loyola?

·         Did Loyola’s Catholicism appeal to you?  Was it a negative?  Or was it a non-issue?  Why?

·         How do you define religion?  Spirituality?  Faith?

·         Do you have close friends on campus who are of different religions?  If not, why do you think this is?

·         What has your interaction been with Catholic traditions since you arrived on campus?  Have you attended Mass? 

·         Does Loyola support students of your religion?  Are there adequate facilities, student groups?

·          Do faculty seem open to ideas from a non-Catholic perspective?

·         Have you ever felt discriminated against on campus?  If so, who was the perpetrator of the discrimination?

·         Do you feel that the student support staff you come into contact with are knowledgeable of your faith tradition?  Should they be?  How could they improve, if needed?

·         What is a Catholic institution’s responsibility to students of other faiths?

·         Is Loyola’s statement “a home for all faiths” lived in practice on campus?  By administrators? Faculty?  Staff?

·         How has your Loyola experience compared to what you expected it to be?

·         Do you feel that your experience with the Theology course requirement has challenged your faith (that you brought to campus with you) or deepened it?  Elaborate on this/...

·         Based on your Loyola experience, would you recommend Loyola/a Jesuit institution/a religious institution to a student of your faith tradition who is considering applying?

·         Are there opportunities on campus that I could participate in that would help me understand your experience more deeply?

·         Is there anything I haven’t asked that you feel a student affairs professional on campus should be aware of