Miami is a special place.
That's something we've all heard and maybe most of us even believe it. I have a friend whose AIM profile quotes Dr. Phillip Shriver, former president of Miami, as saying, "All roads don't lead to Oxford - you have to want to get here. But once you get here you never want to leave." The reason for that is simple; Miami offers everything that a college should.
The opportunities I have experienced here are things for which I will always be thankful. I spent a semester in Luxembourg. I think a number of writers for The Student have chronicled their time there, but I can't emphasize enough how great an opportunity it is to study abroad. Never again will I have the chance to have the same experience as being a college student in Europe with virtually no "real world" matters to worry about.
Miami offers the opportunity to get to know professors. I have been fortunate enough to get to know a number of professors quite well. There is a professor who I never had for class with whom I regularly trade e-mails about all sorts of campus issues. It's hard to imagine many other schools have professors so dedicated to students that they are willing to foster a relationship with a student that they never even taught.
I had another professor who, when he found out that I couldn't stay for the Miami hockey playoff game because they were kicking me out of the dorms for spring break, offered to allow me to stay in his home for the night. Again, Miami students have the opportunity to interact with professors who truly care and are not too busy to talk to them.
I have had the opportunity to take great classes at Miami. I know everyone hates the Miami Plan, but if you try hard enough you can find classes that are truly fantastic - even if they have nothing to do with your major.
Right now I'm in a political thinking class that is terrific. The entire class is discussion-based and I have read all of the classical theorists, the ones that you always said to yourself, "wouldn't it be cool to have read ..."
I also have a class that recently hosted a golf outing. The outing, which was sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, allowed a group of Miami students an opportunity to experience something many of them will surely face in the real world - the corporate golf event.
As a result of the opportunities provided by the class and the generosity of PwC, these students will now know what to expect when they enter the real world.
I have had the opportunity to get involved in things that matter to me. The Lutheran Campus Ministry here at Miami has changed my life in a variety of ways. I have had the opportunity to learn more about my faith, as well as to be involved with certain volunteer efforts that I never would have found on my own.
And of course, with apologies to ASG for the shameless plug, which I know they hate, I have been involved with The Student - a group of people without whom I can honestly not envision what my college experience would have been like.
Those are some of the opportunities I have taken advantage of, but there are literally hundreds of opportunities that Miami affords that I haven't even thought about. I have only listed those which I benefited from because I can't even try and attempt to create a list of the opportunities Miami offers.
What is clear, however, is that these are opportunities that we will never have again.
Miami presidential "candidate," David Hodge, has stated numerous times that the way that fundraising is successful is because of the stories he hopes to be able to tell about Miami. Its obvious to me from such statements that Hodge truly has a grasp of what Miami is and what it represents.
It is up to the students to make sure that they create stories they can be proud of. It is up to the president to understand these stories and share them with people. Rest assured, Mother Miami is practically begging each of us to make her stories our own.
