As the school year lulls from first exams into fall break, we have the opportunity to reflect on the first complete month of the year.
With a break from academics, we can relax and compare our personal and professional performances of this year’s beginning to last year’s, and even to ones before that.
Many times when we look back we see an increase in difficult material and a consequent rise to meet the challenge presented to us. We see more time spent in professors’ offices, more time spent at internships and work and more time spent in the library.
And many times, we see our extra work rewarded.
This year, we at The Scout tried to look back not only on our personal performance but also at the work of the administration, clubs, organizations and sports teams, whose successes and shortcomings we’ve covered since the year began.
And this year, we like what we see.
We see the Campaign for a Bradley Renaissance entering its second tier of rebirth: a rebirth of ideas.
Just as the European Renaissance began with a restructuring of Rome and Italy, Bradley, too, needed to rebuild before new ideas could flourish on the Hilltop.
We needed to change our setting, from the buildings we work and live in to the professors who teach us, before we could start conceiving new ideas on how to be Braves. And now that many new and renovated buildings populate campus, we’re starting to see some great new ideas about Bradley take shape.
Ideas about school spirit, about student involvement and about student responsibility are springing up left and right, and this year more than ever Braves are starting to change the way they see Bradley.
The soccer team is 5-3-1, defeating national-ranked No. 1 UCONN and No. 3 Northwestern.
New clubs have given Braves more opportunities to get involved.
The Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation was created last year, allowing all students to nurture creative and innovative skills.
And three different campus spirit campaigns are coming into focus, including the “I Am Brave” campaign that celebrates underappreciated students, discussed further in this week’s article, “DON’T FORGET THIS STUPID HEADLINE.”
And we’re seeing the effects all over campus. More people are sitting in the Michel Student Center between classes. More people are finding Bradley profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
More people are getting involved.
Bradley is moving from a dark age to a new era of intellect and growth, and we as students are moving with it. We’re moving into a world of honest communication and increased knowledge, where we can encourage those around us to start and mold new ideas, and to throw out or challenge old ones.
We’re changing the Hilltop.
We may already be called Braves, but now we’re becoming brave.
