{"id":1190,"date":"2020-03-27T10:48:36","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T14:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/?p=1190"},"modified":"2020-04-29T14:55:41","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T18:55:41","slug":"senior-spotlight-2020-carolynn-van-arsdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/2020\/03\/27\/senior-spotlight-2020-carolynn-van-arsdale\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior Spotlight 2020: Carolynn Van Arsdale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

a series about our graduating seniors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“The greatest skill a student can learn in [a Religion course] is being able to debunk mass generalizations and stereotypes, which is crucial to understand regardless of what career one has.\u201d<\/p>–Carolynn Van Arsdale<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Carolynn Van Arsdale ’20<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Why did you major in Religion?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my first classes at UVM was a TAP course with Prof. Anne Clark titled What is the Bible? <\/em>I thoroughly looked forward to doing the work for the course, and the class discussions constantly \u201cblew my mind.\u201d During the following semester I enrolled myself in Introduction to Islam <\/em>with Prof. Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, which totally sealed the deal for me to spend a large part of my undergraduate degree on the academic study of Religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you imagine yourself in 10 years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a scary, but fun question! No matter what industry I end up in\u2026 my hope is that I will be helping others, whether that be teaching, advocating, leading, etc. I am looking forward to working hard for others as well as my own happiness.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine a first-year student has asked your advice about REL courses. What\u2019s the one she shouldn\u2019t dream about missing? Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering the fact that we live in a dominantly Protestant society, I would suggest that a first-year take Introduction to Islam<\/em>. Not only did I enjoy this course, but it is most definitely a class worth taking if one wants to improve their religious literacy. The greatest skill a student can learn in this course is being able to debunk mass generalizations and stereotypes, which is crucial to understand regardless of what career one has.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could write any book, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Save the Humanities: How the Liberal Arts can better our World<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any fond memories of 481 Main Street you want to share?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In What is the Bible? <\/em>our class had dinner together in the Religion Seminar Room before heading to a Medieval Christmas Choir Concert at Southwick Hall. I became closer with my classmates, and it was such a treat to eat good food in a casual setting with one of my favorite professors. I managed to find two of my best friends from that class, and I am so grateful for that awesome experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 Bonus Question! You\u2019re finishing up in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tell us something about that experience!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to say a HUGE thank you to the Religion Department for going above and beyond during this time in how we as students are being cared for. It is not in a Professor\u2019s job description to make sure that students are safe and healthy, but Religion Professors do it anyway. This has been and will continue to be a meaning-making experience for me, and completing my undergraduate degree will be a part of that.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

EDITOR’S NOTE:
Carolyn Van Arsdale is the 2020 winner of the
Outstanding Major Award.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a series about our graduating seniors “The greatest skill a student can learn in [a Religion course] is being able to debunk mass generalizations and stereotypes, which is crucial to understand regardless of what career one has.\u201d –Carolynn Van Arsdale … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1096,"featured_media":1191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33374,110219],"tags":[637789,637548,395785,395783],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-student-blog","tag-481main","tag-class-of-2020","tag-outstanding-senior-award","tag-senior-spotlight"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/files\/2020\/03\/456BE8D4-4D79-43F7-A625-ADE676BEC8FA.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4woDM-jc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1096"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1197,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}