Easter Break Time

Luckily, Bluffton is one of those "progressive" schools that are on semesters. I was amazed how many are still on quarters actually but I think they all have to change to semesters in like 2012 or something. Anyways, since we are on semesters, we get a fairly early spring break, as I've mentioned before, then a few weeks of school and an Easter break. It's nice being able to have two seperate breaks in a semester that you can enjoy. I know my sister, who goes to Ohio State, just had her spring break and had to start her spring quarter yesterday. Why start the week of Easter? Anyways, she doesn't really get an Easter break. She gets Good Friday off and then back to the grindstone. I, on the other hand, get Good Friday off and Easter Monday :) Yay for Bluffton being awesome. So next week when everyone gets back on campus, we get Monday off for Easter break plus Wednesday for Civic Engagement Day...

I may have mentioned Civic Engagement Day before but it needs some explaining. Every year, Bluffton's administration thinks up a civic engagement theme for our campus to learn about and follow throughout the year. This year's civic engagement theme has been Immigration. We've had numerous speakers over immigration, some of the classes has focused their attention to this topic, you get the idea. This theme basically culminates on Civic Engagement Day. This is a day in which all classes are suspended and there are tons of events held all over campus. All of these such events have to do with immigration, or whatever the civic engagement theme is for that year. For example, the Social Work Club here on campus is putting on an immigration simulation that allows students and faculty to experience similar situations that immigrants may face: blocking of entrances, problems with receiving medical care, language barriers, etc. This is the kind of thing that occurs all over campus. Although classes are suspended for the day, you definitely don't get out of doing things. It's recommended that you attend events for all the times you would have class. Let's say I would normally have a class from 2 til 3 p.m., I am expected to find an event during that time period and attend it. This should be pretty interesting this year. Our civic engagement theme has shook up some mixed feelings within myself and across the campus. This is just one of the many ways that Bluffton prepares me and my fellow students for the real world with real life experiences both in and out of the classroom. If you happen to be wanting to visit Bluffton's campus, I think it would be a really special experience to visit during Civic Engagement Day to see how the campus, students, and administration really work as one big community.