Prior to this school year, junior Yonas Ketsela saw a college education in the same light as many others. To him, it was all about passing exams, quizzes, and classes. There was always a “right” answer in the classroom and it was the students’ job to identify it.

After a semester participating in the Oregon Extension, Ketsela has returned to campus with reinvigorated pursuit of education: one different from that found in many college classrooms. Now, rather than pursue the answer, Ketsela wants to pursue the question. To help others find and share this passion, he is starting the Big Questions group on campus.

“My own theory is that questions are greater than answers,” Ketsela said. On returning to campus, he found himself faced with a learning community obsessed with answers, but not as much the questions.

The Big Questions group is a chance for Ketsela to share his new passion for questions with others. “I am a limited being … When a group of limited beings comes together … you will have a spark.” Ketsela believes in the necessity of community when exploring questions and seeking answers.

Part of the group’s formation comes from Ketsela’s role as a Pastoral Assistant on campus. “This is what Yonas is launching out of his own passion for the integrity of honoring and engaging [students] own learning and searching for meaning with others as companions,” Campus Pastor Brian Burkholder said.

The end goal is not for the group to find answers to the “big questions,” but to find life in the process.

As he explained his vision, Ketsela gestured from one point on a table to another. It is this gestured space between these points, the questioning process, that he hopes to focus on.

The lack of such a community on campus is not out of the lack of fellow philosophers. “We all are philosophers. We all seek knowledge. We all seek wisdom,” Ketsela said.

He wants to help students realize their inner love for wisdom and a passion for a different type of education.

It is not only the process of asking questions, but the pursuit of education. To Ketsela, many students’ education on the campus begins and ends within the walls of the classroom under the direction of the professor. Ketsela sees something bigger.

“In education, we are free. We can think as broadly as we want,” Ketsela said. He envisions a campus that greater engages in the liberal arts education. Students, he hopes, will see the bridges between education and professionalism. They will learn to think on their own, a skill that help with their career and the life outside of it.

Each meeting will follow a general framework. The first 20 minutes will be spent hashing out new ideas that the group brings in.

After that, the group will disperse and take about 20 minutes to think and write on the idea or ideas. Everyone will reconvene for the last 20 minutes to share and engage in socratic questioning.

The tentative meeting time will be on Fridays from 7-8 p.m. All students from any majors are welcome to join, big questions or none.