Micah Calabrese

Student

“I think Christine Holmgren in philosophy is a great teacher. It's fun learning with her because she enjoys what she's teaching.”

At a recent meeting of SMC’s Philosophy Club, the ‘deep thinkers’—including Micah Calabrese—were having at the issues of the day. “We had a big debate on capitalism and all that it means. And I came out of there with more questions than I had when I went in.” But questions are the essence of what Micah is studying at SMC. “I think philosophy gives you a good background to study anything else. It doesn’t necessarily give you a lot of answers,” he says with a laugh. “But it sure helps you come up with a lot of questions.”

Among the questions that Micah is currently mulling over is the future of education in this country. “You see all these TV programs that say education isn’t working, but there isn’t much actual improvement going on,” he says. “I guess money is the key to the problem; paying teachers more and having more of them. And when you’re in high school, classes are way too crowded,” says the recent graduate. “But that’s not the way it is at SMC. Here, the classes that should be small—like philosophy—really are. My art history class has a lot of students in it, but that works out fine with what we’re studying there. There always seems to be a good balance in the classrooms at SMC.”

Micah reported he was just launching out on his first essay in philosophy. “I’m going to be writing about a Descartes meditation, and I expect to find a whole lot of new questions,” he said. But when not pondering the universe, Micah can be found pounding the drums with a garage band he formed with two other philosophy students. When told it must be nice to be an accomplished musician, he says, “You haven’t heard me play yet.” And he laughed. In a philosophical way, of course.

Back