"History doesn't repeat itself," Mark Twain reportedly said, "but it does rhyme."
I find that quote particularly apt for the beginning of the new academic year. Every year, the fall semester begins with the arrival of the new freshmen, orientation and syllabus day, but ultimately every class is greeted with different (and targeted) advice.
For freshman, go to the Activities Fair and sign up for the mailing lists of all the organizations that interest you. For sophomores, run for positions in those organizations, figure out your major, and start looking at study-abroad programs or internships. For juniors, make sure your requirements are on track and go study off-campus or do that internship. For seniors, take advantage of the Civic, Global and Professional Opportunities office and figure out what you're going to do with your life. All of this advice is supposed to enable us to take full advantage of the DePauw experience.
What is the DePauw experience, though? Whatever it is, it's in the process of changing. According to our recent campus planning conversations, our goal is "a total student experience – the combination of intellectual engagement, co-curricular activity and experiential education."
However, we shouldn't forget the "student" part of "total student experience," either. DePauw's institutional offerings – challenging and rewarding classes, dozens of student organizations, Winter Term courses and off-campus study programs – are impressive. But DePauw students are also an integral part of the DePauw experience.
That sounds like an obvious conclusion to make. DePauw students are always going to be part of the DePauw student experience. But how often do you hear "experiences with other students" ranked up there with goals like "intellectual engagement"? For all we hear about building a more unified DePauw experience, we should remember that much of the richness of the current DePauw experience comes from its varied students and their interactions. After all, when it comes to community-building, diversity can be just as important as commonality.
For example, during my sophomore year I lived on a floor of just 14 students. But DePauw students are a distinctive bunch. They came from Chicago, New York, India, Vietnam and everywhere in between. They swam, volunteered at hospitals, took photographs, played video games and practiced piano. They studied kinesiology, anthropology, environmental geoscience and English writing. Such a community of students is surely as valuable as the small class sizes we benefit from and promote.
Of course, if you're an upperclassman, you don't need a newspaper columnist to tell you any of that. You already know the value of your fellow DePauw students and the experiences you've had with them. You know that you learn from your classmates in the same way you learn from your professors. After all, how much of the value in a Winter Term trip is in the destination, and how much is in the company?
Freshmen, take advantage of the opportunity to make friends in the same way you take advantage of the institutional opportunities DePauw has to offer. Go out, and get to know people. Attend those mentor group and floor meetings, though you may suspect you're too cool for them. Keep your door open. Take it from a DePauw veteran: the experiences you will have with new friends — as many college graduates have probably already told you — will shape your college experience just as much as the classes you take.
—Holley-Kline is a senior from Anchorage, Alaska, majoring in Spanish and anthropology. opinion@thedepauw.com