Pollsters want to know what we think. Friends in psychology classes want to know how we think. Credit card companies want to know how much free stuff will entice us to fill out a “harmless” form we often mistake for surveys.

There’s a reason we feel like 25,000 OU lab rats.

As we post-mods become post-grads, the world should be watching. After all, the biggest impact on this generation is that it has been watching the rest of the world.

Blame it on the availability of international news or trendy Facebook “causes” or the fact that Africa looks good on t-shirts. Our generation thinks globally.

We view life and social issues through an international lens that our parents didn’t have at our age.

Social injustices in other parts of the world are fertilizer for grassroots activism on our campus.

This brand of world justice is likely to spread as we take it with us into the “real world.”

It could reach the workplace, state government and even the White House — unless it loses its roots along the way.

Our parents may not have had a t-shirt to commemorate every international wrong they helped make right.

Their social justice was of a different brand. They fought for freedom on the home front and crusaded for the free speech and equal rights that college students have today.

Their insignia appeared not on American Apparel tees but on stonewashed jean jackets. (Just ask Robert Kerr, journalism associate professor, to show you his.)

The difference they made in the world started at home.

Students on this campus will make our own difference, but I wonder if that difference will be at the cost of our campus and, eventually, our home front.

As our world expands to encompass the vast global issues, let us not forget “the least of these” who are local.

It’s a dilemma the church faces daily: How can we go minister to foreign countries if we aren’t ministering to our neighbors first?

In many ways, it is good that good is being done, regardless of geographic location or even motivation behind those deeds.

But if we are truly waging a war against social injustice across the world, we must win it at home first — or at least fight for it simultaneously.

Any soldier could tell you they cannot win a war for freedom if their own country is not free.

Though we may win many battles for humankind overseas, I wonder if we can win a war against injustice internationally if we do not deal with the daily injustices on our soil.

I spent a few hours with foster kids at a children’s home a couple weeks ago.

My heart broke when a little boy showed up, still in hospital socks from his overnight visit after officials took him and his seven siblings from the care of parents who went to jail.

As he kicked around a soccer ball, the resilient spirit of a child began to surface in his smile.

When we left a few hours later, his strong hug showed an unchanged capacity to love.

It’s an opportunity I would have missed had my church at home not rallied to serve others in the place we live.

There’s a lot to do between now and the next time we jump on a plane to solve the world’s problems. There are a whole lot of campuses to serve, people to open doors for, homeless people to clothe and children to feed — today.

If we’re ready to embrace the responsibility to care for the “least of these” — which I believe we are — then we must prepare to recognize who falls in that category, even if they fall too close to home.

What would it look like if our campus modeled the importance of serving here as we serve there?

The rest of the country could be looking to us to set that standard.

Whitney Coleman is a journalism senior. Her column appears every other Friday.