Christian universities and colleges across the United States are known for their values, practices, and unique educational experiences. Many students like myself have attended these educational establishments to gain personal, educational, and spiritual growth. After attending a private, out of state, Christian university, I realized that what I had hoped to gain was not what I found after two years of attending.
The quaint, private, campus of Waynesburg University can easily charm anyone. Located in the hills of Pennsylvania and southwest of Pittsburgh, this university prides itself on students being leaders and living Godly lives. I was eager and excited for the four years ahead and hoped to gain a multitude of educational and spiritual growth during my time at WU. The beautiful sunsets and sunrises, families of squirrels, free coffee in the library, and weekly Chapel services on Tuesday afternoons all were apart of my daily life and experience. And did I mention the hills? The staff and professors were kind, personable, and people that wanted to make a difference in your life. The student body had constant interactions with one another in the dining hall, library, sporting events, chapel services, community projects, and on missions trips. We also knew how to blow off steam on the weekends. Parties at sports team houses were open to anyone, trips to Morgantown WV were popular on Saturday night, and no one went out on a Friday.
After spending two years with the same group of students in my major, knowing everyone on my residence hall floor, seeing the same thousand people at lunch and dinner, and hearing about everyone's weekend after Chapel service at lunch started to get too routine for me. I was not personally growing educationally or spiritually. After finishing my Sophomore year, I decided to transfer to a state university. Transferring to the State University of New York at Cortland was the best life choice I could of have made for myself.
I personally did not receive what I had been hoping to at Waynesburg University. I know many fellow classmates that had experiences different than my own and some who transferred to state universities as well and were much happier doing so. Waynesburg was not for me, but without having attended for two years, I didn't know what I was missing out on. SUNY Cortland has provided me with peers and educators with different backgrounds personally and religiously and an education that does not fit any certain mold. I'm grateful to WU, but I am also grateful to learn that a religious college is different from a Christian one. Not everyone at WU was a Christian, and not everyone at SUNY Cortland is either. It's not the religious identity of the people you're surrounded by- it's the experiences you gather from the people and the institution you attend that teach you about yourself and the world around you
