Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Welcome

It's an exciting time at UC San Diego right now. Admission decisions are going out and high-school seniors' lives are being changed. For the past week, we College Ambassadors have rotated spending four hours a night calling admitted students to congratulate them and the reward is sometimes overwhelming:

"Is this a prank? Are you sure it's not a prank?"
"I'm literally in disbelief. This is THE UCSD?"
"OH MY GOD REALLY!? Wait, are you kidding? No!?"
"You made my day, thank you so much."
"God bless you, whoever you are!"

They're so happy, so excited, giddy with surprise and disbelief. I adore being the voice in the phone delivering the news. They've worked hard, they've gotten the grades, anxiously waited...and now I get to tell them they've made it. I spent nearly 45 minutes with one admitted student, Ava, who is interested in majoring in International Studies, wants to do humanitarian work, and wanted to know everything about refugees in San Diego. Somehow, we ended up having a deep conversation about the importance of keeping humanity in mind throughout our college career. How it's so easy to get tied up in the theory and complications and cynicism that you lose sight of the very real people you care so much about. In pursuit of the answer, you can't lose sight of the people you're trying to help. It was refreshing and inspiring and I finished the call excited about life, my future, and the passionate young woman who shared her heart with me. She's going places, she'll do something beautiful someday. 

It's exciting to think about who the next generation of students will be.

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