The Students Against Violence Everywhere team is challenging the entire Gannon University student body to “do at least one act of kindness or good deed for someone” each day in recognition of World Kindness Week 2014.

This might be the first time you’ve heard of such an event before, but World Kindness Week has been growing every year since it began on Nov. 13, 1997.

The purpose of World Kindness Week is to look beyond our own lives, beyond the problems and issues we’re facing, and make an effort to see things from another person’s perspective.

Here at Gannon we have a unique opportunity to meet people from all over the world.

Whether you’re involved with an ESL program, the coffee and conversation nights, or you simply made a lifelong friend through happenstance— regardless, there’s a good chance that the person has significantly impacted your life through his or her life story. For example, you find out how the person was raised or what the culture is like and how it differs from what you’ve known or been told.

And that’s the most important point to World Kindness Week. We have all been raised with our ideas of how people act or why they are “the way they are.” It’s easy to judge a book by its cover and generalize based on appearance.

However, as young adults and educated citizens of this world, we owe it to ourselves to dig deeper and look beneath the surface. And if we do, what we will usually find is a commonality, and a shared experience that is critical to maintaining a peaceful coexistence.

Mother Teresa said that “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” We all want to change the world and do something great! But she also said, “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”

Think about that this week and please challenge yourself to do the little things that potentially can make a big difference for someone. Hold the door open for others, give a random compliment out, let your roommate or friend decide on where to go, or even what to watch, and above all give someone a smile, because “making one person smile can change the world — maybe not the whole world, but at least their world.”

Start “passing on the positive” to your friends by using the hashtag #DoMore @GannonSAVE on twitter or Facebook to let your friends, professors or colleagues know how much they make a difference in your life!

Your friends,

The A-Team