"We educate, challenge, and expect all students to uncover, expand, and realize their potential." This is the Student Progress Core Value of Carlow University.The above definition was taken from the university's website.
I chose to practice and blog about this specific core value because it is something that I can easily relate to. To me, the college experience as a whole makes up the concept of student progress. I am definitely not the person/student I was when I arrived on Carlow's Campus in August of 2008, and I will probably not be the same person when I graduate in May 2012.
As the definition states, this core value is the idea of students going above and beyond what they think they are capable of and developing and finding new skills and talents that they didn't even realize they had.
I have spent the last week really focusing on this core value, and thinking about how exactly the idea of Student Progress has related to me. What I've found is that, I work on expanding and pushing myself by taking on roles, and signing up for clubs even when I know I'm busy to begin with. I know that it is important to make time for everything, and by making myself extremely busy I am pushing myself harder then ever to make sure I accomplish everything that I need to. By keeping up with my work load, as well as working on outside projects with clubs or my job on campus, my mind is constantly working.
This is interesting, because the readings for this week discussed the need for solitude, and my idea of student progress eliminates my chance of absolute peace and quiet. In today's society, as pointed out by the article, solitude is rather hard to come by, and I myself can't imagine thinking of only the moment, and not about what is to come.
I guess the best thing one can do is create a balance between pushing to move forward and taking a minute to relax and gather his/her thoughts. I believe that in order to move forward you have to have a good idea of where you currently stand, therefore in order for me to progress forward and realize new potentials I must make time each day for a minute of quiet. This is something that I don't currently do, but I am going to try and do from now on. The perfect place for me to do this would be in the Student Progress Garden on campus, taking 10 minutes out of my day to just sit, and not think sounds like something I am definitely interested in!
Now, to discuss the idea of how practicing this core value relates to human dignity. I feel like it has a lot to do with the concept of self dignity. By pushing myself to complete tasks, and achieving them, I am maintaining my self dignity. Keeping promises and meeting deadlines to me is a way of maintaining my dignity. As far as the way my dignity would be affected for others viewing me, as long as I did what I said I would do, my dignity would stay consistent with how they see me already. If I started to slack or not fulfill what I said I would do, they might start to view me in a different away. I'm not completely sure they would think I am any less dignified but if I let them down enough it could come to that!
I totally agree with the idea that progess and achievement can be very tied up with your own sense of dignity. I know for me, personally, that looking back on what I have achieved gives me a sense of what goals I should have for myself in the future. I would consider it an infringement on my own dignity if I did not personally push myself to meet these goals. When I know what I am capable of, I see no reason to strive for anything less!
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