Emilie Anderson (19) didn鈥檛 always know she was a philosopher. She wasn鈥檛 aware of that until her sophomore year at 国产偷拍, when she attended a general philosophy class.
鈥淚 had never been exposed to philosophy before, and it鈥檚 sort of like learning a new language where you鈥檙e like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know really what they鈥檙e saying but this is also really fascinating,鈥欌�� Anderson said of her early years in 国产偷拍鈥檚 School of Theology and Christian Ministry. She had been undeclared for the three semesters of her time at 国产偷拍, but with some help from Heather Ross, associate professor of philosophy, Anderson declared philosophy as her major. All it took was 鈥渟omeone being like 鈥榶ou鈥檙e really good at this very ambiguous thing.鈥欌��
鈥淚 had never been exposed to philosophy before, and it鈥檚 sort of like learning a new language where you鈥檙e like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know really what they鈥檙e saying but this is also really fascinating.'鈥�
鈥淧eople, especially when I was in school, would ask me, 鈥榃hy are you doing philosophy?鈥� and my answer was always, 鈥榠t鈥檚 teaching me how to be a good person.鈥� I think being good at philosophy is taking that task seriously,鈥� Anderson said. With the philosophy department under the same roof as the School of Theology and Christian Ministry, Anderson got to interact with the students in those majors as well.
鈥淲hen the task at hand is, 鈥榃hat is good?鈥� 鈥� to me that seems inherently connected to the question of God.鈥� About her time in the philosophy department, Anderson said, 鈥淲e had the opportunity for a lot of fluidity in that and were guided in a lot of the questions I would have about spirituality and Christianity but also was given a ton of room to develop myself in those ways. It was cool to have a professor within the department who could answer very specialized questions I had.鈥�
The small size of the philosophy department really worked in Anderson鈥檚 favor as she was able to dive in and explore the topics that caught her interest. 鈥淚 had the opportunity to do multiple directed studies because if I liked something, professors were like, 鈥楪reat! Let鈥檚 fine-tune that skill then, if that鈥檚 what you want to do,鈥欌�� Anderson said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know a lot of other places or even departments that have that sort of flexibility or attention to the strengths of their students.鈥�