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‘The face of God is in everyone’
Larry Friesen reflects on nearly 30 years teaching social work students at Bethel.
by Katy June-Friesen ’02
Larry Friesen ’67, professor of social work, will retire in 2011 after more than 28 years at Bethel. He talked with his daughter, Katy June-Friesen ’02, about his time at Bethel, how the college has changed, the values he’s tried to pass on to his students and his plans for life after Bethel.
Katy is a writer and editor in Washington, D.C. Her website is www.katyjunefriesen.com.
KJ-F: Why did you decide to come teach at Bethel in 1983 after working in mental health for about 13 years?
LF: I had wanted a change, and I’d taken a leave from Prairie View [mental health center] in 1981 to go to Columbia University to work on a doctorate. While I was there, Bethel called and wanted to talk to me about an opening they had. I hadn’t really thought about teaching, but I was ready for a change.
KJ-F: It was your first time teaching. Do you remember your early days on the job?
LF: I remember it well. I arrived two or three weeks after spring semester had started in 1983, because I had to stay in New York to finish my comprehensive exams. I remember students had read material for one of my courses, but they’d never met me and I’d never met them. I remember faculty being very generous and welcoming and supportive – it was a bit of a scary time.
KJ-F: When you were a student at Bethel in the mid-1960s, did you ever think you would be a professor here?
LF: Never. I was an English major, because I really liked English literature, and I was planning to do some sort of service work. I admired my professors so much, I didn’t think I could ever qualify.
KJ-F: Why has Bethel been so important to our family?
LF: My dad [Waldo Friesen ’34] attended Bethel, and it was a tradition in the Friesen family to travel from Idaho to Bethel. Duane ’62, my brother, had gone to Bethel. I really never thought of going anywhere else. I arrived at Bethel [in 1963] on the train with a trunk, and that was all.
KJ-F: As a kid, I sometimes hung out on campus. I have one memory – probably from around age 4 – of eating red Jell-O in the cafeteria while sitting with you and other faculty. What do you remember?
LF: I remember that you and your friend explored about every nook and cranny of every building. I think you knew more about the secrets of Bethel buildings than I did. I could always be comfortable knowing you had plenty to do when you were on campus. The only concern I had was that you might get into some trouble. You’d stop by once in awhile wanting money to put in a pop machine.
KJ-F: Growing up, I had a window into what it was like to be a professor – for example, Sunday evenings are for grading and class prep and students calling you about the assignment. When I became a student at Bethel in 1998, did it give you a window into what it was like to be a student?
LF: I got a clear sense of how important the campus community was to you and realized the value of a residential campus. You were not the first person to leave campus when there was a break – probably one of the last to leave and the first to go back. I enjoyed your occasional visits to my office. Since I’d been an English major, I remember some brief discussions about what you were working on. I found the English program had changed so much since I was there. I didn’t know what “critical theory” was.
KJ-F: As a social work professor, what are some of the values you’ve tried to instill in your students?
LF: First, be humble and aware of how privileged you are. Social workers do a lot of their job by listening to people tell their stories – it’s important to understand that people take a lot of risks in sharing their life story or their problems. Second, the face of God is in everyone. Everyone has worth, so we need to look for strengths in people and respect them regardless of what their behavior has been. Also, I want social work students to pay attention especially to people and groups that are marginalized. A lot of the time personal problems are related to public policy issues. More and more I’ve thought about how it’s important to be aware of social justice issues for people who are marginalized. I think that’s characteristic of Bethel as a whole but Bethel’s social work program in particular.
KJ-F: Why did you decide to start a Mexico program [in 2004] and take a group of students south of the border during interterm to study poverty?
LF: I saw a unique opportunity to gain a better understanding of the U.S.-Mexico relationship. U.S. policies have such a dramatic effect on the quality of life of Mexican and Central American citizens. I always felt like Bethel was missing a tremendous opportunity by not having more of a Latin American program, so I did what I could to work out a way to get students down to Mexico. I thought there was the potential for a cross-cultural experience that would be life-changing.
KJ-F: What else are you proud of about your work at Bethel? Overcome your humbleness for a minute.
LF: I see the community as a laboratory, and I’ve tried to model social work by engaging students in some kind of collaborative project out in the community – for example, a research project that analyzed the drug and alcohol issues in the Renwick school district. The highlight of my job is relationships with students, and I try to model the values of social work and help them develop professional behaviors and ethical practices.
KJ-F: In your 28 years at Bethel, what are some of the changes you’ve observed at the college?
LF: Students are more visual learners, depend more on technology and aren’t as used to reading. It seems like it’s a more diverse group – about 40 percent of the students are Mennonite, and I think when I started teaching it would have been more like 60 percent. More diversity is good. And I don’t think there’s quite the split between athletes and non-athletes that there used to be. But I would say the biggest change or shift is that faculty are busier. I can’t imagine working with a better group of faculty, even though we had disagreements at times. Also, I’ve had a wonderful department colleague for most of my 28 years here, Ada Schmidt-Tieszen ’74.
KJ-F: And finally, Dad: Any plans for life after Bethel?
LF: I want to continue to be active in human service on a voluntary basis, probably do some voluntary service with Donna or friends. I’m a volunteer crisis mental health worker for Red Cross and I will be more able to respond now when they have a need. I have a large pile of books that I want to read. I want to work in my woodshop on my lathe. And I look forward to sipping a cup of coffee and reading the paper until 10 or 11 o’clock in the morning.