2008 Woodie Awards
Finding Purpose in College: A Journey of Meaning Making
Dr. Andrea Silva McManus
Issue date: 1/31/07 Section: Opinion
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I had training to work in the field of social work, but no desire to do so. I had no meaning or purpose to drive my life. In retrospect, I wish there had been more opportunities to make meaning. This is not a criticism of Castleton, more of the time. The era.
If developing meaning and purpose was part of the mission, it was never articulated to me in that way. So, as an alumnus, I want to say a few things. Yes, college is about preparing you for a career, but it should be about so much more. Growing up in a working class blue collar family as a first generation college student there was no other reason to go to college. It was to make sure you got a good job later in life. In the eyes of my relatives, there was no other reason to go to college.
But college should be a time we develop a life plan for ourselves where we examine beliefs and what's important to us. It is also a place where we should be encouraged to explore spirituality whether we are atheists or devout believers in a God or Gods. As an undergraduate in the early "go-go 80's," goals were materialistic. What seemed to be important was getting an MBA, a condo, BMW, expense account and frequent flyer miles so one could jet set around the globe.
Two decades later today's undergraduates see the emptiness in this lifestyle and are demanding more. There has been a growing push for opportunities to explore ones spirituality, which is a different thing than faith. There is also recognition of a quarter life crisis, detailed by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Winter in the national best seller Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties.
College is also a place where we need to learn to be cosmopolitan global citizens. We need to learn to think critically, reflectively and analytically. The post Sept. 11 world is a very different place than the world I graduated into. No longer can anyone afford to be religiously illiterate. To be a globally educated citizen we must understand the major narratives of all the worlds' religions and how to discuss hot contentious topics if we are to live in a peaceable world.
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