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Success Stories: Learning from the Ancients
March 01, 2009
Learning from the ancients
People often forget that so much of our culture today has been shaped
from the classics of yesterday. That's a lesson that is not lost on
Grand Valley State University classics student Donna St. Louis.
As the recipient of the $1,000 Manson A. Stewart scholarship for
2009 by the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, St.
Louis has a passion for a discipline that she explains as being “full
of surprises.”
The essay for the scholarship was a response to a prompt
regarding a Maureen Dowd New York Times column about how classics are
making a comeback. The students were asked whether or not they agreed
and to explain how people can use the classics in everyday life.
For the essay, St. Louis wrote about the ancient Roman
philosopher Seneca and how the lessons provided in his writing can be
useful for modern Americans to consider. A particularly powerful quote
that St. Louis used was tied into Seneca’s idea that philosophy is
integral to life: “Philosophy has the single task of discovering the
truth about the divine and human worlds. [It] has taught men to
worship what is divine, to love what is human, telling us that with
the gods belongs authority, and among human beings fellowship.”
St. Louis added: “I think that it is an especially powerful
message for today because all of the conflict not only outside the
country, but within; it’s always a good idea to step back and remember
that even if you don’t agree with someone, you should still respect
his or her humanity.”
An appreciation for languages led St. Louis to studying Latin and
eventually the classics.
“I’m definitely a language person; it’s always a thrill to study
the works in their original languages,” St. Louis said.
St. Louis discovered just how fascinating the literature, culture
and philosophy of the classics could be; and the more she studied
them, the more she could really see the impact that the classics have
on the modern world.
“I originally wanted to be a literature major, but then I figured
what better way to study literature than to study the classics: study
what (Edgar Allen) Poe studied, what Shakespeare knew like the back of
his hand,” St. Louis said. “Classics are more useful than people tend
to believe. It’s the perfect complement to any major: As we like to
say, the ancients did it first.”
by Abby Hartig