Letters from Home: Richard Ice

Dear Bennies, 

The rhythm of the academic year may be very different from the rhythm of your life now, but the Benedictine perspective you learned at CSB should still be present in your life.

You may have heard me speak about how your education at CSB was like a flame when you were visiting the campus. I frequently present my perspective to students and parents to explain our approach to education. The metaphor that best describes a Bennie education is a flame.

Our process of education is about helping you ignite your own spark – developing your intellect and moral character. The fire metaphor constructs an active view of education, where you are responsible for discovering your own spark and kindling your own flame.

Now that you have graduated, you might think that you should have figured things out. Unfortunately, that isn’t how the flame approach to education works. You have to keep kindling your inner flame or it will extinguish. What you learned during your time at CSB was to discover your spark and awaken your flame. This is an ongoing process.

I know this may not be how you imagined things. We each think that those around us or older than us have discovered the secrets of life and career. Speaking for myself, I’m continuing to look for kindling for my spark. Sometimes I may even lose sight of my spark. But when that happens, I have others around me at CSB who can show me how to rekindle my flame.

As a Bennie, you need to share your flame with others. You need to not fear asking others to help you kindle your flame. The thing about having a liberal arts education from CSB/SJU is knowing that if we share our kindling and flames, we can ignite others and continue to nurture our own spark.

Richard Ice
Provost
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University