Good afternoon, dear readers,
Today is my twenty-first birthday, so this should again be a short post as I'd like to spend most of my day celebrating, understandably.
I've always enjoyed my birthday, and I think that birthday gifts are a part of why I enjoy it so much. This year, though, the biggest gift is not anything that I have personally received, but rather a gift to the whole Davidson College community.
This morning, the Duke Endowment, which is already responsible for over $100 million in donations to the college in the past 88 years, announced that it would be giving a gift of forty-five million dollars to the college. I'm writing the number out like that, not only because it is the largest single gift ever given to Davidson in the school's nearly 200-year history, but also because of the impact it is expected to have on everyone here - the student body, the faculty, and the staff. It's important to mention that the aim of plans for the money will help to break down barriers between those three groups, so we really can call ourselves the "Davidson family."If you're part of the Davidson community, you've probably already heard something about this gift - my Facebook feed alone is blowing up with the news - but I wanted to offer my own remarks.
One of my favorite things in life is to see clear, exciting plans for progress. So, I'm pretty much always happy on my birthday, as it represents a milestone in my life and allows me to reflect on the changes of the previous year. Davidson's plan for this outstanding gift is another reason for me to be happy.
Although the plans are not terribly detailed at this point from what I've seen so far, Davidson plans to use this money to "remake the model of a liberal arts education," by "reimagining the academic neighborhood." What this means is that over the next ten years, pretty much all of the academic buildings will be renovated into state-of-the-art facilities that stress giving individual departments the tools they need to succeed, while creating "community and flexible spaces" that foster interdisciplinary study and research.
Offhand, I'd say that this will improve the overall academic quality of Davidson as well as allow for new majors, minors, and concentrations, particularly those that bridge the divide between arts and sciences. This isn't the "political science tower" that one of my professors and I dreamed of, but it's truly an advancement that benefits everyone. Overall, it will turn Davidson into an academic "neighborhood" that should really break down the barriers that separate a lot of majors from each other - barriers that I as well as many others are aware of.
The overhaul will begin in 2013 with more concrete plans for this transformation, and it's expected that the changes will take place over a decade. This means that neither I nor many of my classmates and colleagues will be here when the changes are complete, but I am thrilled to see what this means for future generations of Davidson students and the future of Davidson as an institution. To quote a goofy new-wave song, "the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."
I was planning to focus on my own personal accomplishments over the last year, but this amazing announcement derailed those plans (although happily so). In the interests of space, I'm going to go for a short list of accomplishments instead of a whole post - sort of a "Top Ten" in no particular order:
1. Became a political science major
2. Became president of both the college's chapter of Amnesty International as well as the Eumenean Society, Davidson's oldest social organization
3. Began the process of restructuring the Eumenean Society into a dynamic and active group on campus
4. Travelled to Russia, China, and Mongolia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad
5. Became a regular tour guide for the college
6. Made at least two dozen new friends, some of whom are now my closest friends
7. Further focused my future interests on conflict in Southern Africa and post-Soviet states.
8. Lost 15 pounds over the summer
9. Read over a dozen books, making progress on my four-page reading list.
10. Continued to lead a life that I can say has been happy and fulfilling, which I couldn't do without the support of my family and friends.
Thank you all for reading so far!
TL;DR: I'm 21 now; Davidson just received an amazing gift that will transform its academic environment for the better; I can think of at least ten things to be proud of myself for in the past year.
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