Michael Shannon, Columbia University, Class of 2009

11/4/2009

2006 Essay Runner Up

Drinking is as integral a part of American culture as baseball and burgers. Alcohol flows through our history: it's been in the heads of Americans ever since the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock because the beer ran out.

Drinking and college… well that couple dates back at least since 1962 -- 'Animal House' proves it. Alcohol in higher education -- perhaps more so than in any other microcosm of society -- transcends temporal and interpersonal boundaries. My generation drinks; our parents' generation drank; our grandparents' generation drank before them. In fact, plenty of kids today -- give them a couple of beers -- would love to sit down with their college-age grandma and take back a few more. Plus, one can look at college students across the country on any given Friday night and see the jocks, the geeks, the intellectuals, the rockers, the rappers, the drama kids, the brightest, the blandest, the most promising, and the most helpless drinking. Alcohol knows no prejudices.

Take a look, now, at the college experience: kids in the prime of their life, handed such freedom that they have never touched before and independence with a safety net. Some of them feel on top of the world: ego-centric, self-righteous, and everything's theirs for the picking. Some of them feel lost: questioning themselves -- who they are, what they're becoming. All of them are undergoing changes of the like they haven't known…since puberty. Some of them feel like celebrating and singing at the top of their lungs. Others feel like forgetting all the questions, all the insecurities, and forgetting who they are.

Take this bunch -- the two extremes of college students, plus all those who fall somewhere between the poles -- and give them a drug that encourages them to do the things they want, that makes them sing or forget or escape or adopt an entirely new persona, a 'better' persona, if only for a few hours. With such a mix, there is clearly much standing against the well-being of college students.

The college-age kid is a fascinating specimen: he is diverse, he is vigorous, and he's in the midst of figuring out a lot about who he is and where the rest of existence stands in relation. Given such diversity and intensity, and influences to the contrary, it is difficulty to teach a generation of kids how to adopt safe drinking habits. There have been plenty of efforts to cease underage drinking and alcohol abuse. Plenty have failed. Where these attempts have failed, though, has not been as diverse as the generation they have tried to reach. Consistently, they have not recognized the role alcohol plays in our society and the nature of their target audience.

The first step in creating a healthier college environment, these campaigns must learn, is made by the students themselves. Others can help instigate the internal debate, but it never works to cram facts and horror stories down the throats of unsuspecting college kids. College students doubt these facts on their superficiality and exempt themselves from such horror stories. They, first and foremost, are individuals. That uniqueness can make them feel isolated, or exempt, and it means that significant decisions like 'if and how to use alcohol' come from within.

The success of the AlcoholEdu programs stems from understanding of that uniqueness; it works because it treats its audience as individuals. AlcoholEdu recognizes that alcohol is an embedded part of college culture. From the beginning, it states that its aim is not to end the underage use of alcohol altogether but provide the facts and instigate the thought which allow a student to make an informed personal decision on his alcohol use. It's an interactive program designed to draw one's attention and it reacts to the survey answers and individual opinions in a personalized manner.

The purpose of AlcoholEdu is simple: to make you think about your alcohol use. This is where it starts, when a person asks themselves 'What is it I wish to achieve?', 'Who do I want to be?' AlcoholEdu pushes every student to ask these questions and often this is all it takes for students to make healthier decisions about their lives. I must admit, in stating how much alcohol is a part of college life and our society, I demean the accomplishments of all those who, with or without the help of AlcoholEdu and similar programs, have undergone this internal debate and come out having decided to curb their use of alcohol or even abstain from drinking. There are plenty of them -- more and more every year -- who decide to live life in a healthier way.

AlcoholEdu has many successes under its belt, no doubt, but it could do more. By concentrating more on students' personal goals -- which are certainly vulnerable to abuse of alcohol -- AlcoholEdu can keep students focused on the reasons to choose a healthy lifestyle. Participants could record personal goals for the coming year, expressing where they want to be 12 months to the future. One year later, AlcoholEdu can follow up with students, giving them a chance to examine what they accomplished and how their choices about drinking affected their ambitions. There is nothing more sobering, or encouraging, than to see one's goals missed, or achieved, due to their choices about alcohol.

That said, once more, credit is due to the AlcoholEdu program. Facing great obstacles, it has made notable strides towards creating a college environment free of heavy drinking and alcohol abuse. It has done so through simple understanding of the unique people it is trying to effect. Alcohol will remain a significant facet of our culture and, sadly, there will be people, young and old, who succumb to alcohol abuse. But if AlcoholEdu and other efforts base their strategy on compassion and individuality, then the hope of a truly healthy college environment will, someday, be realized.