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The End of the Beginning of the End
Greetings:
This year, 1999, marks the final year of the nineties and the incipient
presence of a new
century. For some, this may not necessarily be a significant or profound
event. Consider,
however, that for the balance of your adult life, you will live and die
in the twenty-first
century. Given that reality, you should be ever mindful and cognizant
of the advances in
technology that are occurring that will effect your overall quality of
life such as healthcare,
the economic market trends [both domestically and globally], employment
and career
projections and governmental
policies. You can ill afford to be left unaware of these
events represented by these categories and their impact upon your life.
These issues
are impacting your life now! It is very important for you to take
an active interest in your
life and think about where you want to be in your future. And wherever
that may be will
require active planning now and will require an active and broad understanding
of
what is going on in the world
around you.
For example, do you understand the significance of interest rates and their
impact on the
goods and services that you purchase? Do you know how much it will
cost to run a
household, i.e., rent/mortgage, utilities, insurance [automobile, homeowners,
health and
disability], transportation, and food, just to name a few. Do you
have any idea of what are
the latest trends or thinking in the field(s) that you are interested in
pursuing as a career?
As an example, for those of you who are interested in a career in the health
field as a
physician, have you read about the first complete hand transplant that
was recently
conducted in Kentucky? What is the impact of this procedure on micro-surgery,
prosthetic technology and bio-chemistry?
For those of you who have an interest in a career investing money, how
does the crisis
in the Asian market and the devaluation af the Brazilian currency impact
market trends,
revenues and profits? Have any of you given any thought of what type
of saving plan
you will utilize once you start working? What type of financial portofolio
would you like
to achieve and who can help you create and accomplish it. Or will
your savings mechanism
see you surviving by living from "paycheck to paycheck?" Where would
you like to live
ten, fifteen, twenty years from now?
These are what I define as real life questions that I wish someone had
discussed with me
or at least suggested that I think about when I was in college. For
you see, college is more
than a process of going to classes and completing assignments. It
is also an opportune
time to DREAM BIG DREAMS and begin to create the foundation for them to
be realized.
Take charge of your life in every aspect of it and commit to enhancing
it at every level,
intellectually, spirtually, personally and economically. Begin to
save money now, no
matter how miniscule the contribution may be, even if it is only five dollars
a week, that's
two-hundred sixty dollars a year. Again, it may not seem like much,
but it is a beginning
if your present savings statement reads zero.
So, again the opportunity presents itself for each of you to challenge
yourselves to do
the best academic work you are more than capable of achieving. You
cannot afford to
be a lackluster or mediocre in your approach to your studies because if
you are, you
will be a lackluster and mediocre in your life after Drew; there is a correlation.
Take charge, plan now and have an outstanding semester!
“A gift opens doors; it gives access to the great.”
Proverbs 18:16
Greetings. One of my favorite Books of the Bible is the Book
of Proverbs from the Old
Testament. There are many themes interspersed throughout its thirty-one
chapters
speaking about wisdom, faith, strength, obedience, compassion and charity
for the
poor, the value of education/knowledge and many other matters of practical
living.
There are similar passages found in the Koran and the Torah. When
you assess and
synthesize the messages found in all three of these religious and spiritual
texts, you
are left with one important central theme: The gift and importance
of knowledge.
Knowledge or education is something that we in contemporary society take
for
granted. We tend to forget that not so many years ago that access
to an education
was limited to a select few based upon ability to pay, ethnic affiliation,
gender or
religious association. Today, many of those barriers have been eliminated,
but not
all. And today, many more people have a college education than not.
But, the
question that needs to be asked and answered is, What are the educated
doing
with their education?!?
Clearly an education should provide you with the opportunity to improve
your
quality of life, and hopefully those whom you cherish. Yet, does
it also provide
opportunities to assist those less fortunate? Is this the responsibility
of the
educated or is it the shame and guilt of the unfortunate ones? Because
you are
here at Drew and in the Educational Opportunity Scholars Program you have
been provided a gift that will open many doors for you. This education
will
give you assess to many great things and experiences in your life.
However,
if you use your education and its accouterments to advance only your gain,
you will find that all that you have achieved will have been in vain.
Why?
Simply, because you would not have used this gift for the great; and the
great is to use your gift of education for the least among you. This
gesture
and posture will keep you in harmony with your inner sense of good and
with the universal sense of good. Think about it.
Copyright © 1999 Drew University, Educational Opportunity Scholars Program
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