Unfortunately, I was unable to
attend the event we had at school for Call to Action Day. The reason was
because I had to attend a department dinner for my major, and I spent the
morning doing work for a class that was not canceled that day, but I was going
to miss because of the dinner. I was one of the students in the organizing
committee that was in charge of putting together the dinner. I will be writing my
blog based on what we did that lead up to it, and the dinner itself; which I
see reflect the hallmarks of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
One obvious hallmark that we
reflected in the committee was Hallmark number four: committing ourselves to
community service. For over the last four weeks, my fellow students and faculty
that were in the committee met every Tuesday at noon. We discussed everything
from what to serve for dinner, what theme we should have, designing the flyers,
assigned tasks to members and the list goes on. The event took a lot of effort
to take shape. Other students, as well as community members were invited to the
event. Additionally, it took a lot of service to put the location in order. We scrambled
to get the plates out, the tables decorated, food out on the tables, silverware
put out, drinks chilled and even placed flowers on each table. Without the help
of those who were there, it would have been a disaster.
The second hallmark that could be
seen from the event is hallmark number three: educating for and on behalf of
justice and peace in the world. More and more, we see our country divided. With
extremist candidates on the rise, racially divided rhetoric is becoming more
and more popular. With this in mind, it is important to listen to speakers such
as the one we had, Dr. Abbas Milani, and open ourselves to academic
explanations. He gave a very optimistic speech about how our school, despite
these dark times, can still have a positive impact. These ideas are
essentially, especially with the negative views that are rising everywhere.
