When students are admitted into the Templeton Honors College, they are expected to engage with the curriculum wholeheartedly. Along with a canon of great books, the curriculum is rooted in a strong community life. To engender community takes commitment and intention, which is why Templeton has worked to establish community groups.
Community groups have taken many different forms over the years. The hope for these groups has always been that students across all cohorts, faculty, and staff would connect beyond the classroom. Full schedules, classwork, and the demands of life outside of work and school, though, have often made community group gatherings fall to the wayside.
As the dream of Templeton Hall became a physical reality just this past fall, a new version of community groups took a more concrete shape: Community Group Soup Dinners (Soup Groups, for short!).
Sharing a meal is an active practice and asks something of everyone involved. The old concerns and reasons to not gather have not changed, and in fact, this form of communing asks more of the participants than any other iteration before. Why push this, then? Because embodied, rooted practices have power. They might ask more of us, but in return they nourish us.
So, on a cold January evening, Templeton students gathered in the faculty common room to share a meal of tomato soup and grilled cheese. This ordinary meal shared between students of all four cohorts, Dean Brian Williams, and myself was the start of what is hoped to be a new, lasting tradition at the Honors College. One that will feed our bodies and souls.