Find opportunities to aid, explore world

For the average Tech student, the trek to graduation is a long and arduous one. According to a 2004 report by the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, among students who entered Tech all the way back in 1998, only 25.9 percent graduated in four years or less. (That number jumps to 61.9 percent after five years, in case you're curious.) There is little evidence to show that the numbers have seen a significant improvement since. My own purely unscientific impression is that the vast majority of the people I speak with expect to graduate at least one semester beyond the typical collegiate four years.

Further unscientific impressions lead me to believe that most people don't hang around at Tech because of how much they love the courses they are taking, so presumably this is not a strictly voluntary phenomenon. The reasons for the long path to the BS are varied. Some are good, such as: "I participated in a co-op program and got five semesters of work experience," while some are rather bad, such as: "I flunked Calculus II. Three times." And, of course, some are just plain ugly: "I transferred from a different school after three years and all the credits I had were reduced to just 10 hours at Tech."

Regardless of the reason though, it seems Tech students already take quite a while to graduate. Is it any surprise, then, that when it comes to going abroad, most students find the program that is closest to their academic or future career needs? Any program that does not fulfill some requirement, be it academic or professional, is very quickly eliminated from contention.While the attitude behind these decisions is quite understandable, the Tech-induced push toward "academics über alles" carries a large downside: Students here are unable to do long-term volunteer work (among other things) without actively taking off the semester or year from school.

The impressive reaction of Tech students to major disasters around the world, ranging from the 2004 tsunami to last year's Hurricane Katrina, has shown beyond a doubt that the student body is passionate about helping solve global issues. But at Tech, these students are limited to supporting the causes they believe in monetarily, or, at best, through short work trips during breaks. These opportunities are certainly better than nothing at all, but so much more could be done if the Institute's policies were more obliging. Despite the fact that Tech lacks some of the majors for which going to teach English abroad or working in a non-governmental organization (NGO) is directly applicable, there is no reason that we should be passively discouraged from such undertakings.

Opportunities to make a difference are abundant. One such opportunity is available through an international student organization called AIESEC. (Full disclosure: I hold an officer position in the Tech chapter of AIESEC.) AIESEC in the United States runs the Salaam, meaning "peace" in Arabic, program. This program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, was created after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to help bridge the gap between the United States and the Arab world. It works to do so by sending American students on internships to one of four Middle Eastern nations: Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. There, students may perform a variety of tasks, from teaching English to schoolchildren to helping in the management of an NGO.

The American students who go abroad through the Salaam program will see the way normal people in the region live, rather than the vilified view of Middle Easterners that is often presented in the U.S. today. At a time when people are rushing off airplanes in fear simply because some poor innocent Arabs need to get from London to Madrid, these students will gain a more rational view of the world, rather than the "I'm pissing my pants in fear" view that is being hoisted upon us by sensationalist media and desperate politicians.

Just as importantly, these students can be ambassadors of the U.S. in the Middle East, because the misconceptions about one another's culture run both ways. Through day-to-day interaction with the regular people around them, Salaam participants can show that America is not the Great Evil and that it isn't true that everyone in the U.S. simply hates Arabs. The program empowers students with the opportunity to make small but crucial steps towards ending the conflict between the Arab and Western worlds.

There are more than 50 opportunities available for American students in the Middle East right now; 50 slots in a life-changing program that are currently not filled by Tech students, partly as a result of the Institute's failure to make this a viable option. And there are countless other programs that offer an opportunity to make a difference as well.

Tech has made steps in the right direction, rolling out the International Plan and working on a new leadership initiative. But I think it is time to put the two together and provide active encouragement for us to undertake projects like these. After all, good leaders are globally-aware and passionate individuals, and an experience like the Salaam program provides a valuable stepping stone towards bigger, better achievements. In today's increasingly competitive market, proven leadership in a potentially stressful situation abroad may be far more valuable than that "sit around and surf the internet" co-op job. Why not put the two on the same level?

More information about AIESEC is available at www.aiesecgt.org.