…and now, for your reading enjoyment, an entry by Rebecca Bell…
I just spent the last half hour trying to call a prospective student who is in a rural area in west Africa. The irony of the situation is that I don’t think it was her phone that was the issue. Our phones here at SIT were down for a little while today while they did some repair to the line.
I am often in wonder at all the technology that is at our fingertips and allows us to connect with each other at the push of a button. It is interesting though, that often (especially in the US) we are rendered “helpless” by the loss of power for a few hours, or the phone or internet being out. Many of us live, or have lived, in areas where a couple hours with power is a luxury.
For example, I was in Pakistan over the winter break visiting family and friends. The timing of our trip was not ideal—we arrived the day Benazir Bhutto was assassinated and the riots began. Because of the rioting, many of the fuel trucks and fuel lines and power lines were destroyed, therefore the power plants were not able to get the supplies they needed to continue to function. We found ourselves sitting the dark for much of the time we were there. But that did not matter so much, because it just gave us more opportunity to talk and spend time together since there was nowhere else to go and not much else to do.
There is so much to share with each other, and that can be done using tools such as the internet and blogging and myspace, etc. But it is important that we don’t forget the face to face personal contact. That is one thing I love about SIT—I can always go over to the International Center cafeteria and have a great conversation wherever I might choose to sit down. I can go to El Café and have coffee with someone I might not ever have met unless I was sitting right there at SIT.
I know that without some of those things like email and phones, many of the students who are at SIT right now, probably would not be here. But it is just nice sometimes to take the time to have that person to person contact with whoever you happen to meet when you step out of your office.
In the meantime, I will continue to press “redial” and see if I can get through to this applicant who is in a remote village half way around the world.
Want to connect with other prospective students over facebook? Join our SIT PIM Admissions Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5979207231
Tags: Rebecca Bell
