Walking across the so called “stage” on graduation day, which just happened to be the same day we were all supposed to be worshiping our mothers, one might expect to be beaming with pride and a sense of accomplishment. It may have been that I hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before or maybe the celebratory glass of champagne I had downed at 8 O’clock that morning but I didn’t have that feeling of success. Waiting in the large line behind thousands of people waiting patiently to get my diploma, many images and memories of my four years as a Husky flew through my head. In these past four years I thought, I have learned more about myself than the molecular composition of proteins or alpha-beta transmitters. I had a desire to be more spontaneous and less rigid and to be more individualistic rather than relying on others to control my every move.
When it was finally my turn to receive the destined document of academia some stranger handed me a certificate that said “Attended Commencement”. This did not help my feeling of great accomplishment in the slightest. As I was herded towards even more people I didn’t know to take pictures, I decided to jump out of line. I had spotted my academic advisor sitting in the center of the giant basketball stadium and bee-lined it for him. In front of thousands of people he jumped up, we shook hands, and both of us turned and waved ridiculously at my parents making enough of a scene that our faces became plastered on the JumboTron for all to see. I made my way back to my seat, leaned back with my legs reclined on the chair ahead of me, and thought, just another day come and gone.
Ever since high school I have felt restricted by my academics. It was as if I was just another product from the factory of pubescence placed in a giant recycled cardboard box and shipped off to continue to be shaped and molded by higher education. I needed to be out in the world exploring and applying what I was learning rather than basing my intelligence off the 25% chance I answered the multiple choice question correctly on my last science exam. Prepared with the ambition to study my ass off and play later, I entered college as the normal confused yet confident freshman that thought I had my life planned out for the next 12 years. Slowly I began to realize that it was the out-of classroom experiences I was having that truly allowed me to take full advantage of my college education.
After my first two years I had learned that rather than stressing about every exam and slaving away in the library until the wee hours of the morning I learned to get out and educate myself through experience. Now I’m not advocating a textbook burning, or skipping out on classes; far from it! What I am advocating for is experiential learning in the classroom to enhance student’s academic understanding and application. The feeling of applying what you have learned in every day life situations is as invigorating as putting 20 fireballs in your mouth at once. It electrifies every sense in your body that you start to sweat out passion.
In the next 30 days I will be documenting my own educational, travel-based adventure!
The Mission: To discover the root causes of urban poverty in the United States through service-learning experiences across the US.
The Method: Completing service projects in 11 cities of the US that each explores one of the root causes of urban poverty in America.
The Outcome: To create an educational dialogue that provides citizens across the US with the tools on how they can contribute the little time they have to helping their own communities come together and problem solve for a better tomorrow.
I will demonstrate that impulse is the precursor to curiosity. Impress upon you that the five senses can teach you much more than a top university professor. To confirm that the true tests of life come from getting your hands dirty and the answers come from the constant interaction with people that may put us so far outside our comfort zone that our palms start to sweat. I hope to discover the spice of life, to find purpose and perspective, a career path that suits me, and a passion that is so unmistakable that I don’t just feel it, I act on it.
I invite you to open your mind and join me on my journey! I request a simple $5 donation for my travels to help offset food and transportation costs and at the end I will donate half of what is raised to a charity! So please support the cause and my travels and get ready to explore with me.
And remember, those that let their minds soar, fly JetBlue!
When it was finally my turn to receive the destined document of academia some stranger handed me a certificate that said “Attended Commencement”. This did not help my feeling of great accomplishment in the slightest. As I was herded towards even more people I didn’t know to take pictures, I decided to jump out of line. I had spotted my academic advisor sitting in the center of the giant basketball stadium and bee-lined it for him. In front of thousands of people he jumped up, we shook hands, and both of us turned and waved ridiculously at my parents making enough of a scene that our faces became plastered on the JumboTron for all to see. I made my way back to my seat, leaned back with my legs reclined on the chair ahead of me, and thought, just another day come and gone.
Ever since high school I have felt restricted by my academics. It was as if I was just another product from the factory of pubescence placed in a giant recycled cardboard box and shipped off to continue to be shaped and molded by higher education. I needed to be out in the world exploring and applying what I was learning rather than basing my intelligence off the 25% chance I answered the multiple choice question correctly on my last science exam. Prepared with the ambition to study my ass off and play later, I entered college as the normal confused yet confident freshman that thought I had my life planned out for the next 12 years. Slowly I began to realize that it was the out-of classroom experiences I was having that truly allowed me to take full advantage of my college education.
After my first two years I had learned that rather than stressing about every exam and slaving away in the library until the wee hours of the morning I learned to get out and educate myself through experience. Now I’m not advocating a textbook burning, or skipping out on classes; far from it! What I am advocating for is experiential learning in the classroom to enhance student’s academic understanding and application. The feeling of applying what you have learned in every day life situations is as invigorating as putting 20 fireballs in your mouth at once. It electrifies every sense in your body that you start to sweat out passion.
In the next 30 days I will be documenting my own educational, travel-based adventure!
The Mission: To discover the root causes of urban poverty in the United States through service-learning experiences across the US.
The Method: Completing service projects in 11 cities of the US that each explores one of the root causes of urban poverty in America.
The Outcome: To create an educational dialogue that provides citizens across the US with the tools on how they can contribute the little time they have to helping their own communities come together and problem solve for a better tomorrow.
I will demonstrate that impulse is the precursor to curiosity. Impress upon you that the five senses can teach you much more than a top university professor. To confirm that the true tests of life come from getting your hands dirty and the answers come from the constant interaction with people that may put us so far outside our comfort zone that our palms start to sweat. I hope to discover the spice of life, to find purpose and perspective, a career path that suits me, and a passion that is so unmistakable that I don’t just feel it, I act on it.
I invite you to open your mind and join me on my journey! I request a simple $5 donation for my travels to help offset food and transportation costs and at the end I will donate half of what is raised to a charity! So please support the cause and my travels and get ready to explore with me.
And remember, those that let their minds soar, fly JetBlue!
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing project you are taking on. It takes a lot of guts to break out of the mold and take a risk at doing something that actually inspires you. I had very similar feelings on graduation day...During my last months of college I too became rather disillusioned with the way that we've been educated and "prepared" for life, realizing that despite a high GPA and "impressive credentials" I really hadn't gained anything of much value from my college classes. I ended up declining a "highly attractive offer" from a "prestigious" company, and instead opted to slow things down and take my time to really figure out what I want in life.
I completely agree that there is a terrible lack of real-life connection in most of college education, and I think this project of yours is a perfect response to your realization of how inadequate/unfulfilling traditional education is. I'm sure you will find it to be much more rewarding than most of your classroom learning.
Best of luck,
-Sean
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PS - If you're not already familiar with it, Thoreau expresses these ideas really well in ch.1 of Walden:
"[Students] should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end. How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living? Methinks this would exercise their minds as much as mathematics.
If I wished a boy to know something about the arts and sciences, for instance, I would not pursue the common course, which is merely to send him into the neighborhood of some professor, where anything is professed and practised but the art of life; — to survey the world through a telescope or a microscope, and never with his natural eye; to study chemistry, and not learn how his bread is made, or mechanics, and not learn how it is earned; to discover new satellites to Neptune, and not detect the motes in his eyes, or to what vagabond he is a satellite himself; or to be devoured by the monsters that swarm all around him, while contemplating the monsters in a drop of vinegar.
Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month — the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this — or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy at the Institute in the meanwhile, and had received a Rodgers' penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his fingers?... To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I had studied navigation! — why, if I had taken one turn down the harbor I should have known more about it."
Great project Brian, you must have invested lots of time coming up with this, i know for sure is going to be tasking and revealing, but it will sure add to you becoming an answer to some questions as affect our world.can't to see the outcome...DABS
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