This week, I’ve been mesmerized by the idea of a campus. Specifically, our shared, comfortable, and well-loved campus here at Penn State. Merriam-Webster defines a campus as “the grounds and buildings of a university, college, or school”. However, the word “camp” within campus resonates with me more. A camp is a home-base; a place where people like to spend their time, feel safe to adventure, explore, try new things, and learn. In my experience, Penn State’s “campus feel” spreads farther than just the physical boundaries of this university. It resonates in downtown State College as well, which only contributes to the cozy, college-town feel that I’ve learned to love so much.
The sense of ownership over this campus is amazing. We all wake up everyday knowing where we need to go and what we need to do. People walk around with a sense of purpose: off to class, on a run, lunch at Irving’s, or to Old Main for a sun nap. During the busy exchange between classes, I take comfort in looking around and knowing that all the people here are united by a common denominator: our campus. I felt these feelings most strongly on Tuesday evening as I biked through campus on my way to the IM fields for a soccer game. As I rode through downtown and along the smooth campus roads, through the throes of pedestrians, cars, CATAbuses, and other bikers, I couldn’t help but feel “This is mine! And this is yours! This is our home, and we all belong here”.There are people in all nooks and crannies of this large university, and even though I don’t know most of these people, the sense of community is extremely comforting at times. It’s hard to be alone here. I’m already afraid for this time next year when I have to prepare myself to leave this place.
While on the topic of community, I attended a structured diversity conversation this week. I often struggle to find meaningful things to contribute during these conversations due to my background and demographics (white, female, upper-middle class), but I always learn incredible amounts just by listening. In just ten scholars around the breakfast table, an amazing amount of diversity was present: race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and socioeconomic status just to name a few. While we didn’t come to many conclusions about how to increase or better appreciate diversity at Penn State, I think we all left with a slightly broadened view of the struggles of our peers and the different viewpoints of other members of our shared camp.
The other highlight of my week was that I had to interview a non-student stranger downtown for a class assignment. Although daunting at first, it went quite well, and I think that’s a testament to the type of people that live, work, and play in State College. Maybe its a group-think mentality or maybe its just me, but I think the essence of a campus that we all live in or around is an extremely powerful uniting factor. While both amazing things and terribly tragic things happen here, Penn State is our camp for four years and it’s up to us to build it up to be the community we most desire.
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