Canisius College

December 2006
Religious Studies 101

Since I have been at Canisius, I have had many different experiences.  College is A LOT different then high school in an infinite number of ways.  The class sizes, professors, grading system etc.  When you come to college, you must be on your P’s and Q’s (whatever P’s and Q’s are).  Because Canisius is a Jesuit school, the students are required to a take a course in religion.  During my first semester I was enrolled in Religious Studies 101 taught by Fr. Lynch.  I have found the course to be very satisfying teaching me things about religion that I had never known before.  By taking this course, I had to make a decision at the start of the semester to either do 12 hours of service learning at a local church or charitable organization instead of writing a few papers.  I looked at the situation like: Why not do some good for the community while doing a few less papers?  So I chose to do the service learning at a church on Amherst Street called The Assumption Church.

During my first day of service learning I was introduced to the supervisor of the site at the Assumption church on Amherst Street of Buffalo.  Her name is Mary Wyrobek and everyone calls her Ms. Mary-Lou.  She is a teacher at the school in which the church is located in front of. I was shown the building and was also introduced to the children of the program.  The children included school kids from grades 1st to 8th.

I was sent to a classroom in which I was helping out with 2nd graders.  The classroom was supervised by a teacher named Mr. Bill.  These 2nd graders were putting together poster boards to present at a play they were putting on in the church that Saturday.  I was helping them to draw and tape information about St. Francis of Assisi onto their poster boards in a manner in which they could present very well. 

This experience has been one in which I would never regret doing.  I have helped my community while intertwining my service with a religion class.  Even though I have only done 12 hours of this community service, I feel as if it has helped me become someone who I never knew I was.  If I had the opportunity to do non-mandatory service learning, I would definitely take the chance in a heartbeat.