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Shaun Sullivan

Dr. Bailie

English

4/2/19

Cause and Effect Narrative

A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as

basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals. Swales mentions

to use the six defining characteristics of a discourse community. They are, being a community

that has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, a community that has some type of

intercommunication amongst the members, a community that uses its participatory mechanisms

primarily for feedback and information, a community that possess one or more genres in the

communicative furtherance of its aims, a community that has adopted a specific sort of language

or slang, and lastly a community that has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of

relevant content. A discourse community that I am a part of is being an alumni of Elder High

School.

Elder High School is a catholic, all boys high school located on the westside of

Cincinnati. Elder High School was founded by Archbishop William Henry Elder in 1922. To

most people where you graduated high school from is usually not that big of a deal, you graduate

in four years and are gone. However, Elder High School is a lot different from those typical

standards. At Elder, tradition is very important we are taught to build off of what the others have

left behind them. There are many things that make Elder High School so special and a place that

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I will forever be proud of attending. There is something that is truly special about Elder and that

is the brotherhood created during the time you have there.

Joining Elder was a pretty easy decision for me and my parents. Growing up that is all I

ever knew, from watching my older brothers play sports at Elder when I was younger, to seeing

them build a bond with the guys the played with, to realizing how special Elder really was I

knew I wanted to go there. Most of the men in my family went to Elder starting with my

grandpa, all of my uncles went there, my father went there, my two older brothers, and most of

the guy cousins I have. One thing that is very important around Elder is a saying, “Altiora”

which is Latin and means ‘strive for the higher things’. This is important at Elder because we are

taught to always do our best no matter what is going on in life. A way this slogan is represented

throughout Elder is in our basketball gym, before each game we do a prayer and it ends in

“Altiora” and then we touch the Panther head which is our mascot. Another important saying that

is involved with Elder is a saying that is “what I had I gave, what I saved I lost”. This saying is

based on working hard in the classroom and on the court or field. This slogan is portrayed on our

gym wall, it is saying that you don’t have many chances to do these kinds of things, so give it

everything you got while you can. The last artifact that I want to present as a part of Elder is our

alma mater, our school song. We are taught to sing it with our pointer finger high in the air, we

are taught these lyrics at the beginning of freshman year. These lyrics are what the Elder man is

taught to live by.

One thing that is really big throughout Elder High School is the brotherhood and bond

that is created between classmates. This was a big reason I joined the discourse community of

Elder, creating new friends as well as strengthening my friendships that I had already have

created. Throughout the time at Elder you are constantly taught to get involved around school

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through sports, clubs, and other things. Getting involved helps massively when at Elder, it allows

you to create special bonds between teammates, club members, and most importantly coaches

who are also teachers at Elder. Some of my best friends that I have were created through me

playing basketball all four years of high school. I still talk and hang out with most of my

teammates that I had while playing basketball. This is truly something special to me because I

know that I will have a life-long friendship and special bond created with these guys. Another

reason that I am so passionate about being involved with Elder is because of the connections

created and what the name “Elder High School” stands for. It is more than just a normal high

school name, not only on the westside of Cincinnati but throughout America. There has been

many times I have been out of town for something, wearing some sort of Elder clothes and

someone has mentioned to me how they are connected to Elder. The other thing is what Elder

stands for, it is more than just a school. There are so many graduates from Elder that the name

allows you to create connections throughout the United States, an impressive stat that I read on

the schools twitter is that Elder had people tuned in on the radio from 32 different states listening

to a high school football game.

I interviewed my dad and asked him a few questions about Elder, why he is so passionate

about Elder and other things. My dad graduated from Elder in 1982. The first question I asked

him was “Why were you set on having all 3 boys in our family attend Elder?” his responses was

what I expected saying “To be short, there is nothing like Elder High School, I knew it would

open up so much opportunity for my three boys.”. Next, I asked him “are you still close with

some of the classmates you graduated with?” his response was “absolutely, one of my best

friends I grew up with, graduated Elder with, and have been friends ever since.” He also went on

to talk about his other friends from high school and how they get together usually once a month

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for lunch. The next question I asked him was “how tough was it putting three kids through a

fairly expensive catholic high school?” he responded by saying “it was very tough, there were

many arguments with Kelley (my mom), I knew at the end of the day you cannot pass up an

opportunity like this, there was a lot of sacrifice between your mom and I, and I believe you guys

realize what we did.” Which my two older brothers and I realize how much they did, they put in

a lot of extra hours for us. My next question I asked was “how much help did Elder provide

financially?” his response was “oh they were very helpful, alumni are constantly coming back

and donating so that kids can live their dream and attend Elder, when you were a freshman and

Brent (brother) was a senior, we actually only had to pay for one of the two.” The final question I

asked him was “if you could describe it, what does Elder mean to you?”. His response was what

I was expecting, he said “to mean Elder means many things, first it is a second family that you

will always have, you will always have the boys you graduated with in your life. It also means

something special because I know you created many memories that will be some of your favorite

memories in life playing basketball. These are things that are hard to find in other high schools.”

For my next interview I went over my oldest brother Tyler’s house and talked to him

about Elder. Tyler graduated from Elder in 2012. The first question I asked him was “how did

getting involved around Elder impact the time you had there?” he responded by saying “it made

my time there so much better, I created a bond that is unmatchable with some of my teammates

during basketball, also getting involved in student council allowed me to create a relationship

with people I usually don’t talk to much”. The other question I asked him was “what does Elder

mean to you?” his response was similar to my Dad’s. He said “Elder to mean is something

indescribable, honestly you don’t know what it really is about unless you went there, and if you

did go there you know how special of a place it really is”

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The common set of goals that is presented throughout the time I had at Elder was treating

others how you want to be treated, respect everyone, and help everyone out. A big thing at Elder

is community service, we were required to have a certain amount of hours each quarter. Elder

even has a program where they send students out each weekend to clean certain areas of the city

up. One of my favorite things that I did at Elder was cleaning up and helping build new houses in

the Price Hill area where Elder is located. These experiences were really some eye-opening

experiences. It made me realize that the problems I have in my life aren’t anything compared to

some of the people in Price Hill who don’t have a bed to sleep in, or even a house to sleep in. It

really generated a sense of thankfulness for everything that I was provided.

In conclusion, joining the discourse community of Elder High School was an easy choice

for me, my family going there played a huge role in me going there. I also wanted to join

because of the benefits of knowing ill be creating friendships and bonds that will last a life time.

The goals of being an Elder man is simple, always be willing to help others, treat others how you

want to be treated, and always respect everyone. The lessons that are taught at Elder will be

things that get me through life a lot easier. Lastly, the friendships and relationships I have made

with teachers and coaches will always be there. Being able to be a part of the Elder High School

community is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

A paragraph from Elder High School’s website about “Altiora”

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A picture of the saying “what I had I gave, what I saved I lost” presented in Elder’s Wrestling

gym

Elder students singing the “Alma Mater” after an Elder Basketball game