A little over a week ago, I attended the Rose Cafe with Ryan Lombardi, which was a great opportunity to hear his plans for student life as well as share our opinions as students. He was really open, friendly, and interested in hearing about our experiences. Much of the discussion was centered around common issues at Cornell, especially the stress level and competition for clubs, internships, jobs, etc. Pretty much everyone here is incredibly stressed out, but it was reassuring hearing from other students across the university that they, too, were facing big prelims, looming deadlines, and other nerve wracking things. College now is much different than it was even 20 years ago, as students are under more pressure to succeed, but VP Lombardi brought up an interesting point about education: it used to be seen as something that would better the society as a whole and create a more informed populace, but it has come to be seen as an individual thing, something for each person to better themselves with little care for society’s betterment. I think this is really important to consider as we continue our college journey, and hopefully we can think more about all improving together than constantly pitting ourselves against each other.
Rose Scholars Fall 2018
Endless possibilities
Even though the decision to attend college might not be as much of a collectivist mindset as it once was, even with our individualistic aspirations to better our selves, we are still contributing to society in the end. At Cornell we are encouraged to pursue things that we are interested in, which we hope to apply into the real world. Even if we seek higher paying jobs and hope to turn our debt into profit, we would still benefit society by applying our knowledge and leadership skills in a workforce.
I heartily agree with your post, but I wonder if we (students) are the ones putting pressure on ourselves to succeed. Many of us got into Cornell because of our drive and hard work, yet these are exactly the forces that drive the stress Dr. Lombardi talked about. Perhaps it is not entirely a result of society but the decisions of the students themselves that contribute to so much stress on campus?
I think it’s so important that we view our college experience as an avenue of personal growth and success because these years are so crucial in terms of discovering ourselves. I think that after college comes the time to think about bettering society as a whole. These years in college should really be directed towards bettering ourselves.