Marywood's Core Values In This Is Water And Still I Rise

Marywood University has a list of core values that are meant to be reflected in students’ lives to help better them for the world around them. Marywood is not the only place these values are established; literature we read reflects these same values as well. In Mark Shiver’s book A Good Man, Mark discusses how has father’s life possessed the values Marywood bestows upon their students. Other works of literature such as “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace and “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou also present the same values that Marywood University possesses. All of the works of literature highlight some of Marywood’s core values such as catholic identity and empowerment. Marywood has a core value of catholic identity listed as one of their

Along with the ceremonies, Marywood also reaches out into the community and shares its faith through charity work. Marywood attempts to guide students on a path where they can encompass these traits represented through Catholic identity, which Sargent Shiver happens to possess. In A Good Man, Mark speaks about how his father, Sargent Shiver, was dedicated to his Catholic faith. Shiver attended mass everyday to keep up with his faith. Mark wrote that his father had “a daily relationship with God…that’s what gave [him] ‘power,’ gave him his hope” (Shriver 43). Sargent Shiver also comforted others, reminded children that God was always there for them when they need him most. Shiver also always looked for the goodness in Catholicism and used it to help others just as Marywood does. Marywood University does not label Catholic Identity as just having to believe in Catholicism but instead it represents believing and worshiping someone who you have faith will do good for you when you need it most, therefore believing in whichever religion you please. Catholic identity is represented in a work of literature by David Foster Wallace called “This Is Water”. In this short

Marywood identifies empowerment as having the ability to achieve one’s full potential or being able to give someone else the power to reach their full potential. At Marywood, professors provide their students with an education and teach them to do their best and strive to reach their full potential. In A Good Man, Sargent Shiver made sure all of his kids got an education so they were o the path to achieving their full potential. Sargent Shiver also provided immense amounts of love for those around him to help empower them to be the best they can be. For example, when Sargent Shiver’s son Bobby was playing football and accidentally ran into his cousin and began to cry Shriver said, “It’s ok, you can cry! You’re a Shriver!” (Shriver 46) while his uncle told him not to cry. Shriver nurtured and cared for his children and raised them to strive to be the best they can become. Another piece of literature that shows empowerment is Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise”. In this poem, Maya Angelou’s poem speaks about how no matter what other’s say about you, you must rise above their petty thoughts and build your own strength to always be yourself, or in others words build empowerment to never change who you are. This is represented in the poem when Angelou says “You may write me down in history/With your bitter, twisted lies, /You may trod me in the very dirt/ But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” Angelou as well