Appreciating our campus connection
By Editorial
The death of Nenveh Essa, a 21-year-old Santa Clara student, has forced us all to confront the fears and realities of tragedy on a college campus. Santa Clara prides itself on building a strong community, made up of even stronger individuals. While at Santa Clara, we grow, develop and learn, leaving college with a greater knowledge of ourselves and the world in which we live.
Unfortunately, in the case of Nenveh and several other Santa Clara students who have died over the past few years, not everyone gets that chance to apply their knowledge beyond the Santa Clara community. With each student death we see the loss of the potential of a Santa Clara graduate to experience their dreams.
Nenveh, a senior accounting major, was active on campus with involvements in the financial aid office and had high hopes for a future career with Disney.
In the summer of 2005, Moses Salcido, a senior political science major and avid Bronco athletics supporter, died in a car crash in Arizona on his way to visit family in Mexico. Three months later in November 2005, sophomore David Crowell died after a sudden collapse on the soccer field. Heavily involved in Associated Students and active within his Walsh Residence Hall, Crowell dreamed of pursuing a career in industrial psychology.
Just last December, Braden Pivirotto suffered serious injuries from a car accident and was considered to be in critical condition. As reported in this week's issue, Braden has recovered enough to rejoin the Santa Clara community, after having only a 15 percent chance of surviving the night of his accident.
On a campus of nearly 5,000 undergraduates, we often fail to recognize the power of each individual student until they are gone. Each student who has died over the last two years has made a significant impact on fellow students and on the community as a whole, and that impact will never be lost.
We are all part of the campus community and we all individually contribute to creating a dynamic atmosphere, whether it is through participation in campus clubs, athletics, RLCs or class discussion. We challenge and learn from one another and become better people because of it. Each student, professor and campus worker enables Santa Clara to attain a thriving atmosphere.
Consumed with school and extracurricular activities, we often forget the impact we have on Santa Clara and our peers. Every student commits some part of him or herself to the community, connecting us all.
We rarely take time to recognize those individuals who mean the most to us and who make our Santa Clara experience especially memorable. Without the great students, professors and workers, Santa Clara wouldn't be the same. The university is based upon a strong community and we need to recognize the individual achievements often and with genuine acknowledgement.
Much like the media which surrounds us, we often focus our attention on the negative of society -- the war in Iraq, the flailing economy and more. With this, we overlook most of the good.
This idea relates back to Santa Clara. We love to criticize authority and complain about bad classes and, in turn, we overlook what's most important -- our friends, our mentors and the small things which make our community a great place to live.
We recognize that everyone leads very busy lives and it's impossible to thank those who mean the most to you every day, but small gestures go a long way. Many students at Santa Clara are doing great things, so lets recognize their achievements and remember them now, instead of waiting until tomorrow, next week or next year.