In this section, you will find reflections from both current McKelvy Scholars and Alumni of the house.
As someone who has mostly seen the backside of country roads, I certainly hold the greatest desire to travel. I want to see the world and dive into other cultures. I want to understand other people’s perspectives and experience life through someone else’s eyes. This is why Mckelvy is the home for me. The discussions on Sunday nights will assist me in this search. McKelvy provides an environment outside of the classroom, outside of grades, that enables students to participate in conversations to better understand different aspects of life.
Living learning communities provide a space that allows students to design and choose a home to fit their interests and personal characteristics. McKelvy House, in particular, offers a community that, to me, seems to respond to critical events and principal doctrines that are both affected by time and by those involved. It is the well developed intellectual environment possessed by the current occupants that consumes McKelvy House and that truly drew my interest.
McKelvy is more than just living in a house. It’s an open deliberation with people who think differently than you. It’s a free space to be open and accepting but also critical and to ask questions. I am looking forward to sharing a home with the amazing people that reside in the house as well as the exciting memories we will create.
When I learned about the McKelvy house during my first year at Lafayette I couldn’t wait to attend a Sunday Discussion. I wondered if it was a lecture from a professor or one of students presenting some research that they’ve done. I didn’t understand yet that when they said “discussion” they meant it. A group of 20 college students were sitting and having an in-depth conversation led by one of them. They weren’t talking over one another and they were actually listening to everyone’s side of the discussion. In a way it’s what you picture a stereotypical group of college students doing in their free time and I loved it. I have now lived in the house for two years, and while school gets hectic sometimes, I still look forward to dinner and discussion on Sundays and being part of such a fun and diverse community.
McKelvy House will always be a special place to me. At Sunday discussions, I was exposed to different ideas and opinions that challenged my own dearly-held views. I learned the value and joy of passionate yet respectful dialogue on topics ranging from hot-button political issues to cultural discussions about art. As a proud conservative (not a Republican!) I did not like everything I heard but I grew from hearing these different opinions and ideas and like to think my views helped others learn as well.
My interactions with the other scholars were just as important as the Sunday discussions. It allowed me to meet fascinating people who I never would have met had I not lived in the house. I was exposed to and got to participate in cultures and foods that I had not grown up with. I also met my girlfriend and one of my best friends at McKelvy. McKelvy House is for me the quintessential liberal arts experience: one that developed me holistically through different activities. I am the person I am today in large part because of McKelvy House.
I spent junior and senior year living in McKelvy. These two years were very challenging academically, but the McKelvy House became a place where I could separate myself from the stresses of schoolwork by building relationships with an amazing and diverse group of students. I felt privileged to live with students from very different backgrounds all pursuing degrees in very different subjects. The diversity of the students in the house led to Sunday discussions that challenged me to think critically and opened my eyes to a wide variety of important current events topics. Now, two months after graduation, I look back on my time in McKelvy as a defining part of my experience at Lafayette. I’m looking forward to visiting my former housemates in the spring! (07/17/2018)