By: Tonette Kellett on September 4, 2022
This week’s assignments on culture mapping with Erin Meyer and the Power Point video with Karen Tremper made me think of situations I have experienced living cross-culturally. Meyer’s material was enlightening. Learning which countries were high context and low context, and the differences in communication between the two helped me better understand why some situations…
By: Mary Kamau on September 3, 2022
Nelson Mandela was discriminated against and made to suffer for fighting an evil system of racial discrimination; who would ever have thought that he would become the world-renowned and respected moral and political leader and an international role model to many? He won the Nobel peace prize for his successful struggle against the Apartheid regime…
By: Denise Johnson on September 3, 2022
My encounter with Nelson Mandela through Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, [1] and Bishop Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness, [2] revealed a treasure trove of ignorance and misinformation about Africa and Africans. I discovered that my deficit of knowledge and experience in the region was shaped vicariously by the…
By: Laura Fleetwood on September 3, 2022
That’s a question I’ve wrestled with as my career has crisscrossed from working in the corporate world to being a stay-at-home mom, college instructor, and now a church professional with a personal ministry involving writing, speaking, mentoring and creating. Over the decades, I’ve gone back and forth between believing in the idea of a muse…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on September 3, 2022
I have a half written book, I titled “Fighting to Learn”. I started writing it in high school as I struggled to fit in the system and to learn the way I was expected to. As a student with an IEP (Individual Education Plan) I was given accommodations that were meant to help me be…
By: Chad McSwain on September 2, 2022
“You should eat your vegetables.” I have been told that more times than I can count. At least 500 words worth, I’m sure. I can still hear the voices of my mom, grandma and aunt in my head, telling me to make better dietary choices. I knew I should eat my vegetables, but they were…
By: Audrey Robinson on September 2, 2022
I’ve always prided myself on being a reader. One pastor I was particularly fond of always said, “readers are leaders.” So, I invariably would secretly puff my chest out and think, that is me. Over the years, I’ve taught adults the basics of reading and writing, helping them to succeed in passing high school equivalency…
By: Elmarie Parker on September 1, 2022
South Africa’s journey is very personal to me. I grew up in a bi-cultural household. My mother is a born and raised white, Dutch Reformed, Afrikaner—all my mother’s side of the family remain in South Africa (with one cousin now in Malawi). My father is a white American. My mother came of age when apartheid…
By: Alana Hayes on September 1, 2022
Am I even supposed to be here? I’m just a mom…. with four kids… you know? How can I become credible, and elevate my critical thinking? How can I do those two things as well as produce doctorate level writing that is not natural for me to create? How can I read a book without…
By: Becca Hald on September 1, 2022
I would define my academic career thus far with the word tenacity. I have always put in the time, effort, and dedication needed to succeed. Sonke Ahrens’ quoting Luhmann saying, “I only do what is easy…” came as a bit of a shock to me. That is contradictory to my own academic experience. My tenacity…
By: Daron George on September 1, 2022
When I first thought of writing this blog post, I didn’t know just how much I didn’t know around the area of reading and taking notes. I consider myself pretty educated and fortunate enough to have grown up in an environment where we were encouraged to pursue education. Before watching the video on taking smart…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on September 1, 2022
In looking back over my formal education, I have always been a good student. I have, however, not always enjoyed the learning process. I adapted well to the demands traditional school placed upon me and developed systems of reading, note-taking and writing that earned approval from teachers. I placed intense pressure on myself to prove…
By: David Beavis on September 1, 2022
“What do doctorate students do? They read. They think. They write stuff.” After Dr. Jason Clark said this, I thought “Ah, I am so glad I am in this program. This is where I need to be.” Why was that my response? Because I thought to myself “I am a natural writer. I read and…
By: Troy Rappold on September 1, 2022
This semester’s reading starts with two important books from two important South Africans—Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Both biographies will prove to be enduring for generations to come. Both men earned the Nobel Prize for Peace and both men helped bring an end to Apartheid and the beginning of Democracy. They were both pillars of…
By: Roy Gruber on September 1, 2022
“The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors.”[1] I find truth in that Paulo Freire’s quote from my own life. Long ago, being picked on in school easily led me to be the offender rather than on the receiving side. One might conclude there are only two places to reside…
By: Tonette Kellett on September 1, 2022
I learned to enjoy reading at a very young age. I found it to be an escape from whatever was happening around me at home. My parents were poor, and at times, neglectful. Within the covers of a book I could be well off, or have doting parents. I could travel the world and experience…
By: Michael Simmons on August 31, 2022
“The heroes and leaders toward peace in our time will be those men and women who have the courage to plunge into the darkness at the bottom of the personal and the corporate psyche and face the enemy within.” – Sam Keen, The Enemy Maker from Meeting the Shadow This quote from Sam Keen continues,…
By: Eric Basye on August 31, 2022
Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and Desmond Tutu’s biography, No Future Without Forgiveness, are two powerful books demonstrating the influence of resilient leadership to challenge gross injustices with a kingdom orientation. Born in 1918 to the son of a chief, Mandela spent much of his life advocating for the freedom of his people,…
By: Nicole Richardson on August 31, 2022
A South African Anglican Archbishop, a Dutch psychologist, and a Rabbi walk into a bar… Comedy removed due to it causes to much anxiety inciting trauma and no one was ready to forgive. All lightheartedness aside, as I begin this new semester reflecting on my first quarter in my new pastoral call, I believe…
By: Andy Hale on August 31, 2022
Two very distinctive leaders, taking on two wildly diverging paths for the same pursuit, equality, and equity in South Africa. Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela could be compared to the spiritual and political contemporaries, Nehemiah and Ezra. Tutu was said to be the moral compass of South Africa, while Mandela was its father, guiding the…
