Reflect on the discussions and activities we've had in class for this
semester an talk about some of the most meaningful quotes, moments, or
speakers that changed your perspective.
Blog posts must be 200-400 words, proofread, and void of common grammatical errors.
Your blog posts are due at 5:00PM on Thursday, March 27th.
Please email albreaks@ku.edu if you have any questions!
Caitlin Ireland
ReplyDeleteFor me, the most impactful speaker we had during this course was Blane Harding. His talk was an eye-opening one for me. Listening to him speak really revealed to me how ignorant I was when it came to so many extremely important topics. One thing that especially stuck out to me was about the concept of living in a colorblind world. I always thought a colorblind society, where race did not exist and people were not discriminated against based on the color of their skin, would be a wonderful place to live. I never realized how deprived a colorblind society would be, living in a multicultural society allows us to learn and grow through the experiences of others. I also had never before realized that by wanting a colorblind society, in a way, I was attempting to whitewash everything and therefore I was insinuating that there was something wrong with being a person of color. I still want to live in a place where no one is discriminated against for any reason, but that can be achieved through equality.
This course also opened my eyes to how far we have to go in order to remove systems of oppression and to achieve equality. There has been an immense amount of progress in the past and there will hopefully be an enormous amount within my lifetime, but complete equality will likely not be achieved during the short span of time that I am alive. Understanding this has helped me see things in more of a big picture perspective. In addition, I now understand how truly interconnected systems of oppression are. While on my alternative spring break I saw Laverne Cox speak. Her speech helped me better grasp how the intersecting nature between systems of oppression, which we learned about in class, might look within the context of someone’s life. Seeing what we learned in class connect to what we were doing over break, really reinforced the importance of what we covered in class.
Being a part of alt breaks classes this semester has really forced me to think more critically about how I perceive others different from myself and what it means to help others through volunteering as selflessly as possible. It has also taught me a lot about what it means to be part of a team and how having diversity within a group can create a lot more opportunities for growth and understanding in areas I haven’t explored before. But the most meaningful exercise to me that we did in class was the Ted Talk we watched on leadership. As a college student, now more than ever, I am constantly being reminded about how important it is to have leadership experience for your resume and that it’s not enough to just be a part of something. This is a challenge that I have personally been struggling with a lot this year in trying to find a balance between doing things I really care about, and find meaningful, while also trying to demonstrate on my resume that have drive and initiative. The last thing I want to do is waste my time doing something for the sole purpose of bolstering my resume and not because it is something I care about or am deeply passionate about. I loved how the Ted Talk emphasized the importance of how in order for there to be good leaders, there must first be good followers to make them leaders. This was a lesson I was regularly reminded of while trying to work as a group on my alt breaks trip and definitely something I will continue to reflect on in the future.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first began the Alternative Breaks experience I came in with the attitude that service work and volunteering was a positive thing no matter what. After all when people donate their time for the sake of volunteering it is to make a positive impact on someone else’s life. But after the classes and discussions that were held I quickly learned that this is not necessarily the case.
ReplyDeleteThe one lesson that I will take away from the Alternative Breaks class and experience is to be conscious of my actions when volunteering at all times. As a volunteer it is important to do only what is asked of you to be done. The class that sticks out to me the most from Alternative Breaks is the one when we had the discussion about people who go on mission trips often times make a negative impact instead of a positive one. This is because the mission workers go into a foreign location and try to fix everything that they see as broken in their own eyes. But sometimes what they are fixing is not necessarily broken to the people that live there.
Overall I feel that the Alternative Breaks discussions, classes, and experience has helped shape me to become the best leader and volunteer that I can be. I am sad that this experience has come to a close but excited to use the lessons I have learned as I continue to volunteer through out the Lawrence community.
The most surprising aspect of the Alternative Break classes was that they focused so heavily on fostering our development into understanding, empathetic volunteers and students. I had egregiously been under the impression that our instructors’ primary focus would be that of coaching us how best to volunteer at our individual sites. I am grateful that I was wrong, because I enjoyed the lessons presented during the classes.
ReplyDeleteEach class period and activity focused on a specific concept- social inequality, the non-profit sector, etc. However, they each had an underlying theme of introspection and cognizance of one's actions, which I really appreciated. The class was designed, not to encourage the memorization of facts and data that I am all too familiar with in science courses, but simply to encourage awareness.
Discussion was a common task during our Alternative Break classes as well. This, too, pleasantly surprised me. I had originally felt apprehension with presenting my ideas, which I understand can come across as left-wing nonsense to my disagreeing peers. However, everyone, at least concerning those I interacted with (oftentimes my Alternative Break group), was extremely open minded and caring individuals. To be surrounded by such supportive and understanding students, while being taught how to be an aware and kind individual, made for an extremely pleasant class that I am glad to have participated in.