The Gift That Keeps on Giving by Sofie Ramirez

   

I understand what students go through with the four issues of the university industry: admissions, cost, career training, and community. I can see how all four can have the capacity to beat us all down. However, I have a unique experience that I would like to celebrate, something that puts me in a position in which these issues are something I have not had to worry about. Rather than worry, I have something to uplift others up and demonstrate that our situations never have the power to defeat us unless we give it to them. If Pablo Picasso had it right when he said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away” (Picasso, par. 1), then my gift is the diverse background I was raised in and the woman I was raised by. Everything my mother taught me shaped the way I view the world and the part I can play to conquer its problems, rather than letting the problems conquer me. She showed me that there is so much more knowledge to be gained than what can be taught in a classroom. I learned that people must aim to strengthen their understanding of the many diverse backgrounds that make up the world and be willing to learn from each one of them. Through doing this bonding we find what makes us different and how these differences can come together in order to achieve a shared goal. We discover the unique piece of the puzzle that in turn makes the picture whole. Knowledge, experience, and empathy are the gifts that my mother gave me, and she is the gift that keeps on giving.

I believe that people have the potential to be more than the situations they are given; a poor daughter of uneducated immigrants living in the ghetto can become a first-generation college student, senior vice president of a bank, and a mother in the suburbs; a boy growing up in an abusive household may take an oath to protect and serve as an officer; someone growing up in an atmosphere of uniformity and discrimination may remain utterly fascinated with people’s differences rather than conforming to their similarities. If we are open to an empathetic and cooperative learning environment in which “... no one teaches another, nor is anyone self-taught. People teach each other, mediated by the world…” (Freire 1), as opposed to a banking concept of education, we may rise above all of the obstacles in our path. The real issue lies not in the university but the education system as a whole. We are taught that success is only real if it is for our own personal gain. However, we cannot get admitted if we are too self-involved to branch out and become well-rounded; we cannot pay for school if academic achievements alone are not enough to guarantee a scholarship; we cannot succeed in a career if not taught to work well with others and we may not enter our communities as active citizens if the only person we wish to help is ourselves. 

How then do we succeed? How do we not let ourselves get lost in the cracks, swallowed by the beast that is the university industry? If I can learn respect from Rodney and in turn he experiences kindness; if I can learn courage from Sarah and in turn show her understanding; if I, a bisexual Puerto Rican Jewish woman, am open to learning the experiences of a straight white agnostic man, have I not grown in my understanding? Have I not put my ideas under a microscope only to discover they were not so different from the beliefs of the person next to me? As Kelsey Picciano wrote in her blog post, “The reality I now knew was an expanded and fuller understanding of how I, as a single individual, fit into this whole big world” (Picciano, par. 1). If we open our hearts and our minds to the wisdom of others, we become a force so strong that nothing can tear us apart or knock us down. In Ria Shah’s blog post she wrote:

Walking the streets of Mumbai, tightly gripping my mom’s hand, a boy my age with a grin on his face, grateful for the two coins in his palm, looked me in the eye. Instead of seeing him as separate from me, I felt as if I were staring into my own reflection…. Distorted in many ways yet perfectly positioned, he was artistically flawless in delivering a unifying message. I saw myself inside his begging body. I realized at this moment that we human beings are fundamentally forbidden to shield ourselves from events outside our comfort zones. This unknown, unnamed boy, born into the lowest caste and purposefully made to warrant sympathy, rests inside all of us—it’s the voice telling us that we are all one in this meshed-out game, so struggle to be your best and I’ll struggle to be mine (Shah, par. 13).

This experience of oneness is what opened twelve-year-old Ria up to the connectivity of the world. As an adult, she sees that differences are superficial and understanding is universal. Is this not success? If all people on Earth learn that through cooperation things can improve, have we not defeated the divisive education system that aims to put us at constant odds with each other? Success is more than getting good grades; it is more than money, more than a job or a nice house surrounded by a white picket fence. Success transcends the tangible and is, in fact, achieving a reality in which human beings can work together towards the betterment of the world.

Ria’s powerful experience of Advaita (unity) reminded me of a lesson I learned at Temple Emanuel: a Jewish philosophy called תיקון עולם or Tikkun Olam. It roughly translates to “to heal the tear in the world” (Barnahum). It is the idea that our success solely depends on the ability of all people from all belief systems, races, ethnicities, political parties and walks of life to work together until the world is repaired. The reason I have not felt defeated or beaten down by the university industry is because I never came here with the idea that the classes at Hofstra University would make me whole. I came here with the idea that the people I meet, the relationships I form and the knowledge I gain outside of the classroom will lead to “the tools to live a principled, significant and meaningful life and thereby to ultimately and collectively improve society” (Gordon, par. 1). The university-industry may not defeat me if I do not give it the power to be fully in charge of all of my education. Through working together we may become individuals with a more diverse understanding in an environment in which we lift each other up rather than tear each other down:

I am a citizen of the universe. For why do you say that you are an Athenian, instead of merely a native of the little spot on which your bit of body was cast forth at birth? … When a man therefore has learnt to understand the government of the universe and has realized that there is nothing so great or sovereign or all-inclusive as this frame of things… why should he not call himself a citizen of the universe… (Epictetus 1).

 

If my mother is able to learn from her environment and if I am able to learn from my mother and if we are all able to learn from each other, then we have put ourselves in a position where we cannot possibly fail. If we get over the problems plaguing our generation---the tendency to be self-involved, distance ourselves from others and be in constant competition---we may learn from each other and achieve our success together. We are citizens of the world first, new members of our communities next, students at Hofstra and then our own people. This is not to say that we give up on who we are; on the contrary, it is that we use our unique identities to create a bigger picture.

What I am asking for is a revolution, not in the university but in our own thinking. What I am asking is that we keep our minds open to the experiences of others and use their wisdom to gain our own. We teach our communities the value of understanding, love, acceptance and תיקון עולם so that the university cannot defeat us because we have gone beyond it. One can still see the value in their degree, in their specialized education, in their own individual goals; so long as we are aware that as citizens of the universe it is our duty to use them to better society and not just ourselves. “Knowledge comes mostly from experience and from learning about the people in your world rather than learning about the world apart from them” (Parker, par 4). The university industry may seem like a tough one to beat if one thinks they are on their own. Fighting against “the system” may seem appealing until we realize that through joining it and changing it from the inside we succeed. The gift of unity is one the never ends: the gift of love and of learning. These gifts are how we succeed, these gifts are the knowledge we impart, they are the gifts that keep on giving.

Works Cited

Barnahum, Daniel, Rabbi of Temple Emanuel of East Meadow. May 2015. 

Epictetus. “The Discourses and Manual, Together With Fragments of His Writings.”

Freire, Paulo. “Banking Concept of Education”

Gordon, Paul Kirpal. “Essay 3 Prompt”. 

Parker, Morgan. “Gettin’ Queer for Dope: Learning How to Learn About LGBT Identity”. 04 February 2016. https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2016/02/gettin-queer-for-dope-learning-how-to.html

Picasso, Pablo. Personal Quote “Essay 3 Prompt” 

Picciano, Kelsey. “Forging a Whitmanic, Post-Traditional, Bisexual Identity” 28 January 2016.

            https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2016/01/forging-whitmanic-post-traditional.html

Shah, Ria. “Has The University Stolen the Fire in our Bellies?”. 27 October 2015.

            https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2015/10/has-university-stolen-fire-in-our.html

A Barbie to a Ken: My Look at WALKABOUT by Betty Araya

I remember the day the switch went off in my young, naive mind. I began questioning what I now know to be true: I was merely a product of my socialization. My opinions were those of my parents, the same as the ones I secretly heard them argue during dinner parties. My style was that of the photoshopped model, whose insincere smile plastered on the cover of the catalogue fooled me into claiming as my own. The person I chose to show the world was no different than my classmates, who I constantly looked to for approval.

One day, at the ripe age of fifteen, I went to school where I mindlessly copied down the words of my instructors, trusting that I was learning. I sat at lunch with my peers, believing my conversations were substantial. I returned home, sat at my desk, and regurgitated the information my teacher shoved down my throat. I began choking on all the mendacity our capitalized, righteous, bureaucratic society was forcing on me to keep me in line. Like The Girl in Walkabout, I was destined for the fate planned for me before I was born. I was and would be someone's daughter, someone's sister, some man's wife. And like The Girl, I chose the familiar radio instead of the larger world.

Walkabout is a cautionary tale about what happens to most women in Western civilization. We are submerged in a system that religiously uses the banking concept of education, the modern pedagogical approach which is stumping our intellectual growth and identity formation (Freire, par. 2). We are forced to conform to a society that will shame anyone who dares to question their way of life. We alienate anyone who deviates from our cultural and behavioral norms. Director Nicholas Roeg uses minimal characters that symbolize the various corruptions of the first world mentality. The story line is centered around The Girl’s journey through the Australian desert while she searches for the way back to her world. Faced with various obstacles that challenge her to question what she believes—rather than what she is told to believe—she dares to follow her heart, rather than the pop-sugar quiz she took online, during the most crucial part of her life.

This cinematic revolution reminded me I am going to have to keep an open mind regarding all that I do not understand. I realized I am The Girl, and the desert is the world I live in. Roeg uses symbols to shed light on the various obstacles that women have to go through to have an identity different than the ones we are force-fed. The movie begins by depicting the earliest stages of socialization in a family, ending with the inevitable outcome most women are cursed to embrace: becoming a Mrs. to a Mr. For me, the tragedy in conforming to mainstream society is that, three generations from now, my family will no longer be immigrant Ethiopians living in America, but Americans who, caused by the fear to accept who we are, cautiously assert that our lineage began in Africa.

The three main characters that hold the most significance to The Girl’s walkabout is the father, the brother, and the native. The father represents the earliest forms of socialization we are exposed to as well as the detrimental effects of living an entire lifetime striving to please conventional society and the western mindset that is furthering racial hierarchies. Socialization first begins with family. The father tells his daughter to arrange the picnic, while the son plays with his action figures, which represents the gender roles that our families unknowingly impose on us early on in our lives. He also tells The Girl to look after her brother, planting in her mind she has a role of a mother simply for being female as the boy is not her son. This notion that she is a caretaker sticks with her throughout the entire film. In addition, the father is every teenager’s worst nightmare. His dehydrated skin, bloated belly, and bulbous nose hint towards his inevitable alcoholism. He has invested more energy in chasing money then experiencing life; all he has is his bank statement to comfort him at night after spending the day at his mind-numbing, boring job. He is a sorry excuse of a father, who has spent his entire life sexualizing women and cannot seem to draw the line with his daughter. He also represents the flaw in Western civilization as a whole—we would rather burn and die then entertain the idea of living life differently than we are used to. That is why I believe Roeg had the father blow himself up so early on, causing the children to flee. The Girl needed to realize the fate she was destined for if she continued to be guided by social structures to tell her how to think.

The Boy in the film represents the same mindset that The Girl is taught. He is still pure, like most young kids in our society who see a smile, where most others see a skin color. They see a heart, where most see a hair texture. The Boy has not yet suffered through thirteen years of brainwashing, also known as the K-12 program. He asks for a name, where most adults give a label. The Boy does not automatically assume everyone is like him: white. For example, in the scene with the water, the boy realizes he must explain what he wants for the native to understand him whereas The Girl believes the suitable solution is to stick her nose in the air and demand the black man give her what she wants (Roeg, 00:36). This scene was so powerful because it portrayed how similar we all are. We all need food, water, shelter, and companionship. The only thing that differentiates us is our distance from the equator which determines our complexion. The only reason we cannot understand each other is because of our locations on the map and the methods of communication we have adopted. Our geographic differences are what spark the different cultures we all practice, which is actually a beautiful thing. The Boy, the part of society that still has hope, helps his older sister come to terms with the fact that the high society she proudly identifies with will serve her no purpose in the Outback. It will not even get her the simplest thing required for survival: water.

The native represents many things for The Girl, but most importantly, he symbolizes hope. In the endless ocean that is Western civilization, he is the promise of land in the horizon. When she and the native first meet, she is in trouble. She has been taught to view herself as a damsel in distress, and he must play the role of her savior. It is for this sheer fact that she begins to fall for him. She thinks a man’s role is to take care of a woman, and it is the woman's job to need to be taken care of. She completely forgets all she accomplished on her own thus far. Despite her desires for him, The Girl could never get over his skin color. The scene where all three of the children are swimming naked is intentional. Roeg portrays the taboo of having affection for someone who looks different from you. In this scene they all look so happy and free, showing us how liberating it can be to forget the societal norms implanted in our brains and do what makes us feel good. Although I have learned to love being a woman of color, the scene made me imagine how different life would be if I was just a girl, instead of a black girl in a white society. The native also represents the detrimental effects of colonization. He graciously accepts the British kids and attempts to teach them about his way of life. He does not request they conform; he simply coexists and helps when he can. When he saw the hunters kill for sport, he saw his culture diminish before his eyes (Roeg, 01:17). He accepted what history has continuously proven to be true, which is that he has two options: conform or die. He unfortunately chooses death. Despite her desires to embrace him, The Girl turns her back on the native and what life could be like outside the lines. Perhaps she is too scared to be different or  scared she might actually like it. In either case, her lack of bravery haunts her, which we saw in the flashbacks at the end while in the embrace of her husband (Roeg, 01:37).

In my walkabout, the father is the man behind the glass at the DMV absently stamping documents. His vacant expression is what inspires me to strive for knowledge rather than the approved symbol when I swipe my credit card. I crave infinite knowledge, rather than infinite zeros on my account balance. The father in my walkabout is also the sea of white faces that covered the hallways I ambled in school, signaling me out as the dark one. The Boy is the potential I still have, a reminder that it is my choice to resist the constant nudge by society as I begin questioning the world around me. He reiterates that I hold the upper hand in this power struggle, because I am in control of my mind. The native represents the ghosts of immigrants to America. Although I did not resort to hanging myself once acknowledging the power Western civilization has, needless to say, the native represents the fight so many immigrants and minorities have already given up on—preserving their own culture.

I moved from Ethiopia to America when I was four years old. In the States, Ethiopia, one of the earliest civilizations, is more known for poverty than its overwhelming communal culture. I moved to a melting pot of different cultures and a society that stresses individualism, with little preparation for the culture shock I would face. I was unready for a country that defines one's value by one’s ability to contribute to the federal reserve rather than who we are as people. It is a system that believes in creating robots as early as five years old, rather than providing tools to discover an identity of one’s own. Until my teenage years, I was not striving to find myself, but rather to paint over all that made me me: my caramel colored skin, my distinct features, and my curls. I sought to match the white girl who sat next to me in my reading circle in elementary school, the white girl who insisted on touching my hair at lunch junior year to further emphasize my difference, the white girl who was never ridiculed for who she is because at the end of the day, America was hers and I was the alien who chose to invade. 

The Girl in Roeg's drama, like many other millenials obsessed with iphones, social media, social approval, and the Kardashians, chooses the easy route, the mindless route, that further feeds the biggest issue of our time: ignorance. Walkabout is what happens to most teenagers in our society, and it almost happened to me. I am now eighteen years old, attending a prestigious university spending my days focusing on my passion. I have grown to have confidence in myself, but it was not effortless to get to this point. It was not without vigorous effort, tears, and crippling self-doubt that I blossomed from a girl whose stomach dropped when the teacher read out my full name to one who now proudly introduces herself. It was a difficult journey to grow from someone who straightened my wild curls to one who proudly wears my mane. I alleviated the insecure, misguided child I was by embracing what made me different instead of trying to conform.

I do not want to recite what I read in a textbook to prove I have knowledge. I do not want to repeat what I heard my family says to prove I have beliefs. I do not want my identity to be simplified to boxes I check off on a job application. I refuse to spend my life with the mindset that my greatest accomplishment will be the day I say “I do” or the day I have a child. I deny the ending The Girl in Walkabout had, because no matter what our society tells us, I will never sit quiet and look pretty. My walkabout has taught me to treat each person as my equal and embrace that they offer me. It has taught me that the six o’clock news does not cover all that matters in the world. It has forced me to accept that living in America does not require that one become a homogenously white American. It has left me yearning for the day I look in the mirror and only see myself, rather than the array of people I have been taught and forced to be. Although I can still feel the residue of my unwilling socialization clogging my throat, every day I am closer to dropping my radio. I am closer to embracing who I am, where I came from, and the values I hold. Every day I embark on this relentless journey, and the identity I fear the most is growing further away, that of being a Barbie to a Ken.

Works Cited

Freire, Paulo. The "Banking" Concept of Education. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. http://puente2014.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/87465079/freire_banking_concept.pdf.

Walkabout. Dir. Nicholas Roeg. Perf. Jenny Agutter, Jean-Luc Roeg, and David Gumpilil. 1971.

Because “Every Atom Belonging to Me as Good Belongs to You” by Sadie Schofield

As a college student in the twenty-first century, I have realized that we go through many obstacles throughout our undergraduate career. We deal with admissions, career training, and learning how to build a community for ourselves. I have had the privilege and woes of experiencing all of this on my own. I have had to fight to be able to apply to college, to determine my future, and to take my first steps into this strange world. Having the privilege of being able to apply to college should not be taken for granted. Many people do not get the opportunity because of their religious beliefs. As a Baptist woman, going to college was demonized by my church community. They thought that if one went to college one was going to forget all of their values and jump head first into the temptations of the world. Because I was raised a Baptist, I have had many things stacked against me. My pastor told me from a young age I had to be submissive, quiet, and have a man handle my problems. I was not supposed to grow up and take charge of my future. Instead, I was expected to be a mom and take care of my children while having dinner ready on time.

I was stuck in phase one of Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development. “This is the stage that all young children start at (and a few adults remain in). Rules are seen as being fixed and absolute. Obeying the rules is important because it means avoiding punishment” (Kohlberg diagram 1). I had to mindlessly follow the rules that were set up for me, preventing me from thinking for myself. I was under constant observation as my pastor and his wife tried to turn me into a cardboard cutout of someone else. For a long time, I just accepted everything I was being taught and considered this strange reality normal, not knowing that there is a whole world full of opportunity and adventure. Because of this, being able to apply to college, let alone the dream of getting admitted, did not seem like an option for me. Sofie Ramirez stated it best when she wrote, “We cannot get admitted [to college] if we were too self-involved to branch out and become well-rounded people” (Ramirez, par 2).

I was taught being different and having my own thoughts were wrong. When someone new and different came to my church for the first time everyone would judge them based on their appearance. How was someone like me supposed to become a well-rounded person if I was being taught to judge people before I even knew them? Whitman stated, “Whoever degrades another degrades me” (Whitman, par 24). So, why was I being taught that just because they are different, it is wrong? My pastor only taught me these things because he was afraid and believed that “places like colleges are a gilded re-education camp, where innocent children of the entrepreneurial class are turned into brainwashed Maoist cadres, chanting slogans and grinding away the hours in a sexual frolic” (Frank, par 3). However, even though my pastor thought this, he gave me permission to attend college based on my high mathematics grades. He only permitted me to do so because he wanted me to teach at the private school I attended. I blindly accepted his offer not wanting to be unable to provide for myself.

This unhappy situation had happened so frequently among the women in my church. It happened to a close friend, who got married at nineteen. She never attended college or had a stable job making her unprepared for what life was about to throw at her. Sadly, the man she married passed away and she was left with two young children and no clue how to provide for them. This situation scared me greatly and was the turning point for when I started to think differently, breaking me out of Kohlberg’s first stage.

In Pablo Freire’s Banking Concept of Education, he states, referring to our educational system, “[Learning is] motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable” (Freire, par 2). “Students are force-fed information only to barf it up during a test” (KP). This is a way of learning we are forced to adapt to. It limits our creative imagination and causes us to be mindless zombies. Thankfully, my twelfth- grade teacher, Mr. HT, taught me to question everything I learned and to make my own judgment based off of my analysis. He was a key component in helping me decide my career. He encouraged each student to ask as many questions as possible believing that “authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication” (Freire, par 22). He wanted us to grow as thinkers and learners. He taught me that just because someone is different it does not mean we have the right to degrade them. It was because of Mr. HT that I had the hope of changing from my pastor’s original idea as a teacher to something that I wanted to do. I felt the need to write. I wanted to be able to impact the lives of others the same way that he impacted mine. I wanted to be the light that broke others out of their cave like mentality, where they only see shadows of things and not the whole picture (Plato). Mr. HT expanded my mind, helping me to look at the bigger picture instead of conforming to what others expected of me. He made me realize that, even though having a family is a wonderful thing, “I only have one shot at this life so why not make the most out of it” (Mr. HT)?

When I finally arrived at college I was there to learn and make the most out of life. I was, however, greatly shocked by the people I met there. Especially folks who were proud to be gay, proud to stand up for their beliefs, and people who had high goals they wanted to reach. I was not used to people being proud of who they were. These new people were not afraid to show their differences. That is a beautiful thing. Too often we try to conform to what we believe as perfection instead of taking a good look at ourselves and loving all of our flaws. We also should learn to build community with people who are different than us instead of restricting ourselves to individuals who think like us. “Being open to diversity is the cure. . . and the secret code to serenity” (Weber, par 9). Just from being at college I have learned that people change people. Some might state that this is the meaning of life; however, how are we supposed to grow from someone when they are exactly like us? Someone who changed me, and I grew to know, and love is Sarah Baum. She is completely different from me in every way. She made me, a straight woman, realize what life is like as a lesbian. She taught me to use terms like “they and them” instead of putting people in boxes by calling them “her and him.” By watching her actions, I learned that I am the next generation. I need to have a voice and to stand up for what I believe in. If I had not have added her to my community I would have greatly missed out on an opportunity of learning what life is about. Because of the impact of Mr. HT and Sarah, I was able to open up my mind to different ideas of thinking and realize that we are all connected to each other. Like Whitman so eloquently stated, “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Whitman, par 1). 

Works Cited:

Gordon, Paul Kirpal. 4 Dec. 2018. Class discussion

Lawrence Kohlberg, “The Stages of Moral Development,”

http://www.suttonclassroom.com/uploads/9/0/6/0/9060273/lawrence_kohlberg_chart.pdf

Ramirez, Sofie. “The Gift that Keeps on Giving.” Personal Essay. 30 Oct. 18

Whitman, Walt. "Whitman's "Song of Myself"" Modern American Poetry. University of Illinois, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2018.

Frank, Thomas. “The Price of Admission.” Harper Magazine. June 2012

Paolo Freire, “The Banking Concept of Education,” https://www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/947/BANKING%20CONCEPT%20OF%20ED.2.pdf

Mr. HT. Personal Encounter. 2017

Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave,” PDF & https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=plato+allegory+of+the+cave+cartoon&view=detail&mid=C711AFC2F023B84F2320C711AFC2F023B84F2320&FORM=VIRE

Weber, Deanna. “Leaping out of the Cave and into the Light.” Taking Giant Steps, Kirpal Gordon, 11 Sept. 2015, http://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2015/09/leaping-out-of-cave-and-into-light-by.html

Equal Opportunity: This Campus Was Made for You and Me by Chelsea DeBarros

My first twenty minutes of college were going great.

I was chatting it up with my new acquaintances in their residence hall during student orientation week. As rapport built, I glanced around the room. First year students stood in clusters, grouped by what local high school they had attended. I did not recognize anyone; I was the only representative from Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, Queens. All had blonde or brunette hair and blue eyes abounded---quite a shift from what I was used to. Everyone seemed to look, speak and act in the same way. With my brown skin and long, jet-black hair, I felt oddly intimidated, as if they were the white hunters and I was their dark prey.

I remembered an incident in my senior year of high school. In pursuit of financial assistance, I applied for a scholarship. Although all my West Indian friends and I did well on the interview, had high SAT scores and excellent GPAs, we were passed over. As they had done for many years the company only chose white students. This bitter memory of being seen as less than was “homeostasis upsetting,” and I flipped into a self-defense mode (Gordon, par. 2) based on FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real. I did not know if my peers were biased against my background, but I did not want to create a barrier; I wanted to remain open. However, as more and more students shared their stories, I noticed the majority would be boarding. I dreaded telling them I was a commuter student. Was it my fear that they would view me as less serious or was it my own secret apprehension that as a commuter I would receive less of an education? Since I am the only Guyanese-American (with a Hindu mom and a Christian dad), would I be overlooked or unaccounted for in this university community? Unlike Woody Guthrie’s lyric, “This land was made for you and me,” I wondered if I belonged on the Hofstra campus. Little did I know at the time that the people in the Office of Commuting Student Services and Community Outreach (TOCSS&CO) would set me straight.

The process began with an introduction to my official commuter peer mentor and quite a role model. TOCSS&CO pairs peer mentors with students based on experience. For example, a transfer student will be placed with a current transfer student. Mentors are provided for students on the commuter track, transfer track, student access track and the global track. “Call me Chena,” Myrtchena Antonie said as she shook my hand (DeBarros). A senior and a proud woman of Caribbean descent, she showed me that as a person of color I was not an outcast but a part of something greater. Moreover, her encyclopedic knowledge of Hofstra’s many student services and multiple degree programs put my mind further at ease. When I told her that she was defeating my fear-based dual misperceptions of racial exclusion and that resident students receive more and commuting students receive less, she said, “We are all paying tuition to go here; there is no exclusion because we are all in the same boat” (DeBarros). In subsequent meetings I would come to learn just how academically, socially and civically engaged she has managed to become in her time at Hofstra.

According to Lawrence Kohlberg, one has reached the final stage of moral development when dignity, respect, justice, and equality are one’s guiding force behind one’s decisions in which “morality is based on the principles that transcend mutual benefit” (Kohlberg 1). To bring about my own change of mind and heart, I had to figure out how Chena achieved Kohlberg post-conventional moral levels 5 and 6. First, I acknowledged that I was limited in conventional level 4: I could take orders, follow rules and consider societal expectations. But Chena was able to think beyond the convention and communicate effectively with others regardless of their background, status or mindset. She had overcome any notion that she wassubordinate as a woman or as a person of non-white heritage. She recognized that social rules can be changed when it is necessary and inspired me to become more open minded and less defensive about those who are different from me. She helped me embrace the diversity of the Hofstra environment. When I learned that “research from the Carnegie Institute, Harvard and Stanford all reveal the same percentages for career success: 85% are people (soft) skills; only 15% are technical (hard) skills” (Gordon, par. 3), I realized that Chena combined these skills in a highly personal and compelling way. For proof, see her essay on Taking Giant Steps Press blog. The title alone, “What Do You Do with Trash: A Review of Walkabout & The Gods Must Be Crazy,” reveals her charming yet no-nonsense style.

As I grew these skills I soon learned that students may feel like outsiders for all kinds of concerns beyond color, gender and heritage, and that I have the power to help them feel more included. I also learned that many who commute often feel underrepresented because they do not board. Likewise, many resident students cannot call Hofstra their home because they are not comfortable here for myriad reasons. As Chena put it, “They don’t have a sense of belonging. That’s why we are here: to advocate for you, mentor you, and help you grow as a person so you can be your very best here at Hofstra” (DeBarros). I realized they guide and provide services for all students. I am truly grateful to Chena for her helping me unmask my issues and by modeling the change I needed to become, but I am equally grateful to Anita Ellis, who directs TOCSS&CO.

I first encountered her at Welcome Week. During the commuter presentation, Anita was engaging, funny, informative and very involved in making sure we have the necessary tools to make commuting life easier. After I met her for a one-on-one session, she was even more helpful and kind beyond my expectations; she became a friend. I often visit to see of the new events coming up or to just say hello. Her office is a place of community for commuting students, off-campus students and resident students because she provides a safe, supportive, and comfortable space for one to thrive. Anita makes sure that throughout the day, students can access free tea and coffee. After renovating the commuter lounge, she is in the process of adding comfortable couches for students to lounge around or study.

With a strong and improved sense of community comes new relationships. Chena stated, “My friends that I have met here at the commuting office have influenced me the most at Hofstra” (DeBarros). Developing friendships is crucial to becoming socially engaged. I can relate to Chena’s experience because I made new friends at the commuting office who now travel with me on the Long Island Rail Road. I have also been amazed at the number of resident students who face similar issues as commuters. In addition, regardless of housing status, TOCSS&CO gives students an opportunity to become members of the Commuters Student Association (CSA), in which students work with the commuting office to prepare events for the Hofstra calendar. These include tips on healthy diet as well as yoga and morning meditation. I always check with CSA to see what upcoming events I would like to be a part of. I follow them on social media and occasionally visit their web page to see what is new. Another program is Peer Mentoring, which has influenced me to become more involved in the HU community and caused me to want to become a mentor for incoming students. Anita states, “We encourage all of our students to integrate with their neighbors and attend our office programs” (Meet the Director). Her overall goal is to let students know that they are part of a community that will support them throughout their academic career by allowing them to become socially and civically involved.

Along with building community comes the opportunity to lend a helping hand. I have found that community service is a fun and meaningful way to become civically engaged and learn new life skills. TOCSS&CO hosts many annual community service events: Shake a Rake in which students rake leaves and help local community members; Nursing Home Bowling in which students assist senior residents of the Holly Patterson Nursing Home at the local bowling lanes; Pride, Paint, Plant in which students help the elderly plant flowers in their yard and paint their fences. Chena told me, “These events, which usually happen right around the community of Uniondale and Hempstead, are open to all students, residential included” (DeBarros). As Paulo Freire conveys, learning comes from first-hand experience: “Education as the practice of freedom---as opposed to education as the practice of domination---denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people. Authentic reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without people, but people in the reflections with the world” (Freire 8). Simply put, knowledge is mostly gained from a learn-by-doing experience and “from learning about the people in your world, rather than learning about the world apart from them” (Parker, par. 4).

Perhaps the best thing about TOCSS&CO is its constant flow of valuable life skills. “Liberating education consists in act of cognition, not transferrals of information” (Friere 7). In order to be fully confident in my studies, I seek to acquire knowledge that reveals my full potential rather than just attain information that I will be tested on. Like Chena, I have found that “the commuter’s office is basically home for us” (DeBarros). Information is sent out via email, text and ads around campus. Chena noted, “It can be very difficult to get involved in the programs offered since commuters are constantly caught up in the run from home to school and don't have time to stop by the office. This is why we try to work around student schedules and make everything convenient for students. We stress communication, getting involved, taking part in the discussions and staying informed on what’s next” (DeBarros). On the more practical side, the office provides train schedules, shuttle schedules, free parking, lockers, information on commuter meal plans, tenant services for off-campus commuters, office programming, bulletin board information, car maintenance tips, transit tips, and FAQs.

Although Chena strikes me as someone who really knows what is going on, I was blown away to discover that during her first two years at Hofstra, she did not go to TOCSS&CO at all. She stated, “I did not do anything at school at all other than go to class” (DeBarros). She was caught in the fixed pattern of commuting to class and then returning home. She then addressed a problem that most of us students have. We do not reach out to the office as much they reach out to us. When asked how students can improve as learners, she said most emphatically, “We must improve our communication skills and lose the idea that seeking help or service is a bad thing” (DeBarros). By reaching out to her, I have become more independent, involved, and able to contribute to the Hofstra community. The Office of Commuting Student Services and Community Outreach has opened my mind, inspired me to be socially and civically involved, strengthened my academic skills and helped me become more well-rounded and better informed. I have come to find, like Woody Guthrie’s song, this campus was made for you and me.

Works Cited

Antonie, Myrtchena. Taking Giant Steps Press blog. “What Do You Do with Trash: A Review of Walkabout & The Gods Must Be Crazy.” 4 March.  2017, http://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2017/03/what-do-you-do-with-trash-review-of.html

DeBarros, Chelsea. “Interview with Commuter Peer Mentor Myrtchena Antonie.” 3 Oct. 2018.

Freire, Paulo. “The Banking Concept of Education.” PDF, 5 Nov. 2018

https://www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/947/BANKING  %20CONCEPT%20OF%20ED.2.pdf

Gordon, Paul Kirpal. Class Syllabus. 10 Sep 2018.

Guthrie, Woody. “This Land Is Your Land.” The Asch Recordings, Vol.1. Feb. 1940

Hofstra University, “Meet the Commuting Student Services Director.”

www.hofstra.edu/studentaffairs/commuting/commutingstudent/commutingstudent_director..html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2018.

Kohlberg, Lawrence. “The Stages of Moral Development.” PDF, 9 Oct. 2018

http://www.suttonclassroom.com/uploads/9/0/6/0/9060273/lawrence_kohlberg_chart.pdf

Parker, Morgan. Taking Giant Steps Press blog. “Gettin' Queer for Dope: Learning How To Learn about LGBT Identity,” 4Feb. 2016, http://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2016/02/gettin-queer-for-dope-learning-how-to.html