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Program in Religious Studies and Education |
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PRSE Alumna ProfileEmilie Fleig
Emilie participated in Partakers as part of the field education requirement of the MDiv degree she is earning at HDS along with the PRSE certification. This fall, she leaves the prison environment to student teach at Arlington High School. She'll be teaching English and perhaps an English elective such as "Literature of War and Genocide" or "Multicultural Literature"—types of classes not available to her when she was in high school. "Part of education, I realize, is to encounter and ponder the experiences of others throughout history. I grew up in suburban Long Island, where it's sometimes difficult to imagine events such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, or the multicultural experiences of students in Brooklyn, just a short distance away from my home," she says. "I'm excited to use literature next year to help students think about these issues, and wish to bring a greater sense of the need for this kind of literature to be taught in schools." Emilie's undergraduate background is in religious studies and philosophy. As a student at Fordham University she worked on Catholic religious retreats, seeing their power to transform, and during her junior year, she studied for a semester in Japan, learning about Buddhist theology and meditation. "When I think of the prayer and contemplation that has become a part of my life, I often wonder how this would fit into a school setting. It's clear that it will not be a direct part of being in a classroom. But I've realized that prayer can ground every interaction and encourage genuine conversation with others. And hopefully, genuine conversation about literature will take place in the classrooms I am a part of." Posted July 2005
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Emilie Fleig's experience with Partakers, a prison education project in which inmates earn the credits needed to enter Boston University's bachelor's program from within prison, bolstered her commitment to teaching. Through Partakers, based on the idea that education is the most effective means to prevent prison recidivism, Emilie saw firsthand the power of education to transform people.
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