Be Good. Be Orange.

Kyle Thornton

Be Responsible, Be Orange

Roughly four years ago, I decided I wanted to attend Oregon State University to pursue and undergraduate degree in health care management. Before selecting Oregon State, I looked at other universities around the state of Oregon. What OSU had to offer, couldn’t compare to other universities in the state. Oregon State is known for using the slogan “powered by orange”, but what does being orange really mean? I had never really thought about what it truly meant to be orange until we had to write this paper for Ethics 205. So what does it mean to be orange, and what will your degree represent?

I thought for many hours on what it meant to be orange. So many important values came to mind when I pondered what being orange meant. As I searched for quotes about values on the Internet, one really stuck with me. Winston Churchill once said, “The price of greatness is responsibly”.  To me, being orange means being responsible because OSU is shaping people for greatness.

I always knew what responsibility was but never really looked deeper into what it pertained to. OSU has taught me lots of responsibility throughout my four years here. First, it taught me how to be accountable for all my actions. If I didn’t study for a test or do the homework I was ultimately responsible for those actions. This eventually led to me learning how to be responsible with time management. Learning how to manage your time successful is extremely helpful in all aspects of life. Having to juggle studying, writing papers, and other homework assignments taught me how to prioritize my time in an efficient manner. This will further help me in my career. I know I will face multiple tasks throughout my day and knowing how to manage my time efficiently will help me accomplish these tasks. Another thing responsibility shows is that you take pride in yourself and what you do. OSU taught me to take pride in my schoolwork if I wanted to have a better life for myself. I was responsible for putting in the hard work to get good grades so I could graduate and find a job I want. Ultimately, being responsible is important because it challenges you to become great and shows what type of person you are.

Being responsible requires many actions but the most important action is doing the right thing. By being a student here at OSU, you are put into a small community with thousands of people. If people weren’t doing the right things, the system has a whole would fail. This is why OSU labels people as being orange, so they will think about with it means to be orange and hopefully do the right things. One thing I noticed in my four years was people are willing to help you all the time. Classmates see your struggling and can help you understand the materials. If you’ve been responsible for four years, you should be able to walk out of OSU with life skills and a degree showing you worked hard and succeeded.

When I graduate from OSU, my degree won’t be just a piece of paper. My degree will represent several values. First and foremost, it will represent hard work and dedication. My degree will show people I work hard and I finish things I set out to do. It will also show success. Not everyone goes on to pursue a higher education. So graduating in four years with a bachelor degree will show people that I am a successful person who works hard. Lastly, my degree will represent I am a responsible person. I was responsible for knowing what classes to take, what term to take them, completing homework assignments, writing papers, and doing group projects. By choosing to get my undergraduate degree from OSU I was taught to be orange, be responsible.