When Engaged Learning Is More Than Just Engaged Learning

Ava Shutze

My first Furman Engaged experience extended my understanding of the role of learning. I saw two seniors present their final art projects and then saw their work amongst others in the senior exhibition gallery. One senior had made a collection of ceramic works dedicated to his mom, and the other used digital media in the form of a video and photography to capture her close friends.

Seeing the process behind the final products and seeing the artists behind the art revealed the importance of every single step throughout one’s learning experience: it’s more than a single class, more than the time and thought of creation, and more than the end result. The heart of transformative learning is so much greater than the sum of its parts; it’s a combination of everything from the very beginning, to the final product, to the time after you have done all the work and shared it with others. While we tend to base the value of something on its final result, education stems beyond anything that is truly finite.

I also think the idea of transformative learning encompasses both what has transformed us and what can transform others. It is one thing to have learned something and another to leave a lasting impact on others through what you have learned or created. By hearing about the individual experience of the seniors in creating their final projects, we got a sense of how they were able to apply all of their knowledge from their time at Furman into a rewarding and beautiful final piece of work. But, as much as I was able to learn about their engaged and transformative learning experiences, I was also able to learn about my own.

In particular, the senior’s video opened a whole new lens on what is possible for me here. I had no idea a short film was an option for a final project or even something that other students had been exploring in their studies. With her digital media and communications major, she was able to cater her learning experience to what she wanted to get out of her time at Furman. I also want to do something in film, and her video inspired me to do something similar with my own experience at Furman. I had no idea she was going to be presenting a video but was incredibly grateful that I had found my way to this particular session. Her presentation showed me that any opportunity is possible if you are willing to find it or perhaps even create it. Without her knowing it, her video helped me recognize that I can follow my own path and do something wonderful with it.

I took from this art session that engaged learning above anything really means sharing it with others. What we take ourselves from our education is just as important as what we are able to give to others. The impact learning has on us is to give us the ability to impact and inspire others. Every opportunity we receive is another opportunity to give to someone else. Perhaps education and opportunities for engaged learning are more than just for the person that receives it; perhaps it’s ultimately not really about what we learn and how but what we do with what we learn and how that impacts the greater community. Sharing what we have created and learned gives it so much more meaning than to keep it to ourselves. After all, isn’t almost everything better when shared? Maybe at a future Furman Engaged, I will get to inspire someone else just as how I was moved and impacted by someone’s presentation at this year’s Furman Engaged.