Excellence

What is excellence? Some feel that excellence is defined by how many material achievements or possessions one is able to accrue. Personally, I feel that excellence is the combination of diligence and integrity.

One example of diligence in my own life is Knowledge Bowl. Knowledge Bowl competition is very unpredictable. Questions of all topics can appear on the reader's sheet, and teams must be well versed in all subjects. Therefore, a successful team practices often and works as a team to learn different subjects. Teams who are most successful are teams that put in the extra hours both in and outside of practice. For example, the Marshall 3 team, which traveled to state this year, worked to complete over 500 questions in the week leading up to the state competition. This team also met outside of practice to further their knowledge.

Another example of excellence through diligence is working to improve oneself academically. Since education is the cornerstone of society, excelling at improving oneself in this respect will help to further a person in many respects. I believe that the biggest form of excellence comes through education, and this is why there must be integrity in our educational system, both with faculty and students.

When considering what makes something have excellence, one must consider the integrity of the item in question. Often, the integrity of students is called into question when working on essays or other assignments. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed in our educational system.

What cheating shows that merits strong oppostion is a student's pride in deceptively 'getting over' on professors and 'the system' even where both are recognized as fair. This affection for injustice and causual regard for honest dealings must be trained out of students along with the jaded immaturity involved. (Puka, 2005, p. 1)

Here, Puka shows his disgust that students recieve a sort of "rush" from fighting a seemingly unjust machine, while, in reality, this machine is very fair. He also conveys his opinion that this trend in student behavior must be ended.

In conclusion, I believe excellence is defined not by material gains. Rather, I know that excellence is rooted in one's own diligence and integrity.