As I meet new students through my work at Indiana University Bloomington, I often hear a variation of students’ desire to change the world after college: “I want to be a doctor (like Dr. George Huntington) and to combat Huntington’s disease.” “I want to be a nurse (like Margaret Sanger) and to provide access to birth control in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Although these are beautiful goals students should develop while in college, I believe that undergraduate students must spend more time trying to be like Dr. Huntington or Mrs. Sanger instead of wanting to do like Dr. Huntington or Mrs. Sanger.

Ever since freshman year, I have always believed that colleges and universities can change each student in both small and significant ways. My prior educational experiences, while at the University of California at Irvine and Boston College, have contributed to the shaping of my understanding on the importance of social justice and inclusion in American higher education. Unfortunately, due to the on-going tension between marketization and academization in higher education, I believe that many colleges and universities have now become an engine of inequality, often skewed into unrealistic goals and frequently misinterpreted as a singular act or event. What is more reluctant, however, is the stigma of mediocrity and sub-par expectations that higher education has created for marginalized working-class and needy families.

Instead of accepting the Darwinian exercise of the "survival of the fittest," I believe that many colleges and universities have overlooked the importance of holding students accountable for their learning and their success, particularly those in developing nations. Further, I believe that higher education providers in third world countries (e.g., Cambodia, Ecuador, Ghana) have failed to prepare students to compete for the global knowledge-based economy. I believe that leaders of higher education must establish innovative policies and programs that would improve the life chances of young people in marginalized communities. Reality dictates that these differences will never be entirely accommodated and that perfect equality is difficult, if not impossible. However, I believe that raising the bar of expectation within college learning while providing the means to clear that bar, is not out of the question but an entirely reasonable goal.

Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff of Yale University once stated: “Higher education institutions must not just teach about justice – though we must; I mean we must teach for justice. The graduates whom we seek to produce must be one who practices justice” (p. 24). Thus, I believe that if I want to enact change in the field of higher education and student affairs, I must be equipped; I must grow; I must learn how to change it. The difference that I might incur with this perspective is minute, or perhaps microscopic, likely to go entirely unnoticed. However, I believe that the change I might bear to a student who realizes his/her full potential in college is something I feel is worth investing as an educator or scholar.

This I believe – is good enough to say that I want to be a change in the world. To change the world requires knowledge, skills, and dedication, which is why my former school motto of Boston College is Ever to Excel.