b'While hopeful that the course would stimulate carry their cultural and spiritual identities with themstudents critical thinking, nothing quite prepared across borders. It also required them to create an inter-these educators for the explosion of creativity that active component to help viewers engage with theemerged: videos, art, music, games, interactive issue online, as well as content that explored theirprayers and multimedia projects. The studentsresearch findings. The topics ran the gamut: fromsurprised us by their commitment to the work, food to art to music and more. (To see the topics andwhich was personal, thought-provoking andexperience the exhibit, visit maryandborders.org.)challenging, says Jillian. Sarah Uhlig, a junior at St. Marys majoring inEnglish and theology, worked with her team on aJos y Mara, illustration by Everett Patterson, 2014. The deep dive: An exhibit unfolds segment called Rosaries and Sacred Space. WeThis illustration, plus Rosaries, Mary and Borders drew 49 students from a variety asked ourselves: Why do people come to the border?43, Neutral and Mary, 2018 of academic disciplines, diverse backgrounds and What do they experience once they arrive? Why areon page 7, were used to engage political viewpoints. Two sections of the course were they not allowed to enter? Under what circumstancesstudents in the topic of immi-gration and Mary for thedivided into 15 project teams; three or four students can they enter the U.S? says Sarah. The group usedonline exhibit. worked on a topicone that explored how immigrants the rosary as a visual to define the project. Each beadacts as an individual subject, but also as a prayer. We invited people to pray, but also to contemplateeach topic.For many participants, meeting and working withstudents from another Marianist university added a layer of solidarity and cohesiveness to the class.Sharing the charism and examining these issues together was a great way to experience the MarianistFamily, says Sarah. By doing this across schools, itstretched everyone, made us feel connected and builtMarianist community.Matthew Spangler, a junior at UD majoring in bio-chemistry, also liked approaching the immigrant experi-ence through the charisms perspective. Even thoughwe had different political persuasions or had strongfeelings about these issues, we needed to look at themobjectively, says Matthew. The charisms value ofsolidarity meant that everyone had a voice at thetable and deserved to be heard.Matthews group examined the governmentszero-tolerance policy, which was launched in 2018 inan attempt to curtail the flow of immigrants at theU.S.-Mexico border and ended months later when itwas learned that children were being separated fromtheir parents. Ready to engageOne outcome of the Mary and Borders course isthat students became more confident in expressingtheir opinions. After taking the course, I think aboutborder issues differently, says Sarah, who grew upin San Antonio. Now, if someone asks me a question,I know how to have a conversation about it and makeit fruitful.Matthew, who is from Pittsburgh, feels more informed. Based on his research, he was able to formhis own opinions rather than simply rely on what he6 Call 1.800.348.4732'