Freshmen Seminar Session 6 Opinion

One of the goals of this course is to encourage every student “to pursue a lifetime of independent discovery, including the appreciation of the importance of research.”

The preceding quotation is one that summarizes completely the essential role that Freshmen Seminar plays in the success of students at Howard University. Research and further exploration of topics has been encouraged throughout the duration of this course by the variety of lecturers. The assignment of a group research project will be beneficial as it will promote focus on a particular subject unique to the university and it will encourage cooperative contributions to the research. Recognizing that there are six basic components of research will be beneficial to students with concerns for the quality of their work and how it will be graded. Coordinators for the Freshmen Seminar have set a precedent by basing this program on the fundamental components of research.  The program has been an overall success and has accomplished through the reiteration of ideas the impact of research.  The review and analysis of individual blog post was reassuring as it revealed that students are grasping the information given to them in unique fashions by our guest lecturers. The most impressive post summarized the metaphorical presentation by Dr. Elenor Traylor. The lecture was complex but applicable to our time and our people.  In conclusion Dr. Williams offered a lecture that summarized the role of Freshmen Seminar as a whole and its focus on research. The final weeks of the program will consist of research and interviews that will assist students in liberating their inner star academia.

Freshmen Seminar Session 5 Opinion

My favorite quotation by Mr. Thurman is the following:"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

This message is powerful in that it charges mankind to abandon a search for pleasing the masses without having a true passion for what they are doing. Mr. Thurman through his work was influential in this way. He came alive in the community that he served and he is still alive in the legacy hat he left at Howard University, Boston University, and Morehouse College.

Undoubtedly, Mr. Thurman is one the most important religious leaders of our time, as he is held by Time Magazine. Mr. Thurman passed away in 1981 in San Francisco, California after many years of service. In his honor his papers have been archived as well as having an building at Boston University bear his namesake.

Howard Thurman remains as one of the most transformative figures in the Howard Universities history. Mr. Thurman was a distinguished author, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. Mr. Thurman served as Dean of Theology and of Rankin Chapel at Howard University from 1932-1944. Upon graduation for Morehouse College at the top of his class Mr. Thurman expanded his scope of influence and scholastic research to the global front. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and a friend of Martin Luther King Sr. (father of Martin Luther King Jr. his Morehouse Classmate) he was well respected during the civil rights era.