Page 14 - Southern Magazine-Winter/Spring 2013

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unior theatre major Christie Connolly serves one of several hundred meals at Glide
Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco. Connolly was part of a service-
learning Exploration Term course that did outreach through the Glide Foundation.
The course, entitled “Service-Learning in San Francisco: Poverty in Urban America,”
was led by Kristin Harper ’92, director of the BSC Bunting Center for Engaged Study
and Community Action, and Dr. John Tatter, professor of English. The six students who
participated learned about poverty through the Homeless Count, in which they took an
observation census of the homeless population on the streets of San Francisco. They also
attended addiction recovery circles as well as Glide’s Speak Out program—an open mic
night where people sing, read poems, and share the experiences of their lives. “The people
I met serving at Glide inspired me to practice joy and choose unconditional love every day
through my interactions with fellow human beings,” Connolly said. “We are all valuable
on this Earth, and who doesn’t need a good reminder of that every once in a while?”
J