I'm not sure why this week is bringing this subject on, but I feel like the button to push to get people going lately is upperclassmen apathy. And I don't mean it gets people going, I mean it gets those remaining students who are still active absolutely furious. As with any school, there's that group of students, all friends, or just all acquaintances, that you see everywhere. You're pretty sure that they have a tattoo of the logo, mascot or campus letters on their body somewhere. They just eat, sleep and breathe event programming, campus activities and the organizations they're involved in. And these students, myself included, just don't understand why everyone isn't as stoked as they are.
It seems as though first and second year students just run the school. You have so many options here, so much to do, get involved in, so many places to travel to, that when you get here, most students hit the ground running and take after a million amazing oportunities. Then, when you go abroad, you go through this amazing, eye-opening, point-of-view-altering experience that brings you back to the college environment with the attitude of "what IS all this?!" And so there's something of a division among under and upper classmen.
The upper classmen come back from abroad, totally changed, and sometimes with a college-and-world-weary attitude. Don't get me wrong, going abroad was, hands down, 100%, completely and entirely the best part of my time at school so far. But returning to a standard collegiate environment is hard, and a looming graduation sometimes only further distances returning study abroad-ers from reconnecting with the many, many things a student might have been passionate about, pre globe-trotting. So when these juniors and seniors focus on internships, and jobs, where they used to focus on campus organisations, something of a class-wide bond is lost, and some of the seniors this year are REALLY fired up about it.
So what's happening? Well for one thing, the senior reverse-orientation program, called "Departures" has some more swing in its step this year, thanks to some very dedicated fourth year students. Additionally, members of Greek Life have met to talk about how to ramp up not only enthusiasm within 4th year Greek Life students, but all students who are beginning to separate from the University a little earlier than they need to. And it doesn't sound like a lot of talking to me. It sounds like the talk won't just be talk, but will have a lot of follow through, and I honestly can't wait to see it. I'll keep you posted on major developments (Greek Life, for example, drummed up the idea of a big trip to Aspen, CO for the X-Games,) but in the meantime shoot me an email if you have a question about anything I've mentioned...or really anything at all! alexandra.mikros@gmail.com
