By Ashley Goetz
College is the buffer before we’re thrust into the real world. We’re suspended in a bubble, surrounded by like-minded people who are all just trying to figure out where they fit in the equation. With that kind of pressure, it’s easy to forget there’s life outside of campus, life that includes people struggling to afford basic necessities like food, shelter and clothing. But if we — this next generation of business owners and politicians, educators and advocators — don’t pay attention, who will?
Ever since my days as a Daisy Girl Scout, I’ve been volunteering in the community. For as long as I can remember, I’ve walked dogs at the local shelter or packed food at our county’s Meals-On-Wheels. I’ve delivered groceries to the elderly, worked in a soup kitchen and cleaned estuaries.
I was afraid when I got to college I would lose some of that drive, and for a while maybe I did. It’s easy to get caught up in the routine of classes, papers, exams and internships. You end up more concerned with your social life than rising poverty rates.
And who can blame us for being a little egocentric? We exist somewhere limbo—somewhere between the safety net of childhood and that moment we’re expected to become fully self-reliant adults.
But, college students are a rare breed. We can be equally self-absorbed and altruistic. Given a cause, we will rally around it. On any given day, you can walk around AU’s campus and witness small protests, fundraisers, charity drives and hunger strikes. But simply observing isn’t enough. More people need to be willing to take that next step. To raise money for nonprofits, join a discussion on human rights, host a food drive or race for a cure. Just recently, students successfully petitioned to have a worker reinstated after his wrongful termination, proof that our actions can have influence.
This Saturday, Do Your Service Day, offers the perfect opportunity to get involved. Students throughout the city will take part in service projects with the goal of giving 1,200 hours back to the D.C. community. Let’s surpass that goal. It is our responsibility to become members of our local communities, not just passersby.
AU makes service accessible. For example, we have classes that integrate nonprofits directly into the curriculum. This semester I’ve worked with Food for Others, the largest food bank in Northern Virginia. The organization helps feed 90,000 struggling families, and through this course I’ve had a direct hand in furthering that mission. It’s not finding a cause that’s difficult; it’s choosing to join one.
On a campus and in a city with limitless opportunities to aid those in need, we can’t sit back and observe. We have to take action. We should look to college students for solutions to greater social issues like hunger and poverty. We have the ingenuity. The time and the resources have been handed to us, but we have to be the ones to take the initiative.
For myself and many other students, there is still a sense of quiet optimism, a notion that we are here to make something better of ourselves and of the world we inhabit.
Sometimes we just need a little reminder that there is life beyond the boundaries of our college campus.
Ashley Goetz is a senior in the School of Communication.
