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Acquaint yourself with somebody new, someone who looks nothing like you.
It’s not a dare.
Rather, it’s good advice for all of us, but especially for college students bracing this month for the start of the fall semester at campuses in Luzerne County and places far beyond. Part of the university experience – beyond getting up on time for early morning classes and doing your own laundry – involves learning to appreciate people of diverse backgrounds, ages, interests, intellects, races and customs.
Seize the opportunity to break free of old, high school cliques and to get comfortable with greater diversity. It’ll likely expand your circle of friends and your knowledge, making you, in many respects, more worldly. Plus, it can prepare you to succeed in the workforce, as outlined in a 2009 U.S. News & World Report column titled “Why Does Diversity Matter at College Anyway?”
“No matter what profession you enter,” it stated, “you’ll find yourself working with employers, employees, coworkers, customers and clients from diverse backgrounds – worldwide.”
Wilkes University President Patrick Leahy fully recognizes that students attending the liberal arts institution in downtown Wilkes-Barre will, in his words, “graduate into a global marketplace.” That’s one reason why Wilkes continues to foster an international-student population, which includes many Saudis, and to ramp up exchange programs via its Latin American/Caribbean initiative.
“A lot of our eastern Pennsylvania students can’t study abroad,” Leahy has said, noting that bringing foreigners here serves as a sort of next-best option.
Likewise, at King’s College, also in the heart of Wilkes-Barre, campus officials have worked since 2014 to boost the number of international students from one to about 100. During an interview earlier this year, the Rev. John Ryan, the college’s president, said, “This is a way to bring the world to Wilkes-Barre.”
Certain people who harp against diversity will criticize the colleges’ actions and probably post harsh comments to this editorial, seemingly expressing a preference to live in a bubble, surrounded only by people who act, think and look the same. They presumably remain oblivious to the reality of global demographics, as evident this month during the opening ceremony of the Rio Games. The athlete delegations from Brazil, Britain, Canada and the United States appeared almost indistinguishable, each reflecting a rich mix of races, religions and skin tones. For every Liam Heath among the British bunch, for instance, there also was a Christine Ohuruogu or Mohamed Farah.
This semester, don’t stick to who and what you know, finding the seat in the cafeteria where you’ll be surrounded only by people who look much like you.
Make room at the table for new and different faces.