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Maggie Roll

Won't you be my neighbor?

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  It’s a beautiful day for neighbors.  Could you be mine, would you be mine?  Won’t you be my neighbor?  -Mister Rogers

One of the great things about GSP is that it creates neighbors. Sure, in many ways we’re all neighbors, and thanks to the internet, our neighborhood is growing daily. But, unless you’ve been next door to borrow a cup of sugar or a light bulb, having neighbors doesn’t really mean much; they’re abstract, there-but-not-there. At GSP though, we’re borrowing light bulbs and cups of sugar daily.  Our Scholars are from every county in the Commonwealth. Our faculty and staff are just as diverse. Clarence Wyatt [campus director of GSP and Pottinger Professor of History and special assistant to the president at Centre] refers to Western Kentucky as “God’s Country,” but I’m sure that if he’d grown up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky like I did, he’d know the truth. Prior to GSP, most Scholars probably hadn’t met many people from all across the Commonwealth, much less experienced living with them or sharing intense dialogues with them, such as our People Buffet discussions. You get to know your neighbors pretty quickly when you delve into typically taboo topics like race, gender roles and religion.  

Many classes also provide opportunities to meet neighbors outside Centre’s campus through field trips, guest speakers, and collaboration with local organizations. The students in my major and minor classes are getting an opportunity to practice their Spanish and make some local neighbors. GSP has teamed with Centro Latino, an organization that provides resources and summer activities for local youth from Spanish-speaking families. Scholars help plan and organize the activities we do together. Most of the Centro Latino group is elementary school age, but a few are close in age with the Scholars themselves, creating a great opportunity for community building. We’re really enjoying getting to know each other on Centre’s campus. We’ve played a variety of out-door games, read to each other in the library, made ice cream in the basement of Nevin, and once a week we make a well anticipated trip to the swimming pool! This week we also started to get to know our neighbors in Danville.  We had a great tour of the fire station and Little Caesar’s Pizza. Both organizations were so very welcoming that we might plan other Danville field trips.   

By the end of the GSP though, like ‘regular’ neighbors, many of us will pack up and move away. But, here’s the cool thing: we’ll see each other again. Once this neighborhood is created, it lasts.  I attended GSP as a scholar ten summers ago. Since then, I’ve run into my fellow scholars in college classes, at parties and social events, and even randomly at Wal-Mart. Wherever I’ve gone in the last ten years, my neighbors have been. When I meet people from a different part of the state, I’m always able to say, “I know somebody from there.” When I’m meeting someone new I can always say, “I went to GSP.” You’d be surprised at the number of people who respond “Really? I did too.  What campus?” I can’t wait for this year’s scholars to have these experiences and feel connections that come from being part of the GSP neighborhood.

I hope and expect that as our five weeks together continue and we continue to explore our neighborhood, we’ll find that people we originally found to be different and therefore a little scary, are in many ways just like us. Regardless of our race, religion or gender, once we meet our neighbors face-to-face and spend time getting to know them, we’re suddenly able to focus on our similarities while our differences fade into the background. So, this week I challenge you to get to know your neighbor!

Click here to read What’s so special about GSP anyway? by Maggie Roll

Click here to read Anticipation by Maggie Roll

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/