College Knowledge for the Community College Student

Chapter 6. Expand Your Social Boundaries and Make a Difference in the World

1. Be Both a Thinker and an Activist: Take Responsibility for the World around You Have you ever thought about what you would do if you had the power to make the world a better place? Whatever your age and background, community college is a time not just to think a lot about yourself—your professional and personal development, relationships , and academic success—but about how you can make a significant impact on the world around you. Just as there is a value in looking after our own well-being, we also need to look after the well-being of those around us. 119 6 CHAPT ER College Knowledge/Community College Student 120 Your attendance at community college places you among an elite group in the world. This is a privilege and opportunity you should not take lightly. It gives you rights and responsibilities that comparatively few people worldwide possess. Make a commitment to yourself to be a thinking person who will make a difference in the world. Be a thoughtful agent for social change and social justice, regardless of your political perspective. Develop a passion for involvement and participation that is based on the analytical tools, complex thinking skills, and knowledge learned in your classes. It’s not enough to be just a good thinker or just an activist. You need to be both. You need to learn to apply your thoughtfulness into good practice. Think for yourself. Listen to others’ points of views, attend lectures, conferences, and information sessions, and read voraciously , but don’t become just another ideologue. Your ability to think independently and to bring nuanced, critical reasoning to enormously complex problems is precisely what the world needs you to do with your college education. Don’t go the simplistic, sound-bite, PR-managed route. Don’t assume there is only one right position or room for a debate between just two parties. There may be multiple truths to consider and multiple voices that need to be heard. Where it appears that no solution is to be found or that no one is standing up for what you believe, then take responsibility for finding that solution and standing up for yourself. 6: Expand Social Boundaries/Make a Difference 121 In college, you have an opportunity to investigate and better understand the historic and structural conditions that maintain inequalities and injustices within societies or across national borders . It may be frustrating, to some extent, to learn how difficult it is to find comprehensive solutions. However, your new knowledge and insights may empower you to take action to work for the changes necessary to bring about a more just society. How do we take responsibility for the world around us? There’s a whole range of approaches, and we all have to find the ways that best fit our personalities. One way to do this is through personal relationships: how you relate to acquaintances, friends, even strangers . Do you interrupt racist or homophobic jokes? Do you behave respectfully toward the person with whom you develop a romantic relationship? Do you speak openly and honestly about friends and family whether or not they are present? If you are not already actively engaged in giving back to society, you might start now, by tutoring in a school, by volunteering in a hospital, or by serving in an organization and on its committees. Some take responsibility by running for political office, voting in elections, writing letters to the editor, or contesting the decisions of college administrators or political leaders. Think about what good you want to do with your education. What can you do to make a change in the world, whether it be among your friends and family, in your community, your city, your state, or your nation or across national borders? Decide what approach best fits who you are. This process may take some College Knowledge/Community College Student 122 time, but look at the world around you and decide how you can take advantage of the power and privilege that your community college education confers to make the world a more just place for everyone. 2. Do Community Service Participating in a community service project is another way to expand your boundaries while you are in college. Some colleges offer formal community service projects for college credit; a few colleges even require them. At other colleges, instructors sometimes include community service projects as required or...