San Diego Togetherness

The four phases of San Diego’s history starts the passive margin phase that took place from 400 to 200 million years ago. What is currently San Diego started as sediment produced above an oceanic rift. This sediment became the underwater edge of the continental crust that would soon break off from Pangaea to become the North American Continent.

UCSD is located in La Jolla, San Diego, CA. San Diego is a major city, being the eighth largest in terms of population, in America. It is on the Pacific Coast of southern California. The economy is largely based off the military, the biotech industry, tourism, and trade based off the harbor and Tijuana border crossing. San Diego has mostly sunny weather, and limited rain. Averaging 267 sunny days, San Diego is an ideal beach city.

San Diego State is a public university and provides top education. It is one of the 23 campuses of the California State University System and has its own branch campus in the Imperial Valley. Their acceptance rates are 34.5% therefore a majority of applicants will not be accepted because they might not have the right GPA or they may not have enough extracurricular activities. They have an outstanding soccer team that has been doing very well this season. It’s also on the beautiful coast of San Diego. They have such a beautiful campus with wonderful people. They are also right next to the beach so you have that wonderful sea smell everyday. San Diego defines its missions as “ to provide a well- balanced, high quality education for undergraduate and graduate students and to contribute to knowledge in the solution of problems are excellent distinction in teaching, research, and service.”

America is a nation built on the foundation of freedom and equality. Today, America is one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world, but also one of the most religiously dived. Eboo Patel, author of the novel Sacred Ground, is an activist for the integration of pluralism into American culture. Throughout the novel he expresses his ideas for more interfaith programs to broaden the knowledge of the younger generation with the hope of eliminating bigotry amongst various religions. Patel’s crucial message is that many people often misjudge or jump to conclusions, in this case about religions, which they don’t know much about. College is a place to break these barriers because it is a time for self-exploration and new ideas to be formed.

Grand Canyon University integrates faith with every other accept of life; like work, learning and service with the intent to honor god. Being a Christian university doesn’t mean that only Christians are welcome. GCU welcomes students from all beliefs and ethnicities and focuses on providing clarity and unity in matters of ethics and moralities. I believe that the Christian heritage of the university makes our academic experience different than the experience at a non-faith university by emphasizing the importance of being an ethic person that can interact in a community as a functional human being. The values that we are going to be taught in the next two years of our life, no matter from what religion you are from, are core values that every

In Rabbi Diamond’s Interreligious Experience and Engagement class, I have learned how to show respect and appreciation for all beliefs and religions across the world. In just Los Angeles alone, there countless religions practiced. It is important to educate oneself about other religions to understand the world around us, while also strengthening our own faiths. Most of the semester, we have focused on the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths and how to show interfaith relations between the two. On October 10 at 9:30 AM, for my interfaith field experience, I took the time to visit Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, a Buddhist Temple in Culver City, California at “12371 Braddock Dr., Culver City, California 90230”. I thought it would be interesting to visit a place of worship much different from what we have studied in class thus far.

Swarthmore's potential for creating opportunities to make important connections with people and companies caught my attention. The externship program intrigued me when I visited the campus, as well as the tri-college consortium. The cash-free campus and shuttles are wonderful additions that will allow me to explore and create many memories. The proximity to the city also allows for weekend adventures, and trips home via the train stations. I love the small class sizes and close-knit community that the campus nurtures. The campus itself is a work of art. Although I enjoy exploring the city, I always feel more at home surrounded by nature and fresh air. Besides the physical attributes of Swarthmore, the people make the campus irresistible. When

the campus is full of flowers, trees and grass as far as the eye can see. The campus is fairly small the most common slogan used by campus tour guides would say how on average it takes five minutes to be seated in class ready to go from when you shut your door. A very true statement I might add: my farthest class from my dorm was two minutes. So on these Oregon rainy days getting to class fast was very helpful. The campus is like a mini town with how everything was laid out and how nice everyone was, it felt like a big high school but you never left to go home. There is an aquatic center on campus where you can go swim for free you have an indoor football/soccer field also you have a good size fitness room and three basketball courts. One of the best things about the campus was it is in walking distance to anything you could imagine to, a gas station, two miles from the store and any good restaurant you want. Also, being twenty five miles from Portland, weekends were fun walking downtown with the friends you made at the

As a private, religious institution, the University of Dayton requires students to obtain an education that includes religion courses. This can be seen as advantageous in the eyes of society, further preparing young adults for the future. The academic study of religion at the University of Dayton is beneficial to American society because it educates, enlightens, emphasizes the university’s mission, and aids students in their future endeavors.

Tet Festival, also known as Lunar New year, is the most important and popular event of the year in the Vietnamese culture. Tet is the occasion for Vietnamese to not only gather together for greeting but also express their respect to their ancestors and the older people in the family. Moreover, all the family members should pay a visit to each other, and the majority of Vietnamese, including me, like to bring their children to attend the out-door Tet celebration. Therefore, every year I have brought my children to attend the San Diego Tet Festival celebration.

Jacobsen wrote “Today’s interest in religion comes from the bottom up, a significant change from the past” (1). Religion comes onto college campuses by educating the students and make their beliefs get stronger in their religion. Students can also believe in any religion they like. Religion now among the students is more a spiritual representation instead of the old fashioned religion handed down to them through generations.

The University of San Diego is located in San Diego California, a place known as La Jolla in the United States. The university is found 866 ha near the Pacific Ocean Coast. The main campus has approximately 466 ha of land. The university is one of the oldest universities in California (Paulsen & Smart, 2013). The university offers over 200 graduate and undergraduate programs. The university enrolls approximately 6,300 graduate and 22,700 undergraduate students every year. The University of San Diego California is recognized as one of the top research universities in United States. The University was ranked 8th during the 2015 rankings by World Report and US news (Matter, 2015).

You can't have asked for anything in the world than live in San Diego. San Diego is a place with many cultural and exciting fan. It's a place where there is a lot of action going on that related in having amazing beaches, that many states cities do not have and they come to San Diego to enjoy the beaches. San Diego is a beautiful place to visit, it has huge beaches, culture, and good climate.

As a Christian, this students believes in the “sacredness” (Molloy, 2015) of an omnipotent and Holy God who offers salvation through the life,

Lastly, since I entered this university, I have developed my religious development level into post-conventional. Because I have lived in a dorm for international students as RA, I can meet people who have different ideas about their religion. For examples, some