Ryan Walker

4/28/16
EXPL 292

Final Reflection
It is absolutely crazy to think that in one more week, my first year of
college will officially be over. This past spring semester has gone by even
faster than the fall, but in all that elapsed time a lot has happened. One of
the greatest things of this spring has centered around the mens soccer
teams trip to Peru, and with that our EXPL or experimental learning class.
Little did I know when I signed up for this class that it would have such a
great impact on the way I think about others, and the way I think about my
service and actions to the world around me. Through the readings and
discussions in class, the speakers that came to talk to us, and obviously the
unforgettable trip to South America, I have grown to have a better
understanding of what it truly means to live out the Loyola Jesuit mission
statement. It didnt happen overnight, and there were many learning curves
along the way, but in the end this class has opened my eyes. In this final
reflection I want to break down my development into four distinct parts. The
first part is ignorance. This was the before the class, when I had no idea what
to expect, and no idea what I was getting into. The next part is realization.
This is the time when I started seeing connections between what we were
talking about in class, and the world around me. The third stage is action.
This highlights the trip we took to Peru, and the stuff we did while down
there. The final stage is reflection. This stage takes place post-Peru, and
revolves around taking the things I learned up to this point and figuring out

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how it all can be applied on a local scale. In breaking down my learning into
stages, I hope to show my growth in the last few months as not only a Loyola
Rambler committed to grasping and understanding the Jesuit mission, but a
global citizen pursuing service of humanity in everything I do. Vmanos!
The first stage isnt called ignorance for nothing and I have to be
honest about my thoughts in the beginning. Coming into this class, my entire
mentality was out of sync. All I knew was that I was being forced to take a
class, simply because our soccer team was going to Peru over spring break. I
had no idea what to expect, and I figured this was going to be a joke. It was
going to be two and a half hours of boring lecture about service and Peru.
That was my understanding of the class. Even after our first reading on
service learning by Christine Cress, I thought I had it all figured out. We were
here to try to learn more about service for others, like volunteering, because
thats some of the stuff wed be doing down in Peru. How wrong could I be?
Well the answer would soon be apparent. Very wrong. It wasnt until the
Adam Davis article though, that I noticed a change in my thinking and the
way I approached the idea of service to others.
The next stage of my growth is rightly characterized realization. As I
alluded to above, it wasnt until Adam Davis came along that my thoughts
and attitude began to change. In Daviss article What we Dont Talk About
When We Dont Talk About Service, he challenges the standard take on
community service, by asking why is it that no one talks about it, but

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everyone does it? After reading this article, my previous ideas on service
were directly challenged. In all my past experiences with service, I went out,
volunteered, did what I needed to do, helped some people, felt good about it,
and then went on with my life. To often these days, that structure for service
is becoming a regular thing. No one thinks about what theyre doing, they
just do. Davis challenged us to consider not only ourselves, and the good we
are seemingly doing, but also look at the people we are serving. There is an
inequality between the server and the served that makes things awkward,
and uncomfortable. Due to this awkwardness, we realize that service is not
so simple as we might originally think. This idea that service is not a simple
thing, was my first step in realizing my potential as a global citizen. Theres a
reason that Loyolas mission doesnt just stop at service of humanity
Instead it involves learning, justice, and faith because Loyola understands
that service is so much more than just action. The next moment of
realization came when I read Starfish Hurling and Community Service by
Keith Morton. In Mortons article, he challenges us to think more critically
about service, especially on a global scale. In reading his article I learned
that you cant just rush into a situation and expect to help right away.
Without knowing it, you could be doing more harm than good. This is where
the learning part of the Loyola mission comes into play. In order to correctly
play your role as a global citizen you must first be willing to learn. You must
first have an understanding of the people and places you will be working with

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before you can have the impact that you desire. At the time I realized that
this directly applied to our trip to Peru. We needed to make sure we
understood the culture and the people there, and make sure we had a plan,
before we could rush into providing service. I realized thats why we did so
much research on the country, so that we could be as well prepared as
possible before attempting to do any sort of help. This applies in any sort of
service as well, weather it be in Chicago or internationally. Being educated,
well informed, and having a plan, are the first step to success as a global
citizen. This was all coming together for me just as we were leaving to Peru.
After the realization stage was over, it was now time for the physical
part of the class to occur. Our trip to Peru was obviously the highlight of the
semester, and a chance for us to put into action all of the things that we had
learned up to this part. The trip itself was amazing, and was one that I will
never forget, but one of the most important parts of Peru was something that
I learned from the short poem What I Learned from My Mother by Julia
Kasdorf and then later discovered down in Peru. A line from the poem is one
that has really stuck with me, and I think had a lot of relevance on our trip. I
learned that whatever we say means nothing, what anyone will remember is
that we came. This line is so important to our trip, because we only went for
10 days. In that time, nothing we could do or say would have any lasting
impact on the people we met. At the same time, we were met with a severe
language barrier, so even saying things was most of the time out of the

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question. The one thing that will stick with both us, and the people we met,
are the memories we created. I came to learn that this is one of the most
important parts of being a global citizen anywhere you go. Its not at all
about the work you do, but instead its about the relationships you make, and
the memories that are shared. One other thing that I recognized immediately
down in Peru, from our class, was the concept of the ABCD model, or assetbased community development. In reading about it before Peru, in John
McKnights Guide, it was hard to understand, because I couldnt think of an
example to connect it to in my life. As soon as we entered the El Agustino
though, I could see this model at work. The culture of the community down
there was amazing to see. Even though they dont have a lot, something that
they do have is the support of each other. Everyone has a role, and
everything comes together to build a good community. El Agustino had to
work in order to get rid of the crime and terrorism that were plaguing the
town, but through the work of many it has turned into a district with a
distinct culture and personality. This was most notable when I walked
through the streets of El Agustino after mass one night. The liveliness of the
area, and the people all hanging out together was a sight to see. Even in so
much poverty, a thriving community can emerge on the back of the people
each contributing their own talents. Overall the sights and the experiences
from Peru were so much more than I could have ever expected. Once those
ten days were over though, it was time to head back home with a new

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challenge at hand. How can I take the memories and experiences from this
trip and apply them to a completely different lifestyle back in Chicago?
The final stage of my journey is the reflection. Its ironic because this
entire essay has been one big reflection on the entire year, but the beauty of
reflecting is that its a never ending process. Coming back from Peru, I now
knew what it was like to be a global citizen in a different country, but had no
idea what do to in my own. For me global citizenship itself is primarily an
international concept played out on a local scale. Its taking the ideas that
you learn, and figuring out how to apply them in your own community. One of
these key ideas is the concept of social justice. Im glad that we talked about
social justice after Peru, because it gave me a much better idea of how social
justice functions in the world. In Mary Olivers poem Singapore she alludes
to this idea of justice when she says only the light that can shine out of a
life In saying this she is referring to the justice that we show people no
matter what their situation may be. Every human has their burdens. Some
may be worse and more obvious than others, but that doesnt mean they are
any less of a person because of it. It doesnt mean that they should be
treated any differently. Its everyones job as a global citizen to recognize
that were all human. Focus on the person and not the circumstances they
are in. This is something that can be done with any organization you may
help out with in the future. As part of my action now that Im back from Peru,
I want to help out with America Scores. In this kind of situation social justice

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is as pivotal as it was when we were down in Peru. Just because the kids
come from a different background than I do, means nothing to the
relationship that I develop with them, and the opportunities they should have
in life. Now that I am back from Peru, I have a great opportunity at hand. I
have all the necessary tools, to go out and help make an impact in my part
of the world. As I said before though, my reflection never ends. If I want to
live out my global citizen identity, I need to always be in the right mindset to
carry out these lessons that I learned from this semester.
Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of
this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically,
respond to its suffering and engage it constructively. This is what it all
comes down to. In taking this class I would have never imagined the
profound effect it would have on me as a young adult. This class has given
me values and instructions for living out my role as a global citizen in the
world, and in the process has helped me recognize the importance of my
Jesuit education. At the end of the day, its not about how much you know, or
how much you do, but its about how much you care. If you approach every
relationship in your life with the ideas of that Ive learned in this class, youll
live a life that will inevitably touch people, and help in a way that no amount
of random service can. We must start somewhere, and if we start with
ourselves living out our lives as a poster for global citizenship, the bigger
picture becomes easier to understand.

Ryan Walker
4/28/16
EXPL 292