Be Good. Be Orange.

Submitted by: Hannah Filicky

Oregon State University, OSU, Oregon State, and O State are all names for the place where growth and learning happen.  Experience, courses, and involvement all lend themselves as part of the process of education and personal development.  Oregon State University is a public, higher learning institution that is devoted to research, education, and community impact.  It is made up of students, alumni, staff, and faculty.

At Oregon State, the campaign “Be Orange” stands to hold and envelope the values that the school holds.  “Be” is to exist, individually or part of a group.  Additionally it can be used to explain behaviors or a beliefs regarding a specific group, ideas, or beliefs, in this case the ideals of OSU.  “Orange”, in the case of OSU, does not simply stand for color or a food, but a set of ideals and people.  Orange is a descriptor for people who attend or work at the learning institution, or those that have been a part of OSU in one of these ways in the past. Each of these people must be contributing to the betterment of the community goals and persons.  One of things that OSU values, and I value about those at OSU, is hard work.  Those who are “Orange” contribute by working hard.  Hard work is the process by which a person puts all of their effort into a task to receive the best possible outcome.  It could also include putting a lot of thought, time, or money into any specific action, thought, or behavior.

Hard work at Oregon State manifests itself in many everyday life situations.  Those may be individual or community based.  Individually based, hard work creates personal growth.  As personal growth happens, people become more aware, compassionate, inspired, and willing to create change.  This process helps a person become more aware how they impact their community.  For the community at OSU, it impacts community goals and people.  It affects how OSU reaches outside itself to influence economics, health, and sustainability- as defined as part of the vision for OSU.  One thing these all have in common is that they are complex social problems.  These are of concern to OSU, because we have the opportunity to influence these and make the world better by improving human wellness, contributing to the field of sustainability, and advocate and aid in creating social progress and economic improvement.  Each of these are not only an outcome of hard work, but are also a reason hard work should be continuously happening on the individual, community, local, national, and world scales.

Since OSU’s community is concerned with bettering the world, it is important to understand how our goals interact with the world. Improving human wellness is important because if we as humans are healthy and promoting healthy decision making, we can accomplish the other goals.  Impacting sustainability, social wellness, and the economy are only going to be changed by having humans who are clear thinking, physically and mentally well, and socially connected.  Those who have worked hard to gain social connections and skills can communicate with others to collaborate and change the complex social problems.  Those that can think critically and are healthy will have more energy and ability to appropriately create change.

Contributing to the field of sustainability is equally important as human health, because it impacts our quality of life and the earth which supplies all we need to live.  By each of us pitching in, we can not only sustain our lives but keep in mind that the earth is an important implementation in our ecosystem.

Advocate and aid in creating social progress and economic improvement be addressed by producing the other goals.  If considered, human wellness is mental, social, physical, and spiritual.  Each of these parts are interconnected and impact each other.  When emphasizes that these are important for individuals, we understand that there is a group impact as compassion and moral imagination work in between individuals. Therefore if we can address the issues related to those and empower individuals, that can work together, we will create social progress.  As social progress is created, economic improvements will follow.  Creating more sustainable living and address the needs of human life, we can start to flourish economically.

These goals can be reached by putting emphasis on the elements of hard work.  Since these are multi-faceted problems it takes a community of people to impact them in any way.  The community at OSU works hard to accomplish these by fostering the personal growth of individuals.  This is fostered at Oregon State by creating a community that collaborates, has diversity, encourages excellence and ambition, offers opportunities, and supports by being inclusive. It is a rigorous process to learn how to work hard for your passions and change.  At OSU, having a diverse community that includes people with many different backgrounds, cultures, skill sets, and traits allows for all to learn from new opportunities and personal experiences.  The individual is interconnected with the community because as they grow personally, they contribute to the community to help others grow.  The community then improves through individual’s passions, critical thinking skills, independence, empowerment, engagement, and learning experiences.  This interplay is essential in creating an environment that focuses on solving complex social problems, as well as preparing students to be able to contribute after earning their degrees.

The ways in which the community and the individuals that make it up are interdependent on one another’s hard work is what makes OSU a university that is advancing not only individuals but creating change for complex social problems.  This is what makes us, the individuals that make up OSU, “Orange.”