Becoming a Global Citizen
Words of wisdom
By Barbara Lindquist Miller
There I was, once again in that assigned seat in the gym, with the attendance monitors hovering above the crowd in the balcony. The novel I needed to finish for Roger Blakely's class was spread on my lap. I was anticipating a solid hour of reading.
The introduction of the speaker droned on, as was the practice each week. Suddenly I was gripped by the urgency and depth of the words coming at me from Dr. Tom Dooley: navy man, physician and writer. His challenge to humanitarian service sticks with me to this day. His closing words, "I have a long way to go before I die," from the poet Robert Frost, have been a mantra leading me to new challenges through the years.
Changing racial perspectives
By John F. Roschen
Forty-three Macites chartered a bus to a seven-day United Student Christian Conference in Athens, Ohio over the holiday break during our Senior year. A St. Olaf student from Kenya asked if there would be room for him to ride back to Minnesota with us. There was an extra seat. Peter moved around the bus chatting with us one-by-one. He was seated next to me as the bus stopped for a meal break in Van Wert, Ohio. Our busload piled into a cafe, and then a second, maybe even a third, busload came in. After all the other students were served and had returned to the buses, Peter and I still had not been approached by the waitress. Embarrassed by this, and more than a little perturbed, I approached the waitress and said rather backhandedly, "I believe you have overlooked us!" It was only then that we received service. This was just a month before the February 1, 1960 sit-ins at the segregated lunch counter at the Greensboro, N.C. Woolworth store.
The Canadian-American Conference in Winnipeg
By Brian L. Anderson
As our train headed north past the small towns and through the huge forests of Minnesota, I kept pinching myself to acknowledge the fact that I really was heading for Winnipeg, Manitoba. A group of us students were going to attend the annual Canadian-American Conference being hosted by United College. The city itself had beautiful parks, wide boulevards and stately public buildings. Our sessions at the college with our Canadian counterparts were both intellectually stimulating and refreshingly jovial. The "Stick" (leader), as he is called, particularly impressed me as he came strutting into the room carrying his mace, displaying his colorful plaid jacket and kilt, and speaking with his pure English accent. As our passenger train crossed the international border, I was already looking forward to next year when we would welcome the Canadian team to our campus and be their hosts for another cooperative student conference.
My two years of SPAN
By Susanne Bakke Meyer
The most meaningful memory from Mac was the two years I spent on SPAN — preparing for the trip to Scotland, going there, being there, the people there, and the follow-up commitments — the talks, the "paper," and interviewing Kofi Annan '61 about Kenya as a country for one of the next groups of SPAN-ers to visit.