One reason I wasn't interested in volunteerism and activism during high school is because I felt intimidated by it. I wonder if there was something that my elementary and high school education hadn't taught me about being able to find a problem and develop a feasible plan for fixing it.
Question: What does school NOT teach you about being an activist?
OR, the clearer question:
What skills does an activist/advocate need and how are these skills acquired?
Monday, April 26, 2010
Greetings
Before coming to college, I hadn't experienced any meaningful volunteer experiences. I had been to a soup kitchen. I had painted playground fences. But I hadn't FELT anything from them. They were bland, fleeting days that I had slogged through like I was up to my knees in raisin oatmeal.
In my first month at Champlain College, I signed my name on the sheet for Environmental Club at the activities fair, because I heard there was a work-study position called ECO-Reps and I was desperate to find a job. I joined the club and got the job and that's when I discovered that I was an environmentalist. I didn't feel sloggy oatmealness about sustainability; I felt like there was much to be done and I was the girl to do it. Sustainability was what transformed me from a one-day volunteer being told to do by overworked directors, to the overworked director, simultaneously exhausted and enthused by the world-changing that I need to do.
I am now the go-to girl for student activism in sustainability on campus. I write a column for the student newspaper, The Champlain Current; I worked all year on a tiny house building project with the Center for Service and finished it last week; and I am starting a book, The Short Sweet Guide to Student Activism, which is why I started this blog.
I will be wading through my own thoughts and feeling about activism, volunteerism, and advocacy this summer, but I am also looking for other's reactions. If you have stories, please post them. I will be putting up questions that I would like your answers to, even if you aren't are a self-proclaimed activist. Please rant. Please go off-topic. Please comment on things you don't know the answer to.
In my first month at Champlain College, I signed my name on the sheet for Environmental Club at the activities fair, because I heard there was a work-study position called ECO-Reps and I was desperate to find a job. I joined the club and got the job and that's when I discovered that I was an environmentalist. I didn't feel sloggy oatmealness about sustainability; I felt like there was much to be done and I was the girl to do it. Sustainability was what transformed me from a one-day volunteer being told to do by overworked directors, to the overworked director, simultaneously exhausted and enthused by the world-changing that I need to do.
I am now the go-to girl for student activism in sustainability on campus. I write a column for the student newspaper, The Champlain Current; I worked all year on a tiny house building project with the Center for Service and finished it last week; and I am starting a book, The Short Sweet Guide to Student Activism, which is why I started this blog.
I will be wading through my own thoughts and feeling about activism, volunteerism, and advocacy this summer, but I am also looking for other's reactions. If you have stories, please post them. I will be putting up questions that I would like your answers to, even if you aren't are a self-proclaimed activist. Please rant. Please go off-topic. Please comment on things you don't know the answer to.
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