Dylan Manderlink | On September 24, 2015
Although my college experience attending a hyper-focused creative arts and communications school in downtown Boston greatly differs from my friends who attended schools with a plethora of general education classes and various majors, my unique higher education experience set me up for post-grad success in a way people may not expect.
I continue to be immensely grateful for the opportunity I had to attend college and pursue a degree. Out of a long list, here are a few lessons I had the opportunity to learn while attending a creative, urban arts and communications school:
Life is bigger than a classroom.
One of the main reasons I applied for schools in the middle of a city is because I wanted my college experience to be more than the four walls of a classroom. I wanted to extend my education onto the city sidewalk—not just a quad. An urban environment to me meant seeing more, experiencing more, and being exposed to more of the world around me. Yes, the content and lessons learned in a classroom are important and necessary, but it’s not all encompassing.
School doesn’t end when class is over.
A lot of my learning in college continued when I took on opportunities outside of the classroom. Whether it was an internship, volunteer opportunity, community event, or extracurricular experience, I was able to apply parts of my classroom learning to hands-on experiences outside of the classroom. This educational partnership allowed me to hone my skills, observe the world around me through various unique lenses, and help me develop a real-world understanding of what I was learning in my college classes.
Talking to people with different viewpoints fosters new growth.
The artistic, creative, progressive collective community at my college was reassuring in so many ways and definitely complemented my liberalness, feminism, passion for social justice, and interest in progressive ideas. However, that community—although inspiring and welcoming in so many ways—didn’t always challenge me. We shared very similar mindsets, rallied around similar issues, and envisioned our world in similar ways (of course with our own dose of uniqueness). And although I enjoyed and learned from every moment of that, I learned even more when I stepped outside of that safe comfort zone and spoke to people who weren’t as open-minded. Explaining my viewpoint without the support of my artsy, progressive-minded friends was a challenge but something I greatly learned from.
A fast-paced urban environment is inspiring.
There’s so much to take in and an abundance of new experiences and sights to discover. I made it a point to see as much of Boston as possible and soak in every moment of living in a fast-paced urban environment. Having the option to experience one of our nation’s most well-known and admired cities was such a privilege and filled me with memories I will always be grateful for. But the energy of a city can be draining and exhausting. In order to preserve my energy and stay inspired by the city I loved, I was mindful of how much I was doing and how frequently.
The creative and artistic community fosters empathy, compassion, and humanness—and it’s beautiful.
One of the most important lessons I learned while attending an urban performing arts and communications school is how passionate, empathetic, human, and compassionate artists and creative collaborators are. I attribute my involvement with social justice, non-profits, and feminism with the inspiring people I met during college. They understood the importance of embracing and celebrating our shared humanity and that we are all responsible for the injustices in the world and the solutions that can be put into action. As a current public school teacher through a public service organization, I’m motivated by fellow activists and artists who talk about how beautiful, open-minded, caring, and understanding human beings can be. We all coexist on this planet together, and we might as well peacefully and respectfully coexist.
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