Social Justice Project

Senior Seminar

Emily Hutsko
November 21,2017
 Seton Hill University provides an environment that allows students to grown in

faith and applies the characteristics from Catholic Social Teaching to the real world.

Students are encouraged to carry outs acts of charity and love during there time at Seton

Hill. The freshmen seminar course, Connections, requires students to perform acts of

community service, emphasizing the importance of service to others. In my Senior

Seminar course, we were required to carry out a Social Justice Project. The examples

from both courses are true representations of the positive impact the Liberal Arts

Curriculum has on providing a the opportunity to develop into a well- rounded

individuals who will be an amazing asset into the world.

From the start of the semester our class was planning our Social Justice Project.

We have many options that were brought up, showing that our class wanted to make a

difference in the lives of many people. We had a variety of ideas from, Special Olympics,

to cuddling drug babies, even to starting our own food pantry at our school. We all

discussed the many options and wanted to ensure that we have the full participation of all

our classmates involved. Initially we had all agreed to open a food pantry for those

students on campus who did not have food available to them. I never realized how many

of my fellow classmates go to class hungry because they do not have the opportunity to

have food readily available to them. It was very hard for me to grasp this idea and I knew

right away that I wanted to help in anyway I could. We then realized that this project was

not going to be able to be completed in the small amount of time that we had, but we still

wanted to help those who were hungry and in need.

After some discussion, my class decided to work with the local church, Otterbein,

to help them with their weekly meal for the homeless of the Greensburg Areas Feeding
the Spirits. The members of the church, donors and volunteers who all want to show the

love and spirit of Christ to those in need support this weekly meal. Not only did want to

feed them the meal but also we wanted to ensure that they had lunch for the next day, as

well as some toiletries for them to clean up with. We decided to make them bagged

lunches that consisted of PB&J Sandwiches and crackers. We made a flyer for donations

of personal care items and clothing to hand out to the individuals at the church. I was

able to bring a bag of personal care items, clothing, and shoes for the individuals who

were there in need.

My classmates and I were able to help set up, prepare food, work the food line,

hand out items and clean up while at Feeding the Spirits, I thought it was especially

important to realize that this church group did not only feed the individuals who came to

get a warm meal, but they wanted to feed their spirit in the Lord. Before we started the

meal, the leader went around and asked everyone if they had prayer intentions, we all

came together and listened to a sermon on our faith, reflected and prayed together as a

group. It was amazing for me to be apart of a group that had so many differences but

shred the love for other and for the Lord. I also found that my spirit was being fed by the

opportunity that I had serving those people and seeing God in them. My fellow

classmates felt the same way as we shared our time and love in one another and those we

were helping. I realized how much we take for granted, such as a bagged PB &J lunch or

a warm dorm room and how much of an impact a few hours of our time can make on

someone else. In this time of hate and violence in our society it was very uplifting and

encouraging to see how much love was present that night. If we all took a little bit of our

time and were able to show love to others it would make a huge difference.
 I feel that I was awarded great opportunities to strengthen my faith as well as

become a great person rooted in faith and love because of my time at Seton Hill

University. The Liberal Arts Curriculum allows students many opportunities that they

would not get at other schools. From the time they start as Freshmen, they are encouraged

to engage in service projects, religious services and political discussions, all of which

show the importance of Catholic Social Teaching to the students and staff.

. When looking at the Social Justice Framework, I found that there are many

connections from my classs specific social justice project. This triangular shaped

diagram shows three different forms for justice; Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice,

and Interactive Justice. Distributive Justice has two groups of points; the first group

consisted of equity, equality, need, and the second self-interested, efficiency and fairness.

As a class and as individuals we were able to see examples of or experience these

distributive justice points. There was obviously a need for food and warmth for those

who are less fortunate. We were able to show efficiency, self- interest and fairness in the

preparations by making a plan, discussing details while also including all the ideas and

opinions of those in the class.

Interactive Justice had the group of points that included, trust, dignity and

respect, the second group information, feedback and explanations. During all of our class

discussions on deciding options and ideas for our social justice project we had to gather

and present information, gather feedback from the class and the community and also

present explanations on all of the information and ideas we had collected. Also, the points

of trust, dignity and respect we all expressed during the event at the Otterbein church.

Many of those people were very different from what students are used to seeing on
campus. Some has disabilities, some has dirty clothes, some smelled a little different, but

we were challenged to see God in all of those people, trust in our project, and treat those

people with dignity and respect.

The last of the three main points is the Procedural justice. This points in this

section included, voice participation, consistency, ethicality, accuracy, error

correctability, impartiality and representativeness. As stated before, all of these points

were met through our project. The majority of our planning occurred in class, which all

the members expressed their ideas through voice participation, while also expressing

consistency, accuracy and impartiality with the overall ideas presented and the

differences in opinions of the group. We also experienced some problems with the details

from our first ideas and had to implements error correctablility when deciding on our

final idea. Overall, I feel that as a class and as individuals we were all able to showcase

the characteristics from the Social Justice Framework diagram. We also grew very close

despite our differences and were able to come together to show respect and morality to

those who needed our help. Not only am I thankful that I was able to participate in this

project through my Senior Seminar class but also for those opportunities I was able to be

apart of through the requirements of the Liberal Arts Curriculum at Seton Hill. I believe

that all seniors will take this experience with them as they transition on to the next

chapter of their lives and will always cherish the character, faith, and moral building

opportunities presented to them at Seton Hill.