By: Bart Bergfeld

Delphos St. John's Class of 2005

I’m just finishing up my undergraduate degree in philosophy at the University of Dayton, and as I reflect on my experience as a whole, I can see that it has been a positive and exciting time. In my four years here, I’ve been involved with many activities. I was on the football team, and my last two years were very successful – for example, I was named an ESPN the Magazine 1st team Academic All-American and a semi-finalist for the Draddy Award, which is considered the "academic Heisman." My favorite game was in 2008, when we played at San Diego University for our only night game. We were both fighting for the top spot in the conference, but they were favored a bit because of their long-standing winning streak at home, which consisted of 28 games in a row. Ultimately though, we ended up creeping our way back from a 22-6 second quarter deficit and winning in a nailbiter by a touchdown. Much of our success was due to our quarterback, Rob Florian, who was “on fire” during the second half, completing about 85% of his passes. It was also a special game for me as I was able to score 2 touchdowns on our way back into it. Yet, along with playing in exciting games like this, I think playing college football was a positive experience because it added an interesting element to my education. I learned a lot about myself and it also helped in developing some unique skills – like how to deal with pressure gracefully and collaborate with teammates for a common end.

Along with football, another interesting experience I had at Dayton was participating in a cultural immersion program to Guatemala. During the summer after my junior year, I went down there with a group of 12 other students for about 6 weeks, and we stayed in the second-largest city, called Quetzaltenango. We took one-on-one Spanish lessons for 5 hours a day, and afterwards, we went to our individual volunteering locations. My task involved tutoring English for local children, and although it was challenging, it was a rewarding and eye-opening experience. While we were there, we also had some free time, so many of the group members took salsa lessons in the evenings. It was such an enjoyable activity that many of the group members and I made a hobby of it when we returned to Dayton. Along with the language schooling, tutoring, and dancing, it was enlightening to experience so many cultural differences – such as the food, the landscape, the types of interactions, and so on. In all, I was grateful for the opportunity to go there.

Ultimately, as a Marianist institution, The University of Dayton has a similar aura to St. John’s, especially with the emphasis on service, community, and educating the whole person. In fact, I know my time at St. John’s sparked my interest in attending Dayton to begin with. I am also very appreciative of the time I had at St. John’s, where I formed some great friendships, the teachers were dedicated, and the coaches I had were exceptional. I definitely think the combination of these influences helped form part of who I am and greatly contributed to my athletic and academic success in college. As these influences segued into Dayton, I now feel very prepared for future endeavors, which I plan to consist of more English tutoring/teaching abroad in the next year and higher levels of schooling after that.