Degrees of Social Change

Posted by Thom on Wednesday, May 13, 2009

It is a firmly held tradition in western culture to bemoan the diminishing values of each generation of younger American teenagers.  It is the broken record that never seems to get fixed.  Says this bemoaning culture: exhibit A) 60% of millennials believe that they are among the top 10% of their peers, if you missed that, reread, break out a TI-85 and consider the math, exhibit B) in 1975, 65% of college entering freshmen indicated that “Developing a meaningful philosophy of life” was an essential or very important goal for them in college – now, only 45% indicate that.  But here’s what I know.  I know about two guys who did this . . .

Many of you are graduating from high school this month or next.  I want to give you some homework for the summer.  I want you to begin to daydream about what you’ll be about as a college student.  Most importantly, I want you to give yourself permission to play with those ideas in your head, those big ideas like Enjuba.  You may not yet realize it, but your big idea may start today as a simple stirring of your soul, like a small earth tremor below the ocean that later becomes a tidal wave.  What are your big ideas about the world you will enter, your place in it, and about the people in that world that need you to make your education count for the betterment of their lives?  Your homework will be due on move-in day.

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” -Albert Schweitzer

Posted in Community Service, Human and Organizational Development, Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Summer, Video and tagged: Community Service, HOD, Human and Organizational Development, Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University