2008 Woodie Awards
Students must see themselves as global citizens
Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: Opinion
Many members of the Collegio were recently impressed by Maggie Fleming, a PSU alumna who now works as a human rights adviser for Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas.
Fleming was the featured speaker at the 2008 Apple Day Convocation, held at 3 p.m. in McCray Recital Hall on the PSU campus. She has been to Africa several times and has worked in many roles on the continent, both officially and unofficially, helping the impoverished and sick to survive in a world whose resources are spread increasingly thin.
Fleming was an excellent choice as an Apple Day speaker, imparting not only the idea that one student truly can make a greater difference, but also that the emerging generations of PSU graduates are not blind to conflict and strife elsewhere in the world.
Americans are often caricaturized by other nations as being an arrogant and isolated people who feel no need to care for others, as all their needs are apparently met. Indeed, we are a fortunate country, and our good fortunes are ensured often by our abilities to focus on problems at home before worrying about troubles abroad.
However, students like Fleming are helping to prove that Americans - even small-town Kansans - can think globally, can see themselves as part of a global community.
Now, more than ever, it is important that we realize just how interdependent every nation of this planet is, just how connected we are as humans, despite any given country of origin.
College students must assume their roles not just as the future of this country but as the future of a world that is getting smaller and smaller.
We urge PSU students to continue to think globally and embrace the world in which they hope to blossom and grow - and, like Fleming, keep it safe for those who come next.
Fleming was the featured speaker at the 2008 Apple Day Convocation, held at 3 p.m. in McCray Recital Hall on the PSU campus. She has been to Africa several times and has worked in many roles on the continent, both officially and unofficially, helping the impoverished and sick to survive in a world whose resources are spread increasingly thin.
Fleming was an excellent choice as an Apple Day speaker, imparting not only the idea that one student truly can make a greater difference, but also that the emerging generations of PSU graduates are not blind to conflict and strife elsewhere in the world.
Americans are often caricaturized by other nations as being an arrogant and isolated people who feel no need to care for others, as all their needs are apparently met. Indeed, we are a fortunate country, and our good fortunes are ensured often by our abilities to focus on problems at home before worrying about troubles abroad.
However, students like Fleming are helping to prove that Americans - even small-town Kansans - can think globally, can see themselves as part of a global community.
Now, more than ever, it is important that we realize just how interdependent every nation of this planet is, just how connected we are as humans, despite any given country of origin.
College students must assume their roles not just as the future of this country but as the future of a world that is getting smaller and smaller.
We urge PSU students to continue to think globally and embrace the world in which they hope to blossom and grow - and, like Fleming, keep it safe for those who come next.
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