Spectacular September at Minerva University (2023)

Exploring San Francisco, four Cornerstone courses, and 200 new lifelong friends

          

It has been an action-packed first month at Minerva University, halfway across the globe from the place I call ‘home’. A roller coaster of a ride and a whirlwind of emotions, but more than anything, my beautiful classmates, professors, and the Student Life team here in San Francisco have made the mind-numbing 20-hour plane ride worth it. This newsletter will follow a different format than previous ones, so roll up your sleeves, and let’s dive right in! 

City Exploration

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

A world-famous, iconic art museum located right in the heart of the city. One of the largest collections of modern and contemporary art in the United States, from artists all over the world. The highlight of this museum is the ‘Living Wall’. A vast horizontal spread of vegetation and plants growing horizontally from a broad wall. Immediately, the air becomes fresher, and my lungs open up after hours of closed indoor ventilation. A wonderful spot to give your legs a rest, munch on a delicious snack and reflect on the beautiful pieces of art you’ve seen thus far. Another unmissable mural is the gigantic ‘Pan – American Unity’: A Mural by Diego Rivera. A beautiful depiction of the creative spirit of the American people, the unity between the North and the South, and a dream for a future of cultural solidarity and exchange during a time of global conflict and hatred.

Not only the museum but the entire city of San Francisco is chock-filled with beautiful murals on the walls and buildings, each painting conveying its own deep message, however subtly or directly. I could spend hours just gliding down the streets, through the various districts, and taking in the beautiful murals painted by passionate local artists. A testimony to the power of art to sway hearts and minds and encourage collective effort toward positive social change.

USS Pampanito – World War 2 Submarine turned Museum   

A WW2 submarine which completed six war patrols from 1944 – 1945 and then served as a US Naval Reserve training ship from 1960 – 1971. The ship sunk 6 enemy ships, damaged 4, and saved 73 Australian and British Prisoners of War. Leaving home with a crew of 80 men (70 crewmen and 10 officers), 79 of them returned healthy and fit to their families at the end of the war. With a descriptive and insightful audio tour narrated by members of the original crew, a 45-minute walk inside the submarine is enough to appreciate the fighting human spirit, under cramped, unhygienic, and dark conditions. 70 crewmen shared 3 toilets, 2 sinks and 2 showers, and slept all together in one tiny room cluttered with bunk beds.

On land, space is often taken for granted, but in a submarine, every square inch matters. It was fascinating to marvel at the submarine technology of 80 years ago, with outdated torpedoes, boilers, engines and radars – only by comparing our lives with the lives of people just a mere century ago, can we appreciate the exponential rate of progress in science and technology, which we all too often take for granted.  

  

If I miss home despite seeing the faces of my family every single day on FaceTime, what of these 80 men who went for weeks without news from back home? What of their wives and parents who fretted every single day about whether or not their son/husband was alive? Even beyond the human and material costs of war, its greatest sin is the separation of men from their homeland, from their loved ones – this is the true emotional toll of war.  

Academics – Cornerstone courses

At Minerva, all students in their first year take the same four yearlong courses:

·      Multimodal communications – An introductory course to the Arts and Humanities

o   Core competency: Communicating effectively

·      Formal analyses – An introductory course to math, computer science & formal logic

o   Core competency: Thinking logically

·      Empirical analyses – An introductory course to Natural science & problem-solving

o   Core competency: Thinking creatively

·      Complex systems – An introductory course to the Social Sciences

o   Core competency: Interacting effectively

The purpose of delaying major-specific courses to the second year is to ensure all students are on the same level and well-trained in the basic skills, tools and concepts from these four disciplines. Minerva University believes that foundational knowledge and understanding of these four disciplines are widely applicable to any major and career which students which to pursue further. Thus, the focus of all first-year classes is less on theoretical, discipline-specific knowledge and more on transferable mental models, skills, habits, and concepts which students must understand through examples, case studies and class discussions over textbook definitions, thus allowing us to transfer these learnings to very different concepts in our respective majors and professions.     

Minerva University has taken this innovative first–year curriculum to the next level with the introduction of 76 HCs – Habits of Mind and Foundational Concepts. Habits of Mind are cognitive skills that, with practice, are triggered automatically like #ethicalconsiderations, #audience, #estimation and #breakitdown. Meanwhile, Foundational Concepts comprise fundamental knowledge that can be applied broadly to varying settings and contexts like #medium, #gametheory, #biasidentification and #systemdynamics. Each HC is preceded by a ‘#’. Call this Minerva’s subtle encouragement to students to use HCs in real-life conversations outside the academic setting, just like we use hashtags every day on social media. Understanding HCs takes time and effort but slowly, myself and my classmates have already begun to see how our conversations, thought process and approach to problems is being shaped by the HCs we learn in class; it is slowly becoming a part of the language we use to understand and analyze the world around us.

Starting from the next newsletter, I will begin highlighting one of my favourite HCs covered in each cornerstone class, in that month. Within a year, we should be able to cover at least half of all HCs at Minerva.     

Student spotlights: Karla (Colombia) and Sattik (India)     

Celebrating classmates who come from over 60 different countries

My classmates come from places I have genuinely never even heard of before like Moldova, Latvia, and Kyrgyzstan. With less than ten Americans in our class, the student body diversity of this American university is truly commendable. My classmates are passionate, intellectually curious, loving, motivated and ambitious young men and women from all over the globe. Some have published novels, others have started successful companies, while many have given talks at international conferences. By highlighting two special classmates during each newsletter, I will be learning as much as you about their astonishing accomplishments and diverse worldviews.        

Karla Maria (Colombia)    

Which country are you from and what is one thing that makes your country unique, stand out from all others?

·      I am from Colombia. Our people are happy and energetic all the time – we have a very hardworking culture and people are ‘smiling even when it is raining’. Our energy and positivity is reflected deeply in our culture and traditions, including our fun and positive dances like Salsa, Merengue and San Juanero.   

What are the major cultural shocks you’ve had since arriving in San Francisco?

·      The healthcare system is very different. To secure simple medications which were affordable and convenient to purchase at any pharmacy back home, here in the US, I need to go through a doctor and receive a prescription before buying medicine which is exponentially more expensive than I am used to. Secondly, taxes are not included in the price of most products here and it took me some time to realize that I have to account for additional tax when making a decision on whether to buy a product depending on its price.

What is one perspective/ aspect of your worldview which has changed over the last month at Minerva?

·      I attended a physical university in Colombia for a year and had the perception (based on firsthand experience) that young college students were more interested in partying and drinking than studying. Since I’ve arrived here, it has been a pleasant surprise to observe young men and women who work with high levels of dedication, focus and ambition, toward their personal and professional goals. 

How have you ventured out of your comfort zone over the last month?  

·      Online classes. At my previous university, I became comfortable attending lectures sitting next to my friends, in a huge auditorium, passively absorbing information and taking notes. Now, I take the class in my room, all by myself, staring at my classmates on a ‘Forum’ screen. With Minerva classes having an upper cap of 19 students per class, I am forced to be very attentive because the professor expects high levels of discussion and ‘cold call’ us frequently, with students providing most of the insights and concepts from the pre – readings which we all complete before class.   

Sattik Bhaumik (India)  

Tell me more about your specific interest in astronomy. How and where was this interest sparked? 

·      As a young boy in second grade, I was fascinated by the night sky, the universe, and the Milky Way and wanted to learn more about our place in this vast cosmos. My hometown (Siliguri) used to have a clear sky with almost no pollution so I could see the entire Milky Way at night, through my telescope. In eighth grade, I began to read Stephen Hawking’s books which triggered my interest in cosmology. Currently, my two major interests are observational astronomy (using telescopes, collecting data by directly watching the sky, analyzing this data, and then publishing research papers) & theoretical astronomy (predominantly cosmology).        

What is the one accomplishment you’re most proud of in this field?

·      One night, I showed 3,000 people from my village (Motidhar) the surface of the moon and the planet Jupiter with its moons, through a telescope, at an outreach event. This experience was more heartwarming and satisfying than any of the research papers I have ever published. I saw the awe on the faces of my brothers and sisters, when they saw the universe up close, with tears in their eyes, telling me that this spectacle was unlike anything they have ever seen before. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world.

How do you think an understanding of astronomy helps the common man in his everyday life?

·      It is the past that tells us who we are. Our entire civilization started when we could do agriculture and harvesting based on the movements of the stars. Our entire Indian culture and majority of our festivals have been built on this ‘sky watching foundation’. No matter how modernized we become, we must always stay connected to our heritage and our past because this is what gives life a deeper meaning.       

Book of the month

Movie recommendations

Top watches for this month:

·      The Departed (2006) – Martin Scorsese

·      The Salesman (2016) – Asghar Farhadi

·      The Hurt Locker (2008) – Kathryn Bigelow  

·      McFarland USA (2015) – Niki Caro (PS. This movie was a huge inspiration for the plot, setting and characters of my novel, ‘Lost Causes’)

·       Frost/Nixon (2008) – Ron Howard 

·      Shutter Island (2010) – Martin Scorsese

·      The Shape of Water (2017) – Guillermo del Toro

·      Crash (2004) – Paul Haggis

·      Hotel Rwanda (2004) – Terry George 

·      Blood Diamond (2006) – Edward Zwick 

That was long. Thank you being patient with me.

Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoyed reading! Please subscribe to my monthly newsletter if you would like to stay updated with my progress and activities each month! Until then, Au revoir!