My time at San Jose State University has been well-spent. To sum it up in a few words, the SJSU Spartans have taught me to serve, lead, speak, and above all else - to represent. Representing in all ways, and in all forms, Kappa Delta joins and underscores this notion when we ask our sisters to give attention to our Personal Presence, Attitude, Communication, and Enlarging Our World. We ask our sisters to act purposefully in AOT, and exhibit the leadership, membership, sisterhood, academic excellence, and philanthropy that would make our Founding Mothers proud. Today, I am asking that as a collective, we act strategically.
It wasn’t long after my initiation into Kappa Delta, that our past chapter President, Julia Howes and I, boarded a plane in San Francisco, California and landed in Salzburg, Austria. We traveled with the Salzburg Scholars of San Jose State (www.salzburg.sjsu.edu), a group of students sponsored to attend the Salzburg Global Seminar (www.salzburgseminar.org) with the intent to learn about global citizenship, and return to SJSU to act as catalysts for change within our University pertaining to global initiatives and education. I’m proud to say that our very own Sarah Sterling, who is Gamma Iota’s Vice President of Membership, will attend the Seminar this June.
In any case, through my time with the Seminar, both abroad and back at SJSU, my eyes have been opened to realities which are rarely seen, my mind is sharper and more focused on critically analyzing systemic problems, and my heart has more compassion for humanity. Through a lecture offered by two faculty members from Salzburg, who toured America giving their “informance” I have drawn another conclusion.
In their talk, “Jazz, The Classical Music of Globalization” Reinhold Wagnleitner and Tom McDermott illustrated the framework of music - especially Jazz, as a catalyst for cultural change which thereby has the opportunity to have an impact on the world. Professor Wagnleitner said at one point, that culture as a force, is always more important than the use of any weapon to create change. Eureka!
We have been socialized to believe that the use of weapons is an adequate solution to conflict. Nationally, locally, and personally, the amount of violent force in our world is preposterous and is indeed created not by the question of who’s going to use force - but who’s going to use force more effectively. It’s often already been decided when conflict is being acknowledged, that force is going to be used. This is a cultural aspect which needs to change for our world to echo the progressive nature that so many of us want to see.
To change our culture, we need to change our reality. In accepting that we create our own realities, we accept that we create our own culture. To move past the use of weapons, we must look to serve. Serving each other, serving other communities, and serving other nations will lead us to a service of ourselves - because our reality will improve. We must make it socially acceptable, and then expected that we be of service to each other. Surely, if nothing else it will offer us, as a collective of human beings (as opposed to a group of sorority girls, African-Americans, Christians, Atheists, Latino/a, Gay, Straight, etc) the opportunity to Enlarge our World by offering the perspective of another life, another struggle, another set of circumstances.
Philanthropy is rooted in service. It is by no means the same animal as service but where service is the investment of time and labor, philanthropy is the investment of money. This paradigm shift must begin in our service to each other, but it is my approximation that the understanding of doing community service will lead to the increase of philanthropic giving because our society will fundamentally understand the importance of investing in each other without the lure of increasing our own portfolios.
These two simple, yet extremely important steps are inherently based in culture. What we value, how we show support, how we treat each other, how we help each other, and what we invest ourselves in, are all culturally taught and we must remember that we have the ability to change that. We have the ability to create and re-create our own social norms. Nothing is static; nothing is outside of our ability to alter.
All of this is potential inertia. There must be a forward progression, and we are in a state where we are at risk for regression instead of that forward movement. With our weakened economic state, and the increase in competition over scarce resources we are extremely vulnerable to falling into a ruthless antithesis of servicing humanity. Our inability to invest our money may lead to a disinterest and disengagement in investing our time and energy. However, I submit to you that such an inability to see a bigger picture, and to act through these difficult times towards a shared future, will certainly lead to future generations having to recreate the work and successes - the progress that has already been made, instead of pushing further and pioneering through new and uncharted waters in humanity.
As Kappa Deltas, we are in a premier position to affect this positive change. We are leaders on our respective campuses. We are looked to nationally as a leader in philanthropic endeavors and community service activities. We must continue to serve others, and increase the level of service that we are providing. In our daily lives, we need to make a strategic and purposeful effort to smile, open and hold doors, help those less fortunate, and at the risk of being clique - “pass it on”. Past that fundamental effort, we need to raise the expectation of service in those around us. We must make it socially-expected that our Greek communities provide meaningful service and that we are serving for more reason than obligation and requirement. I am positive that such an effort, on all of our individual parts, will indeed fuse as a collective effort on behalf of Kappa Delta, and will spread like wildfire to those whom we have extended a hand to, and so that someday we will act with hands and hearts instead of weapons and threats.
Ann Marie Grabowski will graduate from San Jose State in May 2009. She is getting a double major in behavioral science and sociology. She is minoring in public administration and public policy. She was the homecoming queen in 2008.