In my own experiences here, I have found that the structure of the university promotes self-organization in most of the classes. For example, each English major is required to complete a large senior seminar project on any topic in the whole world. This leads to hours of research and work on a topic that the student chooses for him or herself. I was able to spend my time analyzing and researching the history of the fairy tale emphasizing on Cinderella, Snow White, and Hansel and Gretel. For me, this experience was self-fulfulling and caused me to use my personal Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior (von Oech, 1986).

Von Oech proposes the idea that we can control and augment our own creativity through awareness of the four roles we must assume. As Explorers, we must investigate the many opportunities and dare to ask unthinkable questions in order to create new ideas. As Artists, we design creative ways to implement our ideas through creating a plan of action. When acting as Judges, we evaluate the plan that our Artist has created for validity and possibility of implementation. Finally, as Warriors, we work to make the dreams that our Explorer created a reality (von Oech, 1986).

I used these four stages in order to explore possibilities for the project, think of creative ways to approach those possibilities, judge whether or not they were possible, and actually work to complete the project. Through this process, I found myself personally gaining pertinent knowledge and beginning to learn because I wanted to and not because of the requirements that I had to fulfill.

The process of choosing projects and carrying them out on one's own is not limited to the English major. I have had other courses such as Spanish Conversation and Basic Statistics in which I was required to find, develop, evaluate, and execute a project on my own (von Oech, 1986) The university's approach to projects relates to the mission statement. According to the mission statement, if the university does its job, then students' curiosity will be ignited through the wonderful learning situations that develop. Therefore, there will be no limit to the number of different personal topics from which one could choose for a project. Through this structure of personal projects, students are able to gain personal, significant meaning and self-satisfaction. This helps to foster a sense of life-long learning. This was the case for me. I feel that because I had the freedom of choice in my projects, they became meaningful and satisfying for me to complete.

In addition to gaining personal knowledge as a goal of the university, I have also witnessed the promotion of social knowledge. This university is a great promoter of group work. Nearly every course that I have taken, including English major courses, Spanish minor courses, and core classes, has required some sort of group project, paper, or other assignment. Through this cooperative learning structure, the university fulfills its goal to promote "personal, social, and intellectual growth of its students." Team work is an effective way to build relationships with peers (Kagan, 1992). Also, one can discover how he or she works best and in what capacity. This directly relates to learning how to learn and discovering our own myths about ourselves (Harri-Augstein & Thomas, 1991).

One example of self-discovery for me occurred when I was involved in a group project in which all of my fellow students had very different Myers Briggs personality types than I do. The Myers Briggs analysis determines whether a given person has tendencies toward introverting or extroverting, intuition or sensing, feeling or thinking, and judging or perceiving. Through this test, it is possible to determine what tendencies one has and how those tendencies will affect those with whom one comes into contact. My Myers Briggs type is INFJ, meaning that I have tendencies toward introverting, intuition, feeling, and judging. I believe that most of the people in my group probably did not tend toward judging, but perceiving. This distinction usually results in that those who are more likely to perceive instead of judge are less likely to follow time schedules, make plans of action, or be detailed-oriented. Judging people are more likely to do all of these things. This difference in personality caused problems in how my group handled the work. I wanted things to be decided and the work to be divided for each of us to do our fair share. The group as a whole was unconcerned about the logistics of the project and focused on content. This drove me nuts!! I really enjoyed getting to know the people in the group, but I became very frustrated with our meetings because we never got anything done. After I learned about the Myers Briggs ideas, I understood much better how and why our group functioned the way that it did. I feel that this is a good example of self-reflection and self-awareness. I made discoveries about myself and my learning and lack of learning due to this experience. I realize now that in order to have an effective group it is important to take into consideration different personality types and how that may be important in deciding approaches to topics and tasks

From my experiences, I have found that above all university helps students discover within themselves their personal tools to continue as life-long learners years after graduation. Especially within the MAE program, reflection on our work is encouraged. Because experiences are not learning events unless reflected upon, this reflective practitioner approach is necessary. In my MAE courses I have been required to keep a journal of reflections on experiences in order to enhance my self-awareness. However, even outside the MAE program, I have been encouraged to reflect on my work to improve it and understand how I came to the point in my learning that I did.

One example of reflection leading to greater understanding occurred for me in my Health and Wellness class. We did activities and took surveys that helped us to see how much we already knew about certain subjects as well as understand how our knowledge was influenced by our backgrounds and public knowledge. We dealt with issues and attitudes toward sex, fitness, and self-esteem. One incident that I remember is that we were required to chart what we ate for three days and then do an analysis of the nutritional intake that we had for those days. This helped our awareness of our own habits and activities. In the class, we were doing a unit on nutrition and fitness in which we learned about how lifestyles of our parents affect us and how much we are unaware of what we put into our bodies. That was an effective teaching device because it required self-reflection and personal application. In this way, we were engaged in learning conversations within ourselves and with the class as a whole (Harri-Augstein & Thomas, 1991). We realized our own myths and attitudes about food which made us better able to alter them for our own good due to the knowledge we gained.

Although the majority of the classes that I have encountered have fulfilled their part of the mission statement, some aspects of my education here were not in conjunction with this statement. Of course, not all of my classes promote self-organization and construction of personal meaning through making lessons personally applicable and providing opportunities for personal interpretation. Of the courses that I have taken, I can think of four or five classes in which the teacher required no higher order thinking skills as one would expect in a liberal arts university. In these classes, the main goal was to memorize and regurgitate. Because of this, few students became engaged in the material and even fewer had their curiosity ignited by the encounters

Another of my major problems with the way that the university has not fulfilled its mission statement is a direct relation to the English department. I feel that although I am an English major but have a goal of teaching elementary students, I am no less of an English major. However, I feel that there is a split between "true English majors" and "those MAE people" in which the difference is that a true English major wishes to be an English scholar with no desire to teach, except maybe on the college level, while an MAE person only wants to teach and has no real passion for the subject. If this university fostered a true liberal arts community, then the choice of major would not matter because as well-rounded students, we would appreciate and understand the act of learning instead of the end result of that learning.

Another aspect in which I do not feel that the University has fulfilled its mission statement is in its promise to foster in its students a "tolerance of difference and diversity." I do not feel that I have gained a better understanding of diversity because I find that many of the students and faculty who are at this university are very similar. The university lacks an important diversity factor that I had hoped to find at a university setting. The majority of the students in my classes have been white and are from Missouri, specifically, either St. Louis or Kansas City. Because of this, I have not been exposed to many different views that I could have gained through people of cultures other than my own. The school does not attract many diverse groups; thus, this part of the mission remains unfilled in my eyes.

I believe that Truman State University is making a great effort to be an outstanding liberal arts and sciences university. I feel that the learning that I have done here is invaluable. I believe that most of all, it is the responsibility of the student who attends a liberal arts and sciences institution to seek out and negotiate to receive the best liberal arts education that they can. The university sets the stage for learning, but learning is a very personal thing. Therefore, while the university has its faults, it is not all to blame for any shortcomings that one might feel in regard to the education in which he or she might have been involved. I do believe that Truman State University has fulfilled its mission statement for the most part because I made the experience valuable to me through personal effort.

Harri-Augstein, S. & Thomas, L. (1985). Self-organised learning: Foundations of a conversational science for psychology. London: Routledge & Kagan Paul.

Kagan, S. (1992). Cooperative learning. San Juan Capistrano, CA: Kagan Cooperative Learning.

Von Oech, R. (1986). A kick in the seat of the pants: Using your explorer, artist, judge, & warrior to be more creative. New York: Harper Perennial.