Interview

1. Describe how you became a member of your group, and why you remain active in it?
2. What are the core values, rules, and rituals of your group?
3. How do leaders function in your group?
4. What purpose or need does your group fulfill in your life?


For my interview I phoned a college student (at a college I previously worked) that was a member of an intentional community, or a living and learning community known as the Spanish house. As a Spanish major, Jennifer was aware of the Spanish house and was friends with a number of the girls that were going to be a part of it for the school year. Because Jennifer lives on a residential campus it is pretty normal to consider living options for the following year. She was familiar with it and the advisor, one of her Spanish profs, and some of her friends got together with her and they did it. The basic core values, as well as having a commitment to the Christian community on the campus, is a desire to learn more about the Spanish language as well as the learn more about the cultures that speak Spanish. One of the rules is that they can only communicate with one another in the house in Spanish. They also watch a movie or television program once a week in Spanish. The hope is to watch a movie that is not just an American movie dubbed into Spanish, but movies filmed or produced in Spanish speaking countries so that they get a greater cultural understanding as well as language help. They also have dinner together one night a week in which two of the girls will make the dinner and they all attend. Each person must block off 2 hours for dinner so that they can eat together, have one member lead them in devotions (in Spanish) and then clean up together. In addition they meet with their advisor twice a month about the house. Finally, they establish a regular relationship with a Spanish speaking church in the area and attend at least monthly. One more thing they do is to travel over spring break on a mission trip to a Spanish speaking country, this year they went to Guatemala. It seemed as though, other than the advisor’s role, the leadership responsibilities were shared by the participants. One of the girls had more natural leadership qualities and seemed to be the natural leader within the group, but she had no formal responsibilities different than the other members. I think for these girls the experience in the house served a number of purposes. First as a house of Christians on a Christian college campus it was very beneficial for their faith development. The quality of their relationships definitely helped encourage them in their faith. In addition, the structure and stretching of the shard experience does seem to be very helpful as they have a shared experience. I also think the intentional nature of their living experience will have a tremendous effect on their academics, as well as increasing their confidence and helping shape their worldview.