The roles that a college student has to fit in this day and age differs greatly from what it would be 20 or 30 years ago. With that said, as a Baruch Scholar there are several roles that I should or at least I feel I should be a part of in Baruch and in the broader community: being a volunteer, being a well-informed citizen that represents Baruch and being a student.
Being a volunteer is probably the most obvious of the three in the context that is most often used here at Baruch. Personally, I feel that it is of the utmost importance that a person realizes that in order for one to succeed in life, it takes a communal effort and a personal effort to get there. While personal effort is a given, communal effort is overlooked; the community is there to provide the resources and opportunities that a person employs to help them be successful. It is only natural that after taking so much, to give back to the community. This is why as a Baruch Scholar, I see an even more dire need to be in the role of a volunteer. The Honors Program has given me so much and such a great opportunity to have a higher education that I am compelled to do as much as I can to give back.
While being a volunteer is something that is fairly intuitive, being a well-informed citizen is probably not the must intuitive concept. However, it is just an important a role as being a volunteer. Being a well informed citizen means several things: 1) to be a person who is capable of independent though and who can effectively communicate those thoughts effectively, 2) to be aware of one’s surroundings and the events that shape the world and 3) to actively participate in the society that we live in. While it is a valuable service to give back to the community, to actually actively participate and shape the community is, in my opinion, even more important. I don’t think it’s hard for a person to spare 10-20 hours a year to volunteer and say that they have done something essential. But to communicate your thoughts to others in your community, to be aware of the things that impact society, and to actively partake in the world to shape it into a better place is a far more critical service than mere volunteerism. The active exchange of ideas and using those ideas to create a better community is a vital concept that the Honors Program can cultivate.
Perhaps the greatest service that anyone can do and is often overlooked is to be a student. There is a sad reality that such a role is often overlooked in favor other roles that a college student can be. Not only do I disagree with this sentiment, but I am opposed to this overemphasis of the need for leadership and and communication skills. The greatest service that a person can give to the world is knowledge. Only with knowledge will humankind be able to move forward in this world. All of this starts with the ability for a person to be a dedicated student. Einstein didn’t shake the world of physics because of mere leadership skills nor did Drucker change the world of management by communicating. Both of them had ideas and knowledge that they wanted to disclose to the world; leadership and communication helped but they certainly aren’t the most important. Though the Honors Program puts implies a need for a student to be a student, they need to make all scholars realize that the greatest service that anyone can do is to discover knowledge and to disclose it.
These are the roles that I see myself fitting in and I hope that over the next 4 years at Baruch College that I can effectively fill in each and everyone of these roles.
