But how do we orient and connect when students and classmates are joining at different times, from different places, with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and identities, and with varying degrees of ease related to technology and access?

These questions have shaped much of our work within the Student & Academic Services team (SAS) in recent months and years. If you are a new student at ������Ƶ, I would imagine that questions like these have shaped your experience as well. Some of you in the 2024 cohort started taking classes this winter or spring. Others have just enrolled and are figuring out how to access student email and wondering where to get textbooks. Some have begun connecting during our monthly summer zoom coffee or happy hours. And some are also supporting children starting school while you prepare to start school yourself. Wherever you are today, however you are feeling about starting classes in September, we are here for you. We value your presence, our relationship with you, and the ways you will shape this learning community.

For many years we’ve held a tradition of asking our incoming cohort to reflect on who they are as they begin their degree program, and to introduce themselves creatively using a simple sheet of paper. This non-graded “Who Am I?” assignment is a way of collectively representing the people, perspectives, and stories that make up your incoming cohort.

During the fall term, we hang these compositions in an art installation in our Community Gallery on the 3rd floor of the school building. Afterward, we gather these pages into a portfolio and archive them alongside nearly two decades of cohorts who have participated in this assignment. We return to these portfolios every year as we are sending our graduating cohort, inviting them to look back at the person they were when they started, and to see the host of alumni that surround them as a great cloud of witnesses. These pages are a cherished part of our community’s story.

How to complete the Who Am I? assignment:

New students, here is your task: Using any media of your choice, answer the question Who are you? We invite you to consider three categories as you reflect and introduce yourself through this assignment: Who are you as an embodied listener, a meaning maker, and a community healer?

You may be as creative as you’d like: collage, paint, sketch, color, write a poem, a song, a story, include your picture or a picture of those people, places, or things you love. . . or don’t. In the case of a song or poem you are free to make an audio recording of yourself but please also prepare an image that connects to it, whether it is the lyrics or some other visual representation of you that can hang with the collection in the third-floor gallery

This assignment is due on September 11th. Bring it with you when you come to campus for Part 2 of New Student Orientation. We will spend some time sharing these pieces with one another that afternoon. We will then hang the visual pieces in the third-floor gallery for you to see and interact with when you come to campus. And, after the fall term, we will gather and keep these pieces in the portfolio archives alongside past cohorts.

If you have questions about this assignment, feel free to post them in the discussion in the Frameworks & Intersections group in Populi or email me directly at rshirley@theseattleschool.edu.

For a bit of inspiration, we’ve included a smattering of Who Am I? pages from past cohorts below.

The post Your First Assignment appeared first on ������Ƶ of Theology & Psychology.

As we begin each academic year at ������Ƶ, we practice a number of communal rituals and rhythms that help us to prepare the relational spaces in which we will learn and grow together. Some of these rhythms are playful and fun while others invite deeper contemplation and engagement. Our own unique experiences and pathways will vary: some of us will be learning entirely on campus, while others will predominantly learn in online classrooms with seasonal campus visits. Meanwhile, from season to season and year to year, we will cultivate shared rhythms that grow our sense of connection to and belonging with one another as one learning community.

This week, Paul Steinke, who shepherds the student body along with the Office of Students & Alumni team, will send you an email inviting you to several events: (Re)Orientation, Community Dinners & Fall Vespers, and Convocation & Community Cookout. These community rhythms—shared by students, staff, faculty, alumni, and our families—will be opportunities for us to pause, reflect, orient, and transition into the year together. Convocation & Community Cookout is a ritual by which we officially welcome incoming students into the fold of this learning community. See Paul’s email for more about these community-wide events, and RSVP for (Re)Orientation on the event page.

New Student Orientation for both low residency and on campus students will overlap with these wider community rhythms, and will provide distinct opportunities for you to arrive and orient together as new students within this learning community.

A reminder of all important dates, with Community Rhythms in bold:

August 25, 2021: Frameworks & Intersections online course begins – All members of the 2021 cohort

September 14, 2021: On campus orientation – 2021 on campus MACP cohort

September 15, 2021: (Re)Orientation – All students

September 29-October 2: Fall Residency – 2021 low-residency cohorts

September 30, 2021: Community Dinners & Fall Vespers – All students

October 2, 2021: Convocation & Community Cookout – All community

Looking forward to sharing these community rhythms and rituals with you!

The post Communal Rituals & Rhythms at ������Ƶ appeared first on ������Ƶ of Theology & Psychology.