Over the past year, the Student Government Association and the University have promoted the importance of two words: “Civic Engagement”. This movement encourages our students to become members of a community beyond the Hill. Under this banner, faculty, staff, and students established the Presidential Debate Watch and helped our students register to vote. Also, the University sponsored internships that permit Western students to serve the community. El Centro La Esperanza is a Hispanic resource center where Spanish students serve; Geographic Information Systems students are applying their education at the Police Department. These programs are giving resources and help to our community.

Civic Engagement also benefits us. Civic Engagement places students in learning environments outside Western. This real world experience simply cannot be encountered in our classrooms and it gives enduring knowledge. Civic Engagement is a truly worthwhile endeavor. However, we must embrace our student’s own exploring of how they can best serve and learn.

Recently, I left classes for a week to assist my father Dr. Olen Taylor Collins, the superintendent of hurricane battered Orange, Texas. What I learned while I was there was intense. In class, I could read about disasters and disaster response. But being there gives a complex perspective of what truly happens. I felt the constant pain and frustration victims experience. I saw how and when organizations fail. And now I also know how to bring a school district back online and the important role schools have in helping communities recover from disasters. It was tough, but it was a valuable experience since possible career paths for me include educational administration.

Yet no University policy facilitated my experience. I depended on my professors’ permission to go. Any one of them could have penalized me for my absence. I am very grateful and lucky that they worked with me. I thank them. I have completed all the work and fulfilled every responsibility. But it could have been very different. This University holds Civic Engagement as a prime goal, and through policy we should clearly permit and encourage these independent studies.

Civic Engagement isn’t always easy; indeed, it can be very brutal. But, what Civic Engagement gives back is proportional to what is put in. Volunteering an hour to referee kids’ football is a valuable service. But sometimes the harder and more demanding activities produce a wealth of experience unequaled. It is important that our students experience both. And Western Kentucky University should directly and loudly support both.

Joshua Collins
SGA Senator
Jackson, Ky
Senior
Spanish and Geography Major