A Discussion with Mirjam Jelnikar, Student, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
With: Mirjam Jelnikar Berkley Center Profile
June 12, 2016
Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Project, in June 2016 undergraduate student Sarah Jannarone interviewed Mirjam Jelnikar, a graduate student at the University of Maribor in Maribor, Slovenia. In this interview, she discusses living in and being involved in a Catholic student community.
Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
I’m Mirjam Jelnikar. I come from a small village near Ljubljana. I study music pedagogy in Maribor. I’ve just come here to do my master’s this past year. For the last five years I studied musicology in Ljubljana. That was the more theoretical part of my music degree, and this is the practical part in terms learning how to teach.
Why did you choose to live with the Ursiline sisters and not in another Catholic dorm?
I’m staying here in the Ursuline student dorm because I knew one of the students who lives here and she told me about it, so I never really searched for a place to live. I wanted to live in a Catholic student community since I never had before—in Ljubljana I lived at home and in an apartment for half a year.
The only other option for me would have been Magis, which I think I would have been interested in. When I compare Magis to the dorm I’m living in, it’s very different. I like my dorm with just girls, but when you have boys it can be more relaxed, and I think it shows you that you can live with the other gender. I’m not quite sure why I feel this way, but Magis also seems like a more open place. Here we have two leaders of the dorm, and we just follow them. At Magis it seems like you can live on your own with your own thinking and values.
Can you tell me about your involvement with the Catholic student group Sinaj?
My first contact was with the choir because my friend told me about it. I was never involved in a group like this before. In my church community in my village I sing in the choir, but I think it’s different because we are not students; we are just townspeople, so we aren’t the same age. For me being with people my own age was a really nice experience. I don’t really have a lot of friends who are Catholic and are my age, so it was really nice to be able to talk about everything with them and to see that mostly all of us have the same problems. When you don’t have these friends you never get the chance to speak about certain things, because others don’t have the same way of living, or the same issues.
Did you have any opportunities to be a part of a Catholic community in your hometown?
In my village the only opportunity for involvement was in the choir. We don’t have any Catholic orders, just one priest. The priest had to focus on all the parish activities, and so there wasn’t a designated person to work with youth. The Jesuits and other Catholic orders are really into working with the youth.
However, when I was in high school in Ljubljana I had the opportunity to attend a student group on Saturdays, but at that time I thought I was a rebel, and I didn’t really want to have a connection with the Church.
I’m Mirjam Jelnikar. I come from a small village near Ljubljana. I study music pedagogy in Maribor. I’ve just come here to do my master’s this past year. For the last five years I studied musicology in Ljubljana. That was the more theoretical part of my music degree, and this is the practical part in terms learning how to teach.
Why did you choose to live with the Ursiline sisters and not in another Catholic dorm?
I’m staying here in the Ursuline student dorm because I knew one of the students who lives here and she told me about it, so I never really searched for a place to live. I wanted to live in a Catholic student community since I never had before—in Ljubljana I lived at home and in an apartment for half a year.
The only other option for me would have been Magis, which I think I would have been interested in. When I compare Magis to the dorm I’m living in, it’s very different. I like my dorm with just girls, but when you have boys it can be more relaxed, and I think it shows you that you can live with the other gender. I’m not quite sure why I feel this way, but Magis also seems like a more open place. Here we have two leaders of the dorm, and we just follow them. At Magis it seems like you can live on your own with your own thinking and values.
Can you tell me about your involvement with the Catholic student group Sinaj?
My first contact was with the choir because my friend told me about it. I was never involved in a group like this before. In my church community in my village I sing in the choir, but I think it’s different because we are not students; we are just townspeople, so we aren’t the same age. For me being with people my own age was a really nice experience. I don’t really have a lot of friends who are Catholic and are my age, so it was really nice to be able to talk about everything with them and to see that mostly all of us have the same problems. When you don’t have these friends you never get the chance to speak about certain things, because others don’t have the same way of living, or the same issues.
Did you have any opportunities to be a part of a Catholic community in your hometown?
In my village the only opportunity for involvement was in the choir. We don’t have any Catholic orders, just one priest. The priest had to focus on all the parish activities, and so there wasn’t a designated person to work with youth. The Jesuits and other Catholic orders are really into working with the youth.
However, when I was in high school in Ljubljana I had the opportunity to attend a student group on Saturdays, but at that time I thought I was a rebel, and I didn’t really want to have a connection with the Church.
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