At the dance this past Saturday, it was easy to notice segregation between different ethnicities in the crowd. The lines drawn between races could be from the fear of the way white people dance, but we think it’s more than that.
Cabrini is known as a suitcase school. Students finish classes for the week and hightail it home, not returning until Sunday, when it is time to go to work again. By leaving, deep social interaction with different cultures is more difficult to achieve. While the level of Cabrini’s academic integrity is rising as the college flourishes, the community’s understanding of itself seems to be at a standstill. It is logical that we associate with whom we share the same views, but what fun is that? Challenging each other to step beyond the comfort zones will open the lives of students to worlds and places and ideas that before may have been unfathomable.
The college is known for promoting the education of the heart, community service and the understanding of different cultures. The administration, faculty and staff do a fine job of carrying this out, but the students seem to let it stop there. Although small, Cabrini brings together a dynamic variety of students from different cultures and areas. The amount of knowledge and ideas brought to this campus by the students and their life experiences is overwhelming. To gain this widespread knowledge, all we, as students at Cabrini and eternal students of life, have to do is talk.
Of course we are in college to get a book education, but we are also here to get a social and cultural education. If you don’t engage in the exploration of ideas that are not your own, ideas that would broaden your worldview, then you will be missing the cultural education that will prepare you for life once you step off this pretty hill in Radnor. You can read about different cultures in a book, but without experiencing it you will never fully understand.
At Cabrini, there is more to learn than what is taught between the walls of Founder’s Hall. Go beyond what you know, and bring a friend with you.
