{"id":3416,"date":"2024-03-23T22:44:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T22:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.spelman.edu\/honorsprogram\/?page_id=3416"},"modified":"2024-03-23T22:56:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T22:56:00","slug":"journalingwithhonors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.spelman.edu\/honorsprogram\/journalingwithhonors\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

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The idea to establish a Journaling Club in the Ethel Waddell Githii Honors Program grew from Dr. Hite’s experience reading personal statements from students who are applying for prestigious international awards. Student success in winning these major awards can be directly tied to how well they have reflected on their life’s course. The Journaling Club exists to give students an opportunity to receive guidance in this regard. Being a member of the Honors Program is not required to participate within the Journaling Club.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cHowever spontaneous these narratives may seem, they are never ad hoc or slapdash. The thinking which informs this volume proceeds from men and women of ripe judgement. Almost all the people I listened to have examined their lives<\/i>, the life and the nature of humanity. Their contributions were informed by the discernment<\/i> which has enabled them to survive with dignity in a caste-like conquest environment. Their reflections and observations<\/i> were offered as statements in which theme and development are manifest […]\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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From these narratives\u2014these analyses<\/i> of the heavens, nature and humanity\u2014it is evident that black people are building theory<\/i> on every conceivable level. An internally derived, representative impression of core black culture can serve as an anthropological link between private pain, indigenous communal expression and the national marketplace of issues and ideas. These people not only know the troubles they\u2019ve seen, but have profound insight<\/i> into the meaning of those vicissitudes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Drylongso,<\/i> XXVI\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

John Gwaltney\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(All emphasis mine)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I remember the day that I figured out that I lived in the \u201cinner city\u201d like it happened yesterday. My teachers talked about that dreaded environment with such fear and disgust that I failed to realize that I lived there. Their poorly drawn description of the people that I knew and the spaces that I occupied contained nothing true or familiar. John Gwaltney captures the truth of what I knew far better. He offers a portrait of people who give life careful attention and who offer \u201cprofound insight,\u201d and in doing so, offer direction, provide perspective, and accord meaning as an aspect of daily living. Like Gwaltney, I knew Black people as a thinking people, and what I saw shaped my own intellectual pursuits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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My current ambition in creating this journaling club is to bring students into the habit of serious intellectual engagement as a cherished practice of everyday<\/b> Black life. Through this club, you will be guided towards developing a practice that yields insight from impressions that you make about your world and your intimate engagement with it. As important as lists are, you will learn to translate those points into insight. In doing so, you will learn to claim the relevance of your own singular witness that will provide you, and others, with knowledge and, perhaps, wisdom. These claims will certainly help you in composing more compelling personal statements, and so, they will help you achieve your professional goals, but they will also help you grow as a human being and enable you to contribute\u00a0more deliberately to the ambitions of worthwhile living. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How it will work…<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n