King’s, with its unique character as a place of learning, is one of my favourite places to be, and this is my personal prose anthem to it. (You can find the official University of King’s College website here and the King’s Wikipedia page here.) As a sure foundation for any undergraduate degree, it has few equals.
During term time, the steps of the Arts and Administration building are adorned with students ~ æssmith photo
King’s is where I met professors and tutors whose passion for teaching makes a difference in the lives of students from far and near. Graduates go on to have interesting and successful lives and careers, becoming
- musicians and performers, editors, writers, artists and film-makers,
- politicians and lawyers, nurses and doctors, judges and diplomats,
- university professors, priests and and scientists,
- entrepreneurs and executives,
- whoever they want to be.
King’s campus is built on the Oxford-Cambridge model of small colleges, where students, staff, and the President live and work together. Small student groups led by tutors make for an intense and stimulating learning environment. I didn’t know what I was missing in life until my years at King’s, including the Chapel and later the Classics Department at Dalhousie University. It all started with the Foundation Year Programme or FYP (rhymes with trip). Students at King’s embark on the intellectual trip of a lifetime and are transformed in the process.
About FYP
I wanted to take FYP the hour I first read about it, but it was a five-year wait before it actually happened. Despite being a lifelong reader, I felt instinctively that there were too many unconnected dots in my world view. FYP made those connections for me and began the process of opening up new pathways to learning and understanding why and how, both as individuals and collectively, we think and act as we do.
From the ancient world through mediaeval times and into the modern era, FYP brings the works of the past and near present into a vibrant awareness of how they influence us all today. Through FYP I encountered the fascinating creators and thinkers of Western history directly through their works. I learned to see their world through their eyes, and why it mattered that I should.
Through FYP and the people I met at King’s and Dalhousie, I began to decode the mysteries in my own life and the world at large. These four amazing years became the framework for An Ordinary Mystic, an autobiography now in progress.