ANDREA WALTERS | staff writer
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illustration by Kirsten Hall
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Teachers are here to help students learn. Christians are here to help others learn. Today, we have many speakers and presenters to help us all learn. After all, we are all in college to learn something. Whether it is something educational, biblical, relational, or spiritual we are always learning. This year’s Common Day of Learning theme is “Teaching Knowledge and Good Judgment,” bassed on Psalm 119:66.
Now, if you have never been to a CDL you may not be sure what to expect or what exactly CDL is. It is a day when the university cancels classes during the day so students, faculty and staff are able to attend presentations on specific topics of interest throughout the day.
The keynote speaker this year is Judith Dean, Ph.D. She is a senior international economist for the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. She is also a member of the Association of Christian Economists. Previously, she served as a consultant for the World Bank and Dean is currently a board member for Gordon College and World Relief.
Why should you go to this? Well, for one, you get chapel credit and we all know we need that chapel credit.
Secondly, this woman is super knowledgeable about the economy, and with the recession we are in we could all use some advice on what to do.
There will also be a special evening session at 6:30-8 p.m. in Munson Chapel. In this special evening session, Joni Eareckson Tada and Nigel Cameron will share from their book How To Be a Christian in a Brave New World, and discuss how we can best preserve the sanctity and dignity of human life in light of recent technological developments.
This is especially important because if your friends are planning on going to the beach, you can still go and make it back in time to go to the evening session. Tada and Cameron’s discussion aims to be relatable to students.
CDL is more than just a day off from school. It is a time when students, as well as faculty and staff, are able to research and enjoy their own specific niches.
Maybe you enjoy mime. Did you know here at Azusa Pacific we offers classes on the art of mime?
Well, you do now and if that is of some interest, there is a presentation involving mime.
Alternatively, maybe your interest is pop culture. There is a presentation on that where you can go and listen to your fellow APU students speaks on this topic.
APU requires all of their professors to keep up to speed with what is going on in the world by doing research each year on a topic that interests them.
Maybe there is a professor here on campus who shares an interest with you. By going to this presentation, rather than going off to the beach to get a tan, you can expand your mind through knowledge these professors have gained from all of their own research.
In addition, APU has students who have already graduated returning to APU to help you get more information on how to succeed once you leave. This could be very informational for those students who are planning to graduate this May, or even next semester.
Why not go to CDL and learn about how to become more successful. Come hear about what APU alumni are doing and how God has worked in their lives since they have been away.
I am sure that you are wondering, why should I go to these presentations instead of going to Disneyland with my friends? Why should I even care about this?
I am not here to say that Disneyland is a horrible place or anything, because I actually love Disneyland. However, it is not every day that we are offered the opportunity to do this.
God gave us all our own special gifts. Some of us know what those gifts are but others of us have no idea what God has planned for us to do with our lives.
These presentations are helpful for students in either of these cases because seeing the research that has been studied, reveals special gifts and interests.
I believe that this day should mean something to all of us here at APU because it is a day where we are all able to take a day for ourselves.
We are able to go to presentations and hear some amazing lectures that are actually interesting to us.
This is not something that we are forced to do or something we are being graded on.
Instead is it a day where we can find something of interest to us and learn more about that topic.
These presentations are here for us. We are given this day off from our classes so that we can find out what means something to us, what is important to us. We are able to listen to some very intelligent people and learn from the knowledge they have to share with us.
Therefore, I encourage you all to think twice before jumping into cars to head out to the beach, or Disneyland, or to wherever it is your friends are heading.
Instead, find a topic that is interesting to you and go to the presentation. You never know, you could learn something. After all, the day is called the Common Day of Learning. Go learn something.
