Americommunity!

In my opinion I do think that American University is a community, at least in the general sense of the word. I witnessed it the first time I stepped foot on the campus and it is a prominent quality of AU that, to me, set it apart from other colleges I visited. I saw people I didn’t know smile at me or ask me how I was doing, I saw peers exchange waves and greetings, I saw people helping others, and I saw clubs whose mission was to do good things for the AU campus. All of these qualities of friendliness care for each other and the shared environment, and politeness, are to me vital characteristics that define how a community interacts. When I envision a community I summon up an image of the idealized “leave it to beaver” concept: a group of people who share a value of family and education, who are friendly to their neighbors whom which they know well, as well as form tight knit relationships with those around them. However, in my personal neighborhood, this is far from true. I know about a quarter of the people I live near in my suburban town, and those who I do know I have some form of conversation with at most once a week. For me, a community is more simply a group of people who live near each other due to some shared factor whether it is their economic status or desire for good public schools.

While thinking about whether AU is a community or not, I thought about community colleges. I mean it says it in the name, c-o-m-m-u-n-i-t-y college. So it must be a community right? I just might have to disagree. From my experiences, AU exemplifies more of the community aspects I associate with the word in comparison to my experiences taking classes at the community college in my town. While Howard County Community College is known for its renowned educational programs, when stepping foot on its campus I felt isolated and cold as opposed to AU’s immediate sense of warmth and sociability. I can be sure that someone will smile at me or say hello when walking on AU’s campus while I got the complete opposite impression while attending the community college back at home. It is this feeling rather than specific components that I use to define a community.