The deliberation I went to was entitled “Get Schooled: Is College Really Worth It?” and discussed the values that drive students to attend college. The first approach outlined that it’s the cultural aspect that drew people to college, that students come to “gain social and cultural awareness. Approach two proposed that students desire to attend college to be well-rounded, and the final approach detailed that students are attracted to college to gain career skills. The deliberation started with the moderation team introducing themselves and sharing their take on the issue, and everyone else did the same around the room. A little over twenty people came, and I thought that was a good number of people given the small space we were tightly packed into. I liked this beginning section; it let everyone know where the other deliberators stood before even starting. Also, one thing that I thought the leading group did well was that I was skipped when going around the circle, but one member stopped the moderators from continuing to make sure I could share my personal stake first. Then, the first approach mini-team went to the front of the stage and led the deliberation. The discussion went really smoothly for this approach, as it did for the other two as well, and the deliberating seemed to flow freely the whole time. There was a lot of constructive commenting on what they moderating team outlined and on tangents that were covered but weren’t originally in the team’s plan. Some points brought up were that there are cultures at college that students would never be exposed to otherwise and cultural awareness is increasingly important in today’s world. My personal opinion about this approach was that the cultural exposure and understanding are important in a world that seems to always get smaller, but that’s not why I chose to attend college. One thing that I felt could’ve been handled better was the way the first approach was ended; the moderator stood up, said “Okay, it’s clear that we all agree that…,” and then proceeded to say something that was the polar opposite of anything I was thinking or had contributed. I thought the goal of the deliberation was to achieve a common ground, but one was not reached during the first approach. It could’ve been handled better by saying that the majority of the deliberators agreed on something and then at least addressing the minority’s opinion. The second approach discussion went just as well as the first; people were continuously contributing to the discussion and participating in friendly and constructive deliberation. This approach mainly dealt with general education classes and their pros and cons. The final agreement here, this time unanimous, was that they were helpful and necessary, but students are forced to take too many. In fact, one girl present, a history major, said that she could get a history major and another at less credits than the credit amount of the gen-ed classes. I was shocked to hear this considering that my major, mining engineering is over 120 credits. It was then that I realized that out of everyone in the room, I was one of only two people that shared their major that was a STEM major; both of us were a type of engineering while everyone else was music, history, film, or education to name a few examples. This led me to believe that maybe the group of people in attendance might not accurately display the beliefs of all of campus because of the lack of spread in majors present. The last approach was that students were drawn to college to prepare for a career, which didn’t have as much of a following as I thought it would. Again, the deliberation went very well and was enjoyable to participate in. Out of the people participating, I was the only one that completely supported this approach as a reason to come to college. To me, the other two approaches were a bonus to the main goal of college, but maybe that had to do with my major. For example, the film major said that she didn’t need to come to college at all to be able to make movies. All she had to do was “move to LA and find someone who would hire her.” I know for engineering and many other majors this is not the case. For others, such as the history major, college was about getting a career, but they wouldn’t be able to without the gen-ed classes. The history major said that her adviser told her that if all she had was a history degree that she would be “unemployable,” and that she would need a special skill like speaking Arabic to set herself apart from the crowd. One thing about the deliberation as a whole that they moderators could have handled better was the fact that a table of six or seven girls was sitting right behind the deliberation and was being very loud. In my opinion, they should’ve at least been asked to talk a little quieter. Since I was sitting in the back of the deliberation, the girls made it hard to hear at times. Overall, the deliberation went really well and I was happy I picked that one to go to. I was very interested to hear why other people came to college considering that I was set in my opinion that I came to college to get ready for a career. I did get to hear the opinions of others, but my opinion was not changed during the course of the deliberation.