Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Project, in June 2016 undergraduate student Sarah Jannarone interviewed Maja Žnidaršič, a graduate student at the University of Maribor and a resident of Jesuit College Magis in Maribor, Slovenia. In this interview, Žnidaršič discusses her experience living at Jesuit College Magis, as well as the college’s mission and how this type of institution is new to Slovenia.

Can you tell me a bit about yourself? Such as what you are studying, your year in school, and anything else you want to share?

I’m studying psychology in Maribor. I’m in the last semester of finishing my master’s, and I will take another year to write my thesis. I’m from Cerknica, which is about two hours away from Maribor. I am also doing an internship this year. I was working in a women’s home, but now I go to an organization for the homeless here in Maribor and host workshops for them. We talk about important topics like communication, but sometimes we just play some games. I also worked at a group home for foster kids.

Where did you live before Magis opened?

I lived in a state dorm for five years, except for half a year when I was on exchange.

What is the difference between Magis and the state dorm?

The state dorm is just an apartment where you share a room with someone—usually it’s a double room—and there is no sense of community. It depends on how well you get along with your roommate, but usually there are no activities to connect you with others. You can do whatever you want, but it’s just a place to live, not a community like Magis.

Why didn’t you choose to stay in one of the two other Catholic dorms in Maribor?

There seems to be more of an emphasis on rules than building community, or working on increasing one’s individual responsibilities and building trust. I felt that there might be too much control, which I don’t like because I had lived on my own for five years. I didn’t want a strict system after living alone. I moved to Magis because I wanted to live differently than I had been, with different values, but I wasn’t looking for more restraint.

What different values were you looking for?

Before I didn’t pay attention to values, like the ability to hang out with friends without drinking. I partied a lot, but then I became a member of the Catholic College Chaplaincy Sinaj, and I met people who were a little bit different. They had different values and ideas about how they wanted to live their lives, and I found that I could have deeper conversations with them. I felt good because I could talk to them about different topics, and I knew that they would understand me. The roommates I had in the state dorm were nice, and we are still in contact, but I couldn't share everything with them. At Sinaj I found people with the same values involving life and relationships.

How does Magis foster community?

One important thing is a community built on personal responsibility, and not rules or restrictions. This enables students to build their personalities. There are some institutional values that everyone respects, but many things are up to us. When there is a decision to be made, the rector Father Peter [Rožič] asks us what we think: we are included and involved in the decision-making processes here.

The Mass held every Monday also fosters community, as do other activities such as lectures on how to write a CV or how to start a hostel. These kind of things bring us all together. It’s not possible to have a close relationship with everyone here, but I still think it’s good that we have the opportunity to meet and be together through these group activities. Sometimes we’ll even just plan a day to cook all together. We occasionally go out together; not all of us do, but that is a part of student life.

What is the mission of Magis?

I think it’s to build students into responsible people who have good values and to help them become better people. For me it personally means that I’m growing in my faith, as well as growing personally. I’ve also learned how to live in a community with different people and how to talk with someone who is from a totally different background than I am, so it also enriches me in that way. Additionally, we learn how to solve conflicts when we have them. We also have the opportunity to meet many people from different fields who have shared their knowledge with us by giving lectures, and who we can network with. Living here has introduced me to things that I wouldn’t have thought of before, like how to start a hostel.

How has Magis aided in your personal growth?

My personal growth started when I joined the Sinaj community, but living in Magis has been a continuation of my development, of both my personality and my personal faith. For example, here at Magis when I want to think or pray, I can go to the chapel, and no one will ask me why I would ever want to pray. I feel more comfortable here because I know that everyone shares the same values, and that I’m understood. We also have a Jesuit spiritual leader here, and every Monday we have the chance to meet and talk about life topics. We talk about questions that you usually don’t ask yourself every day, but here, you are given time to think about these things. This is something that I didn’t have the opportunity to do anywhere else. I think it is a step towards personal growth when you get to discuss these things, because many people are accustomed to following the way of a more traditional faith, but here there is the opportunity to grow in personal faith.

How has your involvement with Magis or Sinaj made you more open with your faith?

When I lived in the state dorm, even though my roommate accepted me, I had to explain to the people there why I go to church. It was challenging to me because it’s not so cool to be Catholic in Slovenia right now. I think there is a lot of propaganda in the media about how the Church is bad. At my university I don’t expose myself as Catholic. I think they know that I am, but I don’t talk to my colleagues about my faith. I only talk about this with people that I really know or trust. In the psychology department at my university there have been many times when a professor has talked about how the Church is bad, and that it is too conservative. In class, they have laughed about statements made by the Church. I never respond because they are not open to listening.

How does Slovenia’s communist past affect Catholicism today?

I think that even now after we have moved out of communism, people are still divided between the left and the right in Slovenia. I think that this prevents us from being connected as a community, which hurts us because we are such a small country. These divisions, like that someone was communist and someone else went to church, are still present nowadays. For example, the left now leads the government, and in the media there is talk about how stupid the right is.

In Slovenia, how is a Catholic community important for Catholic university students?

I think Maribor is especially lacking in this area. At the university we can’t even advertise that there are student Masses because any advertisement about it would be considered a religious flyer, which is not allowed. We are quite restricted. We have a Facebook page, but when I was searching for a group where I could talk with students about different things connected to faith, I couldn’t find anything. Eventually I found out about Sinaj through a student chaplain in Maribor. I think there are some students who go to Mass in their hometowns but aren’t active at Sinaj, because Sinaj is still a small community, even though Maribor has many university students. We have to figure out how to tell students that we are here.

How do you think community and education relate?

We are still developing what our colloquium will look like, but the point of it is that students gain knowledge outside of their field of study. Since we just started Magis in October we need to figure out exactly what to offer students, and how to get students to understand the concept of a colloquium. We started from nothing, so I think in the future there will be more things to offer from various academic fields. The tutor system is also developing--in the beginning tutors didn’t know exactly what it meant to be a tutor. In the future students will know what to expect from Magis; we hope to have more modules, like, say, about philosophy, on offer from which the students can choose at the beginning of the year.

Is a colloquium a new concept?

Yes. In Slovenia we don’t have this concept. That’s why Father Peter sent students to Budapest to see how it works. Once I went there I understood what it was about. Students here think it is just a student dorm or a place to live, but it isn’t just that. We offer courses in different topics, community and international exchanges.

If you could change one thing about Magis, what would you like to see changed?

I would like that we would have more defined who is the person who is ready to live in Magis, so that we check in the beginning if they are ready to do things and be active, and that they really understand what it means to be in a colloquium. We have to make sure that they know that this isn’t just a place to sleep and eat, but that we expect everyone to be a part of the community. Some of the people here now don't accept that in a colloquium that you have to give something to the community, like time and participation. Participation isn’t obligatory because we try to build personal responsibility, but when people don’t participate a lot they are not contributing to the community. So this is something that I would change a little bit—that from the beginning of the application process we know what type of student we want to accept, and they know what we are.

What is the application process?

Applicants must submit a CV and a personal statement. They also have to have a Skype interview with Father Peter, the rector. In Budapest they have at least three interviews, they have to write an essay, and they have a weekend that they spend together before they are picked--this way they get really motivated people. It’s hard to tell what someone will be like after one interview.

How are applicants selected?

Some I just asked to join, like people that I knew from Sinaj. But this was our first year so we didn’t have a lot of applications. We were also quite late on advertising, so people who were too late to sign up for student dorms found applied to live here.

In general, what attracts students to Magis?

For women, the community or sense of belonging and personal growth. We are still trying to figure out what attracts guys because now we have received more applications for girls than for guys for next year. For guys it seems that what’s more important is the education Magis offers like modules on science, or the fact that you will be more educated from your time at Magis.

Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

I’m happy that I was a part of starting Magis because for me it’s been a very rich experience. I’m also grateful that this is one of the first student dorms that accepts women and men, which is a more natural situation to live in. And I think it’s good when you are a student to learn to take care of your own responsibilities. I am also happy that we can have a garden behind the house. This is one example that shows how open the Jesuits are to cooperate with students to give us a chance to have a role in decision-making. I think that is all.