As the semester rushes to a close and our finals consume our thoughts, the world outside Tufts is easily neglected. For many of us, our educational pursuits include an exploration of approaches for the improvement of our communities, but amidst courses and, for seniors, the excitement of graduation, the external world often takes a backseat.
As always, this exam season will quickly pass, and its conclusion will signal the beginning of Senior Week. For approximately 10 days between the end of school and the graduation ceremony, seniors will be around campus, playing, partying, and enjoying the company of their friends before everyone heads off into a new direction. The question is this: when classes are over, will the world outside remain neglected, or will seniors use some of their time to reconnect with the community before they leave?
This year, for the first time, the Senior Week calendar will include a community service opportunity. On May 16, the Monday of Senior Week, students can sign up to volunteer outdoors with their friends for a day of service in Medford, one of Tufts' host communities. Seniors will have a chance, on this day, to do what a lot of us have being doing throughout our undergraduate experience: find a way to help a community thrive.
A few blocks behind Boston Avenue, just on the other side of the Mystic River, there is a park and performance shell in need of restoration. The park runs along the river, near Medford Square, and could be utilized as a beautiful public gathering space for both Tufts students and, more importantly, for Medford residents. Over the years, however, the park has deteriorated and has lost its beauty. We, the organizers of this project, have decided to improve the park for better use in the future.
On the day of service, students can volunteer to plant gardens throughout the park and to paint a large mural as a backdrop to the performance stage. While only 80 students will be able to participate in the park restoration, the entire senior class and the Tufts community will be invited to join Medford residents for a celebratory picnic and Jazz/Latin music concert on the same evening. The evening event is being advertised as "Jazz at the Shell."
The small team of students planning this project has been met with much enthusiasm from the city of Medford and from the Tufts student body. Nevertheless, we have also encountered the predictable naysayers who think that Senior Week is not a time for active citizenship, but rather a time to unwind.
Some predict that seniors will not volunteer for a service project during Senior Week, even if it is free, even if it is outdoors, even if it does seem like it might be fun. They say that no senior wants to sit on a picnic blanket among fellow students and Medford families and listen to a jazz concert. Instead, seniors want their pub nights, brewery tours, gala and nothing more.
We, the organizers of the Senior Week Service Project, are optimistic about the character of the Tufts community. We are hopeful that there are peers among us who value pub nights and amusement parks for the chance they provide to socialize with friends, but also see how a service project could meet that same aim in a fun, relaxed, yet productive way. Pub nights might garner great profits for the bar owner, but what other Senior Week activity will give seniors a chance to positively impact the civic life of a community? During Senior Week, we are fortunate to have recreational time, and there are 13 events on the calendar for which seniors just have to buy a ticket and "show up." We hope you, the class of 2005, will make time for one event that might require a little more effort, but will serve a greater end.
When setting your Senior Week schedule, we encourage seniors to help restore the park, to join us at "Jazz at the Shell," and to apply a lesson we have all learned at Tufts: college degrees serve not just to benefit ourselves, but also to benefit the easily neglected world around us.
Morgan Harper and Eitan D. Hersh are seniors majoring in Spanish and philosophy, respectively.
