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Group Memory
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Phil Nash, JMC '72
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(Excerpted from email and Phil's personal summary in the Veterans Directory) I was at JMC from 68 to 72, mostly attracted by the intensive language training, and took both intermediate French and introductory Spanish. I think those years were the heyday of JMC. I was not one of the movers and shakers, but I got a fantastic education -- which I consider to this day to be one of the best educational values offered by any public university in those times. I was grateful to JMC from the beginning because my high school grade point was marginal for MSU, and JMC was desperate for more males. I think that's why I got in. Once there, I thrived. I was not one of the movers and shakers at JMC, just part of the mix. I was a language buff, taking Brown and Belgique's intermediate French in freshman year (68-69) and Tamandl and Marti's introductory Spanish in sophomore year (69-70). I majored in French and had both Spanish and German as backups. I still speak fluent French, but never made a nickel on my language skills. I spend a year at University of Michigan in graduate French studies, but tired of academia (grad school at U of M was SO BORING compared to JMC). Going to JMC was one of the smartest things I ever did. I still remember the part of JMC foreign/field study preparation where they dropped you off in some remote little town and tell you to spend the day finding out what the place is all about. Since then, I've never been afraid to walk into an ambiguous situation and figure it out. I also think Inquiry and Expression (I had Keven Bridge for two terms) was one of the most beneficial courses I ever took. It prepared me to write my way into, around and through anything in life and work, and do it with a little bit of soul. ET, VOILA,... I've even made a career of Inquiring and Expressing. Even make enough to go to French-speaking countries now and then to keep up my otherwise useless language skills.
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Phil Nash
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