Reject Rejection!

The movie, Accepted, does not display your normal
college experience, but exemplifies a wonderous display of leadership.

              As I thought about movies and TV shows that I could watch for this blog post, I immediately thought of the movie Accepted. During one’s senior year of high school, one’s ultimate and most pressing goal is to be accepted into the college of their choice. However, what happens if you are rejected, from all of the schools that you applied to? Most students would fall apart and would reform to the stereotype that they will not be successful in life. However, Bartleby Gaines decides that he will not allow the outdated standards of the traditional university mandate his perception of education, experience, and success.

          In the movie, Accepted, Bartleby Gaines gets rejected from every college that he applies to. Distraught, he tells his parents that he’d rather not go to college and that he would like to be his own success. Of course, his parents completely reject that notion and tell him that he must go to University to be successful, or even an average citizen in the world. Bartleby has a hard time accepting this concept, but wants to make wishes to make his parents proud. As a result, he constructs a scheme to create his own university called, South Harmon Institute of Technology. He uses his skills as a leader to build a team of three close friends to help him construct this university out of an abandoned insane asylum. He identified each of his team members’ strengths and used them to support his cause. At first, this scheme was a hurried attempt to satisfy his parents’ wishes and to conform to society’s standards. However, this all soon changed when there was a knock at South Harmon’s front door and a variety of accepted students were standing in the front lawn ready to attend their college.

                Bartleby realizes that he quickly became responsible for an array of students who have been rejected from every college of their choice, and also those that were their backup schools. He gathers these students into a room to tell them that South Harmon is in fact a fake school, but one student raises his hand to tell him how excited he is to attend the college. He explains that he is diagnosed with ADHD, and that his parents had given up on his educational success. However, when he got accepted into South Harmon, it was the first time his parents expressed that they were proud of him. Many students in that auditorium had the same story. They were subject to ridicule and rejection because they did not fit the status quo. At that moment, Bartleby decides to lead these students into a new understanding of themselves. He delivers a mission statement that states that South Harmon accepts EVERYBODY. He says that everybody has the talent to become a success and South Harmon Institute of Technology is a college that helps its students to realize those talents, and to implement them into their everyday activities.

To get involved or learn more about Student Life visit:
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                What Bartleby does not realize is that he is actually leading the students into their new identities.  Every first-year college student is subject to a new identity because they are thrown into a totally new and different environment by themselves and told to survive.  Luckily, there are many programs, facilities, and resources, like Student Life and New Student Orientation, to help and guide these students into their new identity. Bartleby and his friends acted as guides in the movie, Accepted.

                I believe that Bartleby also signified the essential leader because he worked out of purpose, and not only for results. An essential factor in his success is the fact that he asked his students for their input and opinions about the school and its programs. The “What Do You Want to Learn?” board empowered students by allowing them to make their own curriculum and also to let Bartleby know what they are interested in learning.

 This allowed the students to examine themselves and figure out what they are really interested in. Many students had a hard time with this because they have never been asked that question before. This board idea was essential in the process of Renewal that Susan discussed in her book. Bartleby had to renew his whole philosophy about where the school would go, who would be allowed there, and what they would learn. The fact that he was open to every class topic the students suggested, even when one student suggested that there be a class where he learns to blow things up with his mind, is a solid example of his openness to reform and change.

Bartleby's efforts made South Harmon a reality.

                Bartleby’s most difficult task was making his school a success after it was identified as fraudulent. Bartleby displayed so much faith, belief, and purpose in his works that when even he began to believe that his school had failed one of his followers, Sherman, leads Bartleby into a new light. He helps Bartleby regain faith in his college in order to earn accreditation for it. In the end of the movie, the school is under a probationary period where it is monitored by the government. This ending shows that although Bartleby gained success by earning the right to keep his school open, there is still room for improvement and growth. Therefore, the students continued to give their input about the school processes and Bartleby continued to take their wishes into account in order to create a college environment wherein the students can flourish in their own talents while discovering their many new identities.

                 Bartleby countered all societal standards of success and became his own success by dwelling in an environment that required him to strengthen his talents and also the talents of others. Bartleby, although nontraditional, played the role of a true leader.