When touring the College of the Redwoods campus you will quickly find that the layout is not too difficult, though for a small school it is rather spread out. CR is a community college with a student population just under 6,000 who live and learn together on 270 acres atop a forested bluff overlooking Humboldt Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
A community shares its character, its culture and its livelihood with its environment. We are the environments we develop in, the places where land and people meet, the history and backgrounds we come from, and the culture this creates in the present moment. While the tour guide is showing you where things are and how to access resources I suggest you focus more on the general layout than try to memorize where everything is. Take a notepad for key points and questions that you can look-up on the web or in a brochure later. In the meantime, it will be helpful in imagining yourself as a student on this campus with a few key points in mind:
#1. William Butler Yeats once said: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Whatever your passion is, whether it’s painting, gardening, dancing, or surfing, find a way to integrate it into your college experience. Ask your tour guide or students you run into on campus if there is a surfing club, a hiking club, where the Humboldt Botanical Gardens are, or if there is a place for musicians to connect. If there isn’t one, consider creating one. After all, we don’t regret what we do, we regret what we do not do.
#2. Personality is a 360° reflection of the character within. Look for spots on campus you can go to for reflection. To sit quietly and observe yourself in this place, as a student, as a human, when you make a mistake, when you triumph. CR is great for this as there are a lot of quiet wooded areas with beautiful views. If you see someone head onto an obscure hiking trail you may not have noticed otherwise, make a note to check it out later. And, explore even before you leave your campus tour to make a connection with place. Nature is alive with character all her own and interacting with you. Make sure to ask about campus safety and security too.
#3. Trying something new, growing, transformation all take courage. And everyone in the CR community is seeking some sort of transformation, whether it be purely technical career advancement, self-exploration or cultivating new relationships. Leave time to walk around alone, observe the flow, reach out to the community. Meet with one of the teachers in your department, but make sure to have made an appointment before arriving to campus if you want a professional/academic meeting.
#4. Learn to put your phone down. College of the Redwoods sits in a rural community that took years longer than the nearest big city, San Francisco- tech capital of the West Coast, to adapt to the internet world. And there is deeply rooted pride in that, despite the fact that the younger generations are growing up fast and directly into the hi-tech world. One of the best kept secrets about the north coast is that there is still a fair balance between modern technology and mother nature. Soak that in from the very beginning.
#5. “Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own.” – Soren Kierkegaard. Allow yourself to let your truth shine and transform the CR community as much as it transforms you. Share parts of your story from the very beginning on your campus tour. We are in this together.
Holly A. Sisson, MA – College of the Redwoods Alumna 2007, AA