Lilly Programs:

Lives of Commitment

Summer Fellows Program

Professions and Religious Leadership in the Global Commons

Chiasma

Global Citizenship Conference with Young Alumni (2008)

Lilly Senior Keystone and Retreat

Venture Fund for New Initiatives

Lilly-Enhanced Academic Year Internships

Lilly Senior Keystone
Arranging the pieces, finding what holds

Yearning for a community that goes deeper – theologically, spiritually, ethically and vocationally?  Seeking a conversation that can hold your many identities and experiences all in place?  Wanting a space that will engage the anxiety of transition as an opportunity to discover the fullness of self? 

The Lilly Senior Keystone provides seniors a space to ask bigger questions with peers and join together their academics with questions of meaning and purpose to encourage both their theological mind and ethical practice. This community will meet throughout senior year and will culminate with a retreat during Spring Break on Whidbey Institute, Whidbey Island, Washington.

Impact
The Lilly Senior Keystone will integrate religious and spiritual questions/ideas with a student’s full identity through:

• Thinking about the impact of seniors’ experience with Macalester liberal arts education.
• Exploration of the place of humility in liberal arts education and the connection between humility and ethical questions of responsible human engagement.
• Development of spiritual access “skills” to apply to post-graduationtransition.
• Integration of identities through reflection on lived experience.
• Discovery of how ones academic disciplines connect with the big questions of meaning and purpose

Program Structure
Leaders and students alike will bring personal and ultimate questions to the circle along with important life writings and materials that have aided them in negotiating such questions.  These will be the questions that drive to the heart of students’ education, life, future.  All participants in the program will practice staying close to questions that are personal in order to remain open and vibrant during this senior transition.

Three times during the program Macalester staff and faculty members from a range of disciplines will be invited to join the group by providing a piece of writing, art or music that greatly influenced their life to be digested by students and discussed.  They will be asked to choose something they think is essential for Mac students to engage before they graduate, a “keystone” piece that they want students to read.  They will then lead one group meeting focusing on the material they have chosen and reflecting on its importance to them and their lives.

Program Details

• Seniors will be nominated by others or self-nominate.
• A maximum of 15 students will be accepted into the program.
• The program will take place on Tuesday evenings from 7-8:30. We will meet six times during the fall semester and three times during the spring semester. Dessert and beverages will be served.
• Student attendance at all of the gatherings is expected.  A maximum of two excused absences will be allowed in order to be eligible to attend the retreat over spring break. 
• The program will culminate with a six-day retreat during Spring Break at the Whidbey Institute, Whidbey Island, Washington.  It is assumed that all students will attend the spring retreat; student expenses will be covered for this retreat.
• Among the staff who will be facilitating the group will include Rabbi Barry Cytron, Rev. K. P. Hong, Rev. Eily Marlow, and Rev. Dr. Lucy Forster-Smith.

For more information, contact Lucy Forster-Smith or Eily Marlow.

The following application must be submitted by April 21, 2008.

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