{"id":3825,"date":"2015-07-06T15:47:11","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T21:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/?p=3825"},"modified":"2015-08-25T07:51:19","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T13:51:19","slug":"social-work-student-explores-land-life-lessons-at-pine-ridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/2015\/07\/06\/social-work-student-explores-land-life-lessons-at-pine-ridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Work Student Explores Land, Life Lessons at Pine Ridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Sanders-225x300.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3826\" src=\"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Sanders-225x300-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Sanders-225x300\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Rising senior social work major Rebecca Sanders trekked many miles and asked many difficult questions during Professor Dr. Andy Watt\u2019s\u00a0Maymester program\u00a0as she and her team learned\u00a0the history of the western U.S.\u2019s land and people.<\/p>\n<p>The trip began May 12 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where Sanders met with tribal elders and local artists to hear their stories\u00a0and\u00a0visit important, local sites. The next stop was the Crow Reservation in Montana to learn about the Battle of Little Big Horn and Crow culture. Soon after, the group traveled to Yellowstone National Park to participate in the park\u2019s Wolf and Bear Exploration\u00a0and\u00a0Cody, Wyoming for\u00a0the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The trip concluded May 29 in Keystone, South Dakota with stops at Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Sylvan Lake and Badlands National Park.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Sanders explained that Belmont prepared her for the trip by teaching the value of a good question asked in humility. \u201cAs we traveled to two Native American reservations, the first national park and various sites along the way, we asked\u00a0hard questions. We asked about\u00a0the justice of American westward\u00a0expansion\u00a0as we learned\u00a0from our Lakota\u00a0and Crow friends. We asked about the health of eco-systems within Yellowstone National Park\u00a0and the controversy over wolves and bison. We asked about the nature of respect owed to historical figures. Belmont has taught me to never stop asking questions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-6871\"><\/span>Sanders said she is thankful Dr. Watts mentioned the trip during her Christian Ethics Seminar last fall. Primarily having traveled abroad in the past, Sanders wanted a chance to experience America more fully. Looking for an opportunity to spend time outdoors\u00a0and learn\u00a0about American history from the people who lived it, Sanders said her time in Pine Ridge was exactly what she hoped for. \u201cEvery day was an adventure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Sanders2-300x200.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3827\" src=\"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Sanders2-300x200-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Sanders2-300x200\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a>Sanders plans to obtain her master\u2019s degree in social work after graduation and go on to work within the criminal justice system. Thanks to her trip, Sanders said she has a more practical\u00a0understanding of the many ways people experience life in America and a deeper insight into the theories and statistics she has learned in class.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe trip will shape the rest of my time [at Belmont]\u00a0through the way it showed me that the answers I find when I ask hard questions demand action. I am acquiring skills at Belmont\u00a0that will enable me to act on the answers to the tough questions of social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rising senior social work major Rebecca Sanders trekked many miles and asked many difficult questions during Professor Dr. Andy Watt\u2019s\u00a0Maymester program\u00a0as she and her team learned\u00a0the history of the western U.S.\u2019s land and people. The trip began May 12 on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/2015\/07\/06\/social-work-student-explores-land-life-lessons-at-pine-ridge\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chs","category-mission-to-pine-ridge","category-social-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3855,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions\/3855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}