Citizenship Through Acedemic Exploration

     Citizenship is a difficult concept to quantify. In order to be considered a citizen, must a person fit a certain physical description? Should they speak a certain language, or subscribe to a specific set of beliefs? I would argue that these are not the true criteria for citizenship, but instead that a personal stake in the community and purposeful effort to improve it are the true criteria for citizenship. These are not difficult standards to meet. As a member of a community, you very likely hold a personal stake, as its improvement or decline will directly affect you, and improvements come in many different forms, from picking up a piece of trash as you walk, to voting for a bill you think would make life better, to creating more efficient technology.

     The most interesting and beneficial way to contribute to the community in my opinion is working to advance academics and science. Improvements in these fields have the potential to benefit not only the relatively small communities (anything from countries down), but the entire planet in both tangible and abstract ways. On the small scale, tangible advancements in defense technology, manufacturing, and resource acquisition help to make our country more secure and prosperous, while abstract motion in philosophy and ethics are making us question our laws and even rewrite them in the interest of equality and changing morals. On the large scale, advancements in medicine, genetic engineering, and environmental science are saving lives, eradicating diseases., feeding the poor, and pushing the world towards a more sustainable way of life. Research into geology and physics are helping us all to understand how our world was formed, how to better predict and prepare for natural disasters, and to travel through space to other worlds.

      How you contribute, and even how large the impact of your contributions are is mostly unimportant. What matters is that you care enough for the community to make the effort.