(Bruna Afonso) I'm Bruna Afonso, I'm a political science and history double major and I'm a senior.
(Andrew Bell) My name's Andrew Bell, I'm a senior studying
economics and political science.
Andrew and I met fall quarter of freshmen year in our first political science class,
Intro to Politics. I remember us discussing
and I would think in my head like, how does this guy think these things? And it was
just really interesting to think back then were so
polar opposites but now the fact that we
were such for offices make our
friendships so unique and so special.
(Bradley Murg) I often times start my classes, especially ones in political science, with the statement,
"If at the end of this class you
know what I actually think about this
topic, or you know my views, that I will
have failed." My job is not to tell you
which theory to think is correct, my job is to
present to you: here's the complete set of
theories that we have, here's how we're
understanding this topic and here's the
evidence for each.
(Bruna Afonso) Our generation can be so revolutionary. Things that are a lot more slow changing, now happen like this [snaps]
and it's due to people who are getting
upset or being passionate about an issue and fighting
for it!
(Andrew Bell) When were offended by one another, we go to one another, not just us specifically, but
like people in general, there's a
priority placed on reconciliation and the
restoration of that relationship, rather
than just going off and nursing your
wounds and that's not unique to
Christianity by any means, but it is
something that I think the Christian
community here promotes and nurtures.
(Bradley Murg) Bruna and Andrew, they're basically the co-leaders of the
Pacific University Political Union. This is a
dialogue among different students from
across the political spectrum and Bruna
and Andrew are really able to basically
help to facilitate a much, much deeper
discussion and move away from the idea
of being sort of siloed with your own group
and just hearing perspectives that
you already agree with and just the preaching to the
choir stuff.
(Bruna Afonso) He has not only been my
favorite professor, but definitely
professor that the most impact on me.
He'll sometimes lecture and lecture but it's not boring, it's never boring.
(Andrew Bell) He's very genuinely interested and invested ,both in his students and in his field.
(Bradley Murg) Something that's not black and white isn't problematic; it's not something to be fearful of.
A lot of the world is grey. There's a lot of ambiguity in the world and our
job is to try to understand it and to reduce that ambiguity, but we
shouldn't be afraid of it and I don't think
our students are afraid of it. I think that they're much more able to
I think that they're much more able to confront these issues.
(Bruna Afonso) We get into arguments all the time. He'll say something and I'm like, "Well, no..."
and then we'll have really great discussions, but it's
been deeply rooted in our friendship.
(Andrew Bell) It's essential for everybody to have an idea about what they think that the issues and to
arrive at that by educating themselves
and researching and learning and a big
part of that is talking with people who
don't agree with and learning from them
and maybe even changing your own viewpoint.
(Bradley Murg) All it takes is compromise and viewing each other
with respect as fellow Christians simply
makes that so much simpler.
