In July of 2007, I was accepted as a seminarian by the Albany Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. I had spoken with Fr. Jim Walsh, who is on the vocation team for the Albany Diocese, about formation on several occasions. Through these conversations, I learned that formation is typically a six year program and that there are four key areas of focus or "four pillars" for seminary formation: human, spiritual, pastoral, and academic. In regards to academic formation, seminarians first need to complete a program of study that is referred to as "pre-theology," consisting of thirty credit hours of philosophy courses and twelve credits of religious studies courses at the undergraduate level. Also, seminarians in the Albany Diocese complete twelve credit hours of Spanish instruction, so that the Diocese' priests will be better equipped and able to interact with the growing Hispanic population of the regions. The pre-theology program generally is completed over the course! of two years.
In the Albany Diocese, seminarians complete their pre-theology program of study primarily through courses at Siena College. Siena College is a Franciscan institution located in Loudonville, New York. It is a relatively small college with an enrollment of approximately three-thousand undergraduate students. Seminarians for the Albany Diocese study Spanish through courses offered at Hudson Valley Community College. In the Fall of 2007, I took three three-credit courses at Siena College: (1) PHIL 101 - Introduction to Philosophy; (2) PHIL 150 - Introduction to Logic; (3) RELG 141 - Introduction to Religious Studies. I also took Spanish 100 through Hudson Valley Community College.
Initially, I thought it might seem a little strange to return to undergraduate courses. I received a B.A. in History from Utica College in 2001 and a M.A. in History from SUNY Cortland in 2002. For the last four years, I was enrolled in a doctoral program in History at the University at Albany. While I had never left academia, graduate school is different from undergraduate studies in a number of ways, primarily in that graduate study becomes increasingly less structured over time to help students develop into independent researchers and scholars. I was a little uncertain of what to expect at Siena, but eager to begin my program of study.
My apprehensions about returning to undergraduate studies were quickly allayed. Siena College is a very warm and welcoming environment. I think this is fostered by the fact that the college is quite small, which promotes a feeling of community. There were approximately twenty to twenty-five students in each of the three classes that I was enrolled in at Siena College. Another first year seminarian, Brian Kennedy, was enrolled in all three of the classes that I was taking. Also, a second year seminarian, Matt Castiglione, was enrolled in the logic course Brian and I were taking. (A second year seminarian, Dan Quinn, also was enrolled in courses at the college, but I was not in any of the same classes that he was). It was nice to have other seminarians in the courses. Most of the other students in the courses were traditional undergraduate students. The students we interacted with were generally quite friendly and, oftentimes, inquisitive about our program of stu! dy.
All of the courses that Brian, Matt, Dan Quinn, and myself took at Siena College met on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule. We had a two-hour break between each of the courses. During our break from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm, the four seminarians at Siena College would generally get together for Mass and lunch. Mass is held in a chapel on campus every weekday from 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm. After Mass, the four of us would generally go to the dining hall together for lunch. This gave us a chance to talk about our courses and other things going on in our lives.
The courses themselves were typical undergraduate courses. In our Religious Studies course, we were assigned weekly readings from a textbook and a primary document reader. Each week, we received study questions related to the readings. The course provided a brief introduction to the three major Western religious traditions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We completed a few tests and a few short papers for this course. A former Lutheran Minister taught our religious studies course. For or Logic course, we completed readings from a textbook and had four homework assignments and four tests. The course introduced us to a number of logical fallacies, the Aristotelian Square, the Boolean X, and Categorical Logic through syllogisms and truth tables. Our professor had recently received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University at Albany. We didn't have a textbook for our Intro to Philosophy course. Instead, we read three prominent philosophical works: a collectio! n of dialogues by Plato, Meditations of First Philosophy by Descartes, and On the Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche. In our class meetings we discussed these works. Dr. Blanshard, the professor for the course, used these works to introduce us to realism, skepticism, rationalism, and post-modernism. I found this course to be very interesting and intellectually stimulating.
The most challenging course for me was Spanish. I have never had a great aptitude for learning languages with the exception of English, and even my English is suspect at times, as you may note from this article . . . In seriousness, I think my difficulty with learning other languages stems from the fact that I never really learned English grammar rules in any systematic fashion. I always found that reading and writing in English just came naturally to me, somehow. The downside of this is that, when language teachers refer to tenses and conjugation and prepositions and such, I am totally lost. I studied French for four years in highschool; I passed the classes, but French was always my worst subject. I was very happy that Utica College waived the language requirement for me based on my study of French in Highschool. SUNY Cortland also waived the language requirement for my M.A. in History. In the History Department's Doctoral program at the University at Albany, th! e "Research Tool" requirement can be completed by demonstrating competency in a language, but this is not the only option. Instead, to complete this requirement, I completed graduate courses in Statistics and Geography. Thus, I had managed to avoid studying a foreign language for ten years between my last French course in highschool and my first Spanish class at Hudson Valley Community College. Needless to say, I approached Spanish with some trepidation.
I'm glad that I took Spanish last semester. I feel that I learned quite a bit in my first Spanish course. I've learned a good deal of Spanish vocabulary and some basic grammar rules. I haven't received my grade in the course yet, but I'm reasonably certain that I passed the course. Our professor was very understanding of our difficulties and struggles with the language as first year students. I think studying Spanish was a good experience for me. Sometimes it can be good to face an academic challenge in an area that is not one's strong suit. I will be taking Spanish 101 in the Spring.
My schedule for the Sping of 2008 is quite similar to my schedule from the Fall of 2007. I will be taking two philosophy courses and one religious studies course at Siena College on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. I have the same professors for all of the courses. I will be taking Spanish 101 at HVCC with the same professor as last semester. One difference from last semester is that I now know what to expect. I'm very comfortable with the pre-theology program now. I'm looking forward to continuing my studies this Spring.
Dan Smith
Seminarian, Albany Diocese
