by Jessica Hawkinson
The body is a unit … though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (I Corinthians 12:20)
When Paul addressed the community of faith at Corinth so long ago, they were torn by their own differences and disagreements. Likewise, we live in a world where differences fracture communities of faith, break down nations, and harm the fragile peace of regions around the world. The effort to find unity in diversity is a challenge not frequently realized, but often longed for.
At Macalester College, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow in a community of faith and scholarship that, despite having members who disagree, deeply values the unique diversity each student offers. To be a student at Macalester is to become part of a diverse body whose parts are all much needed and essential to the whole. Macalester has set high expectations for living as diverse global citizens in one world, and has given me hope that the world might one day live as one body.
Macalester College is a small liberal arts college in St. Paul, Minn., whose roots don’t go back quite as far as the Apostle Paul’s, but whose foundations were firmly laid by Presbyterians who certainly knew his words and vision. In 1874, Edward Duffield Neill founded the college as an institution where students of diverse faith backgrounds would be welcomed. Today, Macalester continues to nurture students from different faiths and countries around the world. We are reminded of our commitments to each other as one body, and one world, by the United Nations flag that flies in front of our chapel. We are educated for lives of leadership, service, and global citizenship, and our diversity in one body extends from shore to shore and around the world, even when we are no longer students.
As I prepare to graduate with degrees in International Studies and Political Science, I am particularly aware of the need for global citizens — for stewards and trustees of our world. Those who have served in the Presbyterian Church know that neither stewardship nor trusteeship are easy tasks. Nonetheless, a life of global citizenship is the gift and challenge that has been put before me throughout my education.
I am gripped by the responsibilities and joys of global citizenship. Classes on human rights, diplomacy, international conflict and global hatred, and international security have deepened my sense of the world’s need and the costs of a life dedicated to global unity. I first grew to these challenges under the tutelage of a highly demanding and discerning American professor from Somalia who carries with him the burden of violent conflicts overseas. In the fall of 2006, I traveled abroad to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England. In addition to studying Middle Eastern, African, and Asian politics and law, I enjoyed some of the best friendships of my life, and was immersed in one of the most cosmopolitan cities I have ever known. I cannot begin to describe the full depth of my experiences save to say that I am a global citizen in heart and mind as a result of the friendships I continue to maintain.
In the spring of 2007, I was stretched across borders. While studying at the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, I traveled to small towns in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands; Berlin, Germany, Paris, France, and Edinburgh, Scotland. In each place, I extended friendships, grew to know myself, and extended roots in places I never imagined I would see. I became more familiar with the grand possibility of living as one body in both peace and diversity. At the same time that I crossed national borders, my investment in an independent project — now my honors thesis — on the difficulties that cultural minorities face when immigrating to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, encouraged me to look for legal models that allow political diversity.
My experiences of global citizenship are not limited to the classroom, or to a body of scholarship or particular academy. I have worked with Kenyan asylum seekers in Philadelphia, and my closest friends are from Japan, Lithuania, Romania, Spain, England, and a number of other countries. The newly established Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester combines internships, civic engagement, and international study abroad with larger commitments to lives of leadership and service. The growth of the Institute has not been easy, but in the end I have learned a valuable lesson about how diverse communities can be knit together. In my experiences of faith, I am reminded of the adaptive and resilient strength of our diverse body. The Assistant Protestant Chaplain on Macalester’s campus is a Korean American who is deeply rooted in the Christian Scriptures, but also attends Torah studies, and leads Buddhist meditation, engaging a spiritual community and leading a ministry that reaches across many boundaries.
The value of my education at Macalester will empower my life and vocation. I now seek a career and vocation that will allow me to serve the world’s deepest needs. My academic background is primarily rooted in the field of international affairs, and I hope to continue this focus in the pursuit of a career in diplomacy and conflict resolution. I will carry with me the sense of global commitment and critical thinking that I have become so familiar with as a student. I cannot hope to change the world alone — but as a future leader and global citizen, I am guided by a vision of a diverse body, united and whole, which has its roots in Christ’s vision and Scripture’s words, and which is given hope by the scholarship and diversity I have experienced throughout my four years at Macalester.
Jessica Hawkinson, a 2008 graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., is to be the 2008-09 Seminar Coordinator at the Presbyterian Church United Nations Office in New York, N.Y., before pursuing a graduate degree.
