By Felix Garmendia
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| Crisis: House on Fire |
Earlier this semester, my classmates from the Loyola Intensive English Program (LIEP) and I had the opportunity to learn about crisis and how people
react to it. As part of the Advanced Reading class, my classmates and I started gathering ideas about the
characteristics people have when confronting a crisis. Some of the ideas provided
by the students included activeness, determination, intelligence, and positive and
critical thinking. The majority of
us knew how people behave during a crisis; however, we concluded that we
wouldn’t know how we would react in a crisis or the possible effects of it in
our life. Some of the doubts were clarified when we read and discussed the
follow articles in class.
- "States of Emergency" in Newsweek of 15 May 2011
- "Crash Course" by Jay Dixit in Psychology Today of 1 July 2009
- "What It Takes to Survive" by Ben Sherwood in Newsweek of 23 January 2009
- "Working Through Fear" by Judith Sills in Psychology Today of 1 July 2009
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| Crisis: Head-On Car Crash |
After reading and analyzing the experiences described by the authors in
the different articles, we were very interested to learn more about this topic.
Why do some people freeze during a crisis? Why do others become more active and
try to help?
With a little bit of understanding about the concept of crisis, we were ready for our first Intercultural Conversation.
This is a meeting where the students have the opportunity to express their
ideas about a specific topic. In
this meeting, we mix international students, native English speaking members
of the Loyola community, and some New Orleanians who come to the Loyola campus to share with us.
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| Dr. David O'Donaghue |
Dr. David O'Donaghue, who is a philosopher, psychologist, and artist and who founded and directs the New Orleans Lyceum and Chautauqua New Orleans for life-long learning, was in charge to conduct
the participants through a discussion of crisis and ways to respond. He began talking about crisis
and perceptions that people have about crisis. The students were fascinated hearing
the experienced opinion of Dr. David O'Donaghue. The people from the New
Orleans community provided many interesting stories about the reaction that
people had when Hurricane Katrina destroyed many places in the city. In the
same way, people from the New Orleans community had a good time learning about
the different stories that students told. We were all impressed by the
fact that people act differently depending on their culture, beliefs and
previous experiences. For instance, the students from Japan talked about the
crisis they experienced in Tohoku with the tsunami in 2011. Also, a student
from Brazil talked about how the economic crisis was affecting poor people in his
country.
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| Crisis: Earthquake |
We had an unforgettable experience learning about crisis and the
effects it causes in people. We had the opportunity to clarify our ideas with
interesting articles we read, discussed and analyzed in class. Finally, we
learned a lot when we had the Intercultural Conversation. In this meeting, we
discussed people´s reactions, experiences and learnings when confronting a
crisis. My classmates and I are anxious to know what will the topic be for the
next Intercultural Conversation.
* * *
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| Felix Garmendia of Venezuela |
A huge thank-you to LIEP student Felix Garmendia for this post about the work of our Advanced Reading class with the topic of crisis and response to crisis. Felix is a corporate lawyer in Venezuela. This Fall 2013 semester, he is beginning his course work for the LL.M. degree in the College of Law at Loyola University New Orleans while also perfecting his English writing and reading skills in the Loyola Intensive English Program. In addition, Felix is an artist, with paintings on display at Garmendia Art Gallery on Magazine Street in New Orleans. Thank you, Felix!
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