Plantin
As a First Year
Experience student mentor for three years, Gabby Walton ’20 aided dozens of students in navigating their first days of college. Supplementing the instructor’s lessons, she shared hard-earned advice and mentored students through the challenging and exciting first semester on campus. Part of that included managing classroom demands, but essential to the course are exercises designed to pass on models of thinking, discussion and sharing inspired by Avila’s founders, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
When Walton reflects now on the
lessons she learned in her first semester, she said she realizes how fundamental the concepts introduced during the course have become in her life.
“I know how impactful First Year
Seminar was for me and how impactful it has been for the students I’ve mentored,” she said. “Whether or not I knew it was happening, the things I learned during the course—like seeing
In only five years, the Buchanan Initiative for Peace and Nonviolence has made an indelible mark on the entire Avila community.
new perspectives—took root and have grown since my freshman year. I think a lot about the students I mentored who felt like if somebody would talk to them for who they are and not just put them in a box. I think that if we committed to talking to each other more, it could solve a lot of problems.”
Concepts like peace and nonviolence
were not always part of the First-Year Experience course. It took efforts like the Buchanan Initiative for Peace and Nonviolence (BIPN) established by Jean ’76, ’19 and Bill ’19 Buchanan, and the work of alumni, faculty, staff and friends to ensure that CSJ values like acceptance and listening remained alive at Avila.
6 Accent | SUMMER 2021
Avila University | Be Inspired.
