Friday Cryday!

Today was our final day at Columbia. Since a few of the girls left today, I stayed up very late last night in order to spend the most time possible with them. Fortunately, I was able to sleep in so I wasn’t too tired when I woke up in the morning. I ate a final breakfast with my suite mates and headed off to class.

Today was our discussion on affirmative action. Earlier on in the week, we briefly discussed this topic and it had already fostered an intense discussion. I was looking forward to a passionate discussion to keep me awake. We discussed a few court cases. Firstly, we talked about a Supreme Court case having to do with UC Davis’s medical school application. This application reserved 16 out of 100 spots for minority students. The Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional.

When deciding this case the court used the Strict Scrutiny test.  To pass the strict scrutiny test, it must be demonstrated that there is a compelling governmental interest in the program or law. A second fundamental rule of the Strict Scrutiny test is that the law or program is narrowly tailored to suit the compelling governmental interest, and that the state is using the least restrictive means.

During lunch I headed back to my suite to right my opening statement for the affirmative action case. After 40 minutes of writing, I had managed to write two coherent pages. It was only when I came back to class that I realized that I was actually writing in 14 point font, so it wasn’t as long as I thought. The presentation went well and I believe our team did a better job articulating our arguments.

After class, we had a suite meeting and I was forced to say goodbye to a girl across the hall form me. It finally became real that our time was almost over. I became flooded with emotion. I probably won’t see any of these people again. Thankfully social media helps to shorten the distance between us. My experience these past three weeks has been absolutely amazing. I’m so sad to leave!