As a Religious Studies Major, I hope to learn more about the Catholic tradition that I have grown up in and the other faith traditions I may or may not know much about already. I expect that there will be a lot of reading and challenging topics to study and overcome with this major. Most of the reading material should be brought up in class, sometimes in large or small group discussion, sometimes in reflections, and on handouts (if applicable).
I get these expectations from classes I have taken in the past: Intro to Theology and Religious Studies, Seasons of the Sacred (the Honors section), and Why Am I Catholic? (in high school). Each of these classes had a fairly demanding load of reading and challenged me with projects, papers, and topics that I had to research online and in books and dig up information from previous experience and knowledge.
In Intro to Theology and Religious Studies with Dr. Osheim we had large and small group discussions daily about the readings and every once and a while we would get a hand out that helped expound on the discussions and notes on the readings. We also received study guides formatted like the test which really helped me to know how to prepare for each test and to know what to expect, even though I did not get a very good grade on the first two. With each new professor I encounter, sometimes it takes me a while to get used to their teaching style and as the semester went on, I got more and more comfortable with the style of the class and did better on each assignment and test.
In Seasons of the Sacred with Dr. Pitt we had large group discussions daily and occasionally broke off into smaller groups for activities and discussions. We received very few handouts, but there were extremely helpful along with the diagrams drawn on the board to copy into our notes. I did a lot better on the tests in this class than I did at the start of Intro to Theology and Religious Studies, but I had a different professor and different test formats, so I expected to have different results and was pleased.
Why Am I Catholic? caused me to truly question why I was a Catholic and provided me with opportunities and tools to research the Catholic traditions outside of class and dig deep down inside to find out what was truly appealing to me about my faith. This class required a lot more reading than my other classes in high school, but it prepared me well for what college theology classes would be like. It pushed me to question and deepen my faith, which ultimately led me to make the decision to become a Religious Studies major.
My family raised me Catholic and I never dreamt or thought of doing things differently. When I became old enough to ponder why my parents had raised me the way they did, I knew that they raised me into the faith that they believed so strongly in and there had to be a good reason. Faith, Catholic faith to be more specific, has always been a big part of my life because it means so much to my parents. I know there is a lot I have left to learn about the Catholic faith tradition and all other religions and I hope and expect that through the courses of the Religious Studies major I will learn a lot more about all faith traditions.
