CollegeBound Foundation eNews

Although I grew up in Baltimore City, I found that I prefer more natural surroundings to artificially developed ones. For me, there is peace in nature that doesn't exist in the midst of roads and buildings. The rural setting of St. Mary's College, in southern Maryland, truly was an ideal change of scenery for me when I began my college career. Being at St. Mary's also gave me the opportunity to expand my career experience in farming, which is what I want to do in life. Agriculture is an underappreciated but incredibly important occupation, and it imposes many challenges alongside its many benefits. I now work on an organic farm, and I have been working there since the beginning of last summer. Before that, I spent two summers working on another organic farm in Baltimore. Farming has become my passion, and I am well on my way to making it my life. As a part of this process, I will bring together my Eastern philosophy studies and the farming techniques that I have learned in The Zen of Farming, my St. Mary's Project (a year-long final research project all seniors must complete).

I have had many great and positive experiences in college, but the one that tops them all is the semester I spent in Thailand. I think every student should participate in a study abroad program: learning a new language, seeing and being a part of a new culture. You can read or watch a TV program about people from another country and they seem so different, but when you actually meet them you realize that we're all very much alike-we're all people. I had an amazing opportunity to speak with some farmers in a village in northern Thailand, and was shocked to learn about the major multi-national agri-business corporation that they had to work for, barely making enough money to survive so that people around the developed world can have potato chips. Today's global society connects us all to each other and we must all learn to respect other people and their cultures. Such inequities as the poor Thai farm prove that we still have far to travel in that regard.

My experiences abroad, which would not have been possible without the CollegeBound Foundation and its gracious donors, have played an important part in my college career and my whole life. I strongly recommend to any student to study abroad if you have the chance. It is a pretty big world, and first hand experience is priceless.

Peter Manrodt is a 2006 graduate of Baltimore City College High School. He is a senior at St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he is majoring in philosophy. Peter recieves a Last Dollar Grant with matching funds from St. Mary's College of Maryland. He has also received the KIDS Fund, Inc. Scholarship.