Excursion to Stardust

RUTGERS AT STARDUST DINER

[NSO's Green Movement at Stardust]

Stardust Diner is a place where hard work and determination meets entertainment for the entire family.  Sound familiar? Take away the element of food service and add the zealous enthusiasm that comes with being a part of NSO and the parallels between OL's and the waiters/waitresses of Stardust are apparent.  The servers at Stardust could not simply walk in and apply as if it were any old diner in the city. Just as we are student leaders, they are a part of a class of performing arts with as decorated resume. This propels many of them into the lights of Broadway. I'm sure that us OL's are using this summer as a means of building skills to shape a brighter future for ourselves and those we hope to effect.

[Our waiter and one of the performers at Stardust: Shawn]

The waiters at Stardust are no joke! They come from top performing arts majors from around the country that use Stardust as a conduit to Broadway. Some come from NYU, SVA, and the performers double as waiters/waitresses. They use the tips to fund their artistic endeavors. In order to get a good idea of their roles and how they relate to ours, we'll summarize the philosophies of Shawn (above) to understand how they can help us this summer.

Shawn, who studied theater at the Second City theatre in Chicago, explain to us the philosophies and values that got him to where he is now. Here are a couple:

Shawn says:

"One of the hardest aspects of the job is having to be the center of attention on bad days"

This is probably the golden nugget I was looking for when I interviewed Shawn. Our outside lives will still exist with the same motley variations of emotions attached. Our performance with the incoming students is contingent upon how we deal with our emotional responses to any event that conceives our emotion. Shawn deals with this by trying to focus on the people he came to entertain. That sense of altruism must be practiced as we orient first years to the daunting, yet fulfilling Rutgers experience. Our attitude will be a big part of how they perceive this school.

Shawn Says:

"It is vital to understand the importance of perspective within personal experiences"

Empathy was one of the biggest values we studied throughout our class. Shawn could not understand the perspective of others without this quality. Empathy is how we enter into the perspective of others. Shawn's day isn't a typical day in the life of your average American. He works in Time Square, a place where all cultures throughout the world are represented in some fashion. Shawn interacts with people with standards, values, and morals that could be from the other side of the world. He must altruistically supplant his own morals in order to understand the morals of others. This takes an extraordinary amount of critical thinking and empathizing. If we utilize Shawn's advice, it would make working with the diverse crowd of first years not only edifying, but also enjoyable.

[Come for a meal, leave with a smile...and a song stuck in your head]

New York is always a fun visit for a Rutgers student. This city is almost a preview of what Rutgers prepares a large amount of its students for. This is a city where one must know how to navigate a path. The subways are not that much different from the Rutgers buses. Stardust is a glimpse into the awesome qualities that some of the people in the city possess.  Many of the workers are from all over the country and have unique stories. They all sound so much like this group of Orientation Leaders at Rutgers.