Having just completed his junior
year at USC, Roque’s enthusiasm for learning
opportunities didn’t begin with his journey to Hong Kong.
He had already served as a Fellow at a marketing firm based in New
Jersey and he was one of ninety students selected last
summer to intern in Taipei for two
months through the University-sponsored Global Fellows Internship Program. Now
he’s in Hong Kong assisting in the launch of the
University’s international academy this summer. This internship is highly
competitive and Roque was one of two USC
students selected to participate. All
this while excelling in his course work and being selected as captain of the USC
Trial Advocacy Team…and now he is blogging about the experience.
As I thought about how much Roque
has accomplished in three short years, it occurred to me that, in addition to
his intellectual talent, intense commitment to the task at hand and amazing
resolve, there is an additional factor, rooted in the culture of La Salle that,
as the Marketing Committee of the Board of Regents likes to remind me from
time-to-time, is often obscured by our tendency towards modesty in celebrating
the accomplishments of our students. That factor - embracing diversity as an
educational end in itself - pushes our students to become their best selves in
the four short years they spend with us. Embracing diversity has been at the
center of the philosophy of Lasallian schools across the globe since Saint John
Baptist de La Salle founded them over 300 years ago. As one commentator once
observed:
“La Salle believed that rather than
undermining society, the education of the poor and working class would lift all
of society.”
Indeed, so successful were his
schools that middle class and affluent families were soon attracted to them.
Brother Gerard Rummery, a prolific educational philosopher on the unique value
of Lasallian schools framed their contribution this way:
“The counter to this (schools segregated by
wealth and class) was the school which "ran well" (a frequent
expression of De La Salle), where all children could come irrespective of their social status, and where all could obtain the
basic education which made them capable of obtaining useful steady employment,
thereby enhancing their human dignity.”
In short, Brother Gerard notes that “La Salle
made it possible for the poor boy and the better off boy to sit on the same
benches.” This was a key element of De La Salle’s educational genius and
continues to characterize today’s Lasallian schools located in over 83
countries. By making it possible for wealth and class to become irrelevant in
the school, De La Salle made it possible for teachers and students to learn
from each other - “together and by association.”
At La
Salle, we celebrate the rich dynamic that is created when students
from all walks of life gather together in the same space. We know that the bonds of friendship - of
association - nurtured in an ethnically and economically diverse world benefits
everyone and makes it possible for students to become their best selves. At La
Salle, Roque’s story is impressive, but not unique. We expect
every student, regardless of background, to seize opportunities as they present
themselves, to stretch the limits of their imagination and to look to their
peers for lessons that only a diverse student body is capable of producing.
I asked
Roque if I could share his Blog with the readers of this space. He was happy to
give me permission:
Oh, and by the way, he just made the second round cut for a
position next year as a White House intern.
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