{"id":9229,"date":"2014-09-16T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T00:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=9229"},"modified":"2018-11-03T20:22:14","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T20:22:14","slug":"laminating-with-a-ba-life-in-bvs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2014\/laminating-with-a-ba-life-in-bvs\/","title":{"rendered":"Laminating with a BA: Learning How to Make a Life in Brethren Volunteer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Seibert<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by Sarah Seibert<\/small>
Sarah Seibert’s favorite view as she heads to work at her Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) project in Roanoke, Va.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was Thursday morning, four days into my first week at Highland Park Elementary School, and I was sitting on the floor in the office cutting out still more newly laminated classroom decorations for the teachers. The principal turned to me and said, \u201cAfter you\u2019re done with that, I have a terribly mundane and tedious job for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I glanced down at my current project, uncertain he understood the monotony I was already facing. However, he must have known because he followed up his first comment with, \u201cNot that what you\u2019re doing now is exactly putting your college degree to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comment is worth considering. Am I using my college degree right now? Not just while laminating but more generally at this BVS project.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo courtesy of Sarah Seibert<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am Chief Laminator at Highland Park. I\u2019m also on Walker duty (opening the door in the morning for students who walked to school and releasing them to their parents after dismissal) and help in Second Grade with crowd control, assignment clarifications and bathroom escorts. I theoretically coordinate the Pack-A-Snack program too but the churches and school guidance counselor know much more about it than I do. Not directly part of my job but relevant to it is my attendance at many church meetings, Bible studies, and functions throughout the week.<\/p>\n

I graduated with a bachelor of arts in Biblical Studies with a concentration in Biblical Languages from Gordon College. Not much obvious overlap. So am I using my degree? Not if you define using as taking what I\u2019ve learned in my classes over the past four years and building on it by further study or passing it on by teaching it to others. I don\u2019t speak up much at the Bible studies. I haven\u2019t read my Hebrew Bible lately, opened a commentary, or even followed a biblical studies blogger. I haven\u2019t been able to apply what I know of Greek tenses or the geography of Israel to my work in or out of the classroom thus far, and don\u2019t anticipate opportunities to do so in the near future.<\/p>\n

However, as I prepared to enter college someone told me, \u201cCollege is not about learning how to make a living but how to make a life.\u201d I have been educated at a Christian Liberal Arts residential college and not everything I have learned at that place shows up on my transcript. At college, I honed my critical thinking skills, my reading and writing abilities, and my communication skills. I practiced being disciplined and diligent. I planned and organized events and review sessions.<\/p>\n

I also had my horizons expanded and began to care about sustainability, the marginalized of society, and building bridges across racial lines. My definition of success as the prevailing culture sees it was challenged and refined. Through all of this, I wrestled with what God calls the church, and calls me as an individual, to do in response to these things.<\/p>\n

In that light, this volunteer position at an urban school sponsored by a church that wants to be involved in its community seems to be the natural outgrowth of my college training.<\/p>\n

Perhaps rather than me putting my degree to work, my degree has put me to work in this place for the next season of my life.<\/p>\n

— Sarah Seibert is serving in Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) at Highland Park Elementary School in Roanoke, Va., a position sponsored by Central Church of the Brethren in Roanoke.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was Thursday morning, four days into my first week at Highland Park Elementary School, and I was sitting on the floor in the office cutting out still more newly laminated classroom decorations for the teachers. The principal turned to me and said, \u201cAfter you\u2019re done with that, I have a terribly mundane and tedious job for you.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-9229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brethren-volunteer-service"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9232,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9229\/revisions\/9232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9229"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=9229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}