Last week a group of ambitious students brought an idea to campus that would make life more bearable for the less fortunate.

The group, called the EIU Fair Trade Coalition, has spent the past two months researching fair trade coffee, a kind of coffee grown in full shade without pesticides by farmers in South America. Fair trade farmers receive 25 to 50 cents per pound of beans with other brands of coffee, but with Fair Trade, they receive at least $1.26 a pound and an additional 15 cents if the beans are certified organic.

While the plight of South American coffee growers might not be the top priority of everyone on Eastern’s campus, it is something very important to these students.

The important idea behind free trade coffee is not necessarily the coffee, although the idea itself is good, too, since it will help out the farmers, but rather, overcoming apathy.

Eastern has a big problem in that so many students are very apathetic. They don’t care about the world around them. They don’t get involved with campus activities or causes. They don’t show an interest in anything outside their little worlds.

In a semester when the Student Senate couldn’t find enough candidates to fill all of its seats, finding students who are motivated enough by a cause to spend their personal time working for it is a big achievement.

More students should take a page from the Free Trade group and find something that interests and motivates them. Find a cause, a group, an interest you can be passionate about, and make an effort to get involved, make a difference.

Regardless of whether you agree with Fair Trade, or other groups that are trying to make a difference at Eastern, doesn’t matter. The point is simply trying to change the world. Someone once said one person can change the world, and everyone should try. We should make a point to try to be that one person.