Finlandia
University intends to engage the whole person. Many of our
classes and activities invite discussions concerning the larger
questions of life inlcuding questions about meaning, purpose, faith,
ethical decision-making, vocation and service, and others.
Religion & Philosophy courses within our Suomi College of Arts
and Sciences include:
Introduction to the Bible: Old Testament; Introduction
to the Bible: New Testament; World Religions; Spiritual Formation;
Readings in Spirituality; Christian Ethics in Pluralistic Society;
Biblical Topics on Vocation; History of Christianity; Christian
Thought; Introduction to Philosophy; Ethics: Classical Theories
and Contemporary Issues; Great Voices in Philosophy; Topics in Philosophy;
and Philosophy and the Environment.
Concentrations in both Christian Vocation and Religion and Philosophy
are available for those who wish to pursue religious studies.
Chapel
of St. Matthew
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Service
& Learning in Tanzania
RELATIONSHIPS
CENTRAL TO SERVICE & LEARNING
University
study abroad programs offer an opportunity to see the world, gain
knowledge, and ideally, to experience transformation. The
Finlandia University Servant Leadership course, Service and Learning
in Tanzania , has seen how all of these goals are enhanced when
the foundation of a study abroad course is relationship.
Utilizing the Companion Synod relationship of the Northern Great
Lakes Synod-ELCA (NGLS) and the Eastern & Coastal Diocese-ELCT
(ECD), students and adult participants spend three weeks in day-to-day
companionship with Tanzanians. Participants are a combination
of Finlandia students and faculty along with students and adults
from various congregations of the NGLS.
The
experience begins with a three-day safari to Lake Manyara and the
Ngorongoro Crater. While in northern Tanzania there is also
an opportunity to learn about the Maasai community with a visit
to a Maasai boma (family compound) along with conversations with
ELCA missionaries working at the Maasae Girls' Secondary School.
The
service focus of the experience takes place at Kisarawe Lutheran
Junior Seminary, a secondary school of the ECD about one hour out
of the capital city, Dar es Salaam . Students participate
in renovating classrooms and construction of new facilities on the
campus while the adult participants have the opportunity to be guest
teachers.
The
final week with the ECD is spent with a host congregation in Dar
es Salaam . Participants stay with host families and spend
the week learning about the various diocese ministries and institutions
concerned with education, gender equality and the poor. The
host family stay is a very important and personal experience of
relationship building and a marvelous way to finish one's experience
in Tanzania .
Relationships
blossom with safari drivers, while working side-by-side with Tanzanian
laborers at Kisarawe, and in the intimacy of a host home, enhancing
and deepening the value of both service and learning in Tanzania
. A 2007 participant, Casey Clowers of Marquette , MI , articulates
the value of relationship-based learning when he says, "I have
come to a place within myself that I don't think I could've reached
on my own."
PHOTO
GALLERIES
2006 Service &
Learning in Tanzania
2007
Service & Learning in Tanzania
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