My PSU is much grittier than this. I have a little office in Cramer Hall, which looks like it was designed to survive a nuclear attack. Let's just say it's short on charm. The ground floor of our Student Union does not exude luxury. We still have a lot of wooden desks that are bolted to the floor. When I am teaching 3.5 hour classes, I am always thankful to be standing up rather than sitting down in such classrooms.
A very small percentage of the students live on campus. Most of them seem to be always coming or going, not just hanging out. They are coming to and from work, or rushing home to pick up their kids from daycare, maybe caring for an elderly parent.
It's the students who make PSU beautiful.
For starters, they are truly diverse. Even a small class is apt to have students from several different countries. Unlike certain colleges which will remain unnamed, PSU is not dominated by white students from privileged backgrounds who are trying to outdo each other in being more radical and sensitive than thou--not that there's anything wrong with that. Rather, at PSU you find thoughtful students who are Mormons, Muslims, radical feminists, evangelical Christians, evangelical atheists, Socialists and Libertarians and everyone in between, and, of course, the guy who believes that hemp is the solution to every problem. They usually listen to and respect each other.
And there are so many amazing stories, from the young woman who was a pregnant gang member at fifteen and is now headed off to law school to the guy who dropped out of high school and almost drank himself to death for years and is now getting an education to help others avoid those choices to the innumerable mothers and fathers who are somehow going to school and working one or two or three jobs and raising children and volunteering in their communities and turning in amazing papers and thank you at the end of the term.
Thank you for the inspiration.
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