The Socially and Academically Educated Individual by Austin

The Socially and Academically Educated Individual by Austin - April 2020 Scholarship Essay

Attending college is important because it opens possibilities not only academically, but socially as well. What I mean by this is that there is more to college than just getting a degree that opens up new pathways to careers. It is also about the social interactions that you have with people you may not otherwise have met. Of course, college’s main purpose is for you to attend and gain a higher education which is extremely important if you want to be in a secure job field or just have a passion you want to pursue. But, what is equally important are the connections and interactions that you have socially with the other students at your college. This is because college is a place where there is not always a homogeneous mixture like in areas people often grow up in. For example, the area that I grew up in was mostly black so much of the cultural norms that come with being black were extremely prominent and I believed that it was normal.
However, when I came to college I interacted with many different types of people that were not black and did not always share those cultural norms. This gave me a chance to not only interact with new and exciting cultures, but also understand that my world view is just that: it is mine. There are many different cultures and as a result many different ways to understand how the world works. You cannot say that your worldview is “right” when you know nothing of others’. This gave me the appreciation for other peoples’ culture and the belief that I should not judge others before hearing their reasoning because it can come from a good place and I can simply misunderstand.