As Father Frank passed around the month-old newspaper displaying a front-page photo of a dead body with its decapitated head lying a foot away, I let my eyes go out of focus as they pooled with tears.
“To tell an accurate story of the individuals involved in the drug cartels is very dangerous,” he said.
Just the day before, I had been chatting with a young graphic designer born, raised and still living in Juarez, Mexico. I told him I was studying journalism. His eyes got big and he gave a nervous chuckle. “We stay away from that,” he said.
These encounters on my spring break service trip to El Paso, Texas, across from Juarez on the U.S.-Mexico border, forced an unexpected reflection on my career path. While I am sitting in a classroom learning concepts and techniques, I fail to grasp the magnitude and power of the skills I gain.
I practice my skills through abstract scenarios and perhaps the occasional project that attempts to apply them to the real world, but the classroom seems far from reality. Many of us can attest that this is not unique to journalism but seems to be true in most undergraduate programs.
The skills acquired in any discipline can have far-reaching consequences if applied in the right way. Government officials and business owners of all types are targeted in Juarez because they have money. Journalists are not the only victims.
So what? Most journalism students will probably never report from the front lines of the so-called “war on drugs.” Most political science students will never be ambassadors in cities plagued by violence and political instability.
Most business students will never have a gun held to their head by a 15-year-old who needs money to buy tortilla. If I won’t be in that position, why should I care?
On the one hand, this helps me realize how blessed I am to receive an education. Right now, I am lucky to be here and not there. True. On the other hand, it also helps me realize that the skills and knowledge that I am gaining are not something to be taken lightly.
As a wealthy, educated U.S. citizen, I have more power than the majority of individuals in the world, and most of the time I don’t even think about it.
Sometimes the problems of the world are overwhelming. It is easy to say that my efforts won’t make any difference anyway and find a comfortable job in a familiar place. But that is wrong. All of our efforts will make a difference.
We cannot continue to sit through classes without connecting what we are learning to the real world. And by the “real world,” I don’t mean the cut-throat competition of corporate America. I mean the huge population in our world that cannot even get access to clean water, let alone a quality education.
My peers in Juarez are risking their lives to attain an education that I take for granted. We must connect our skills and knowledge to this reality and realize that we can change it.
Emily Ruskamp, Arts & Sciences senior