An Agent of Social Change

Both Owens and Cushman focused on being agents of social change. More importantly, getting outside our ivory tower and reconnecting (or connecting for the first time) with your community. And, both of them relate to how our students can follow this path as well. For example, Owens gives the great example of photographic portraits. And, I wonder, to engage our students in place, we could go a step further? With the photographic portraits, students could really see what made their home/place special, and then they could see a little bit more about their classmates. We could then move to trying to find the root of what made those places special and try to see if there was something similar in this new place. Or, if they weren’t a fan of their home/place, we could still see if there was something in this new place that might create a better environment for them. And this might be a way to combat hyperboredism that Owens warns against?

If I’m being really honest, this hyperboredism is somewhat prevalent in my own life. When I look back at my undergrad years, that lady, was pretty awesome. I took service trips every year during spring break, I volunteered twice a week as a reading tutor, joined several service organizations, and I really knew the people of that place and felt a real sense of belonging (and also noticed changes that occurred because of my work).  I’m not really connected with my new place of Perkins/Stillwater, and at times I find myself trying to separate myself from this place since I am only going to be here for a few more years. This is one of key dangers of hyperboredism that Owens warns agains. But, if I want my students to connect, I also realize that I need to make an effort as well. And as I’ve been trying, I’ve noticed how hard it is to grow those roots. I like how Cushman says it’s not a trail on the yellow brick road, but it can be bumpy and hard to get connected, and I can find this process a bit daunting. I have been in the Stillwater/Perkins area for a year-and-a-half now. During the summer, I volunteer at the Perkins Animal Shelter and go to community events and socials, but otherwise, during the academic year, I’m an academic hermit trying to pass classes, grade papers, attend conferences, and publish papers. But in the past two semesters, I have been looking for ways to merge these two interests, and it comes in the form of community engagement in my classroom.

I think it is a starting point to have students engage with community partners, but what I’m learning is that if I really want to create sustainable relationships, specifically those roots I mentioned, I need to be a more active participant as well. This means going to meet with the partners regularly and really understanding their needs. Two points I really resonated with in Cushman’s article was a) connecting back to the community that surrounds the university and maybe also related b) steering away from the colonizing ideology of service learning. When we start working with (and not for) the community, we really get a sense of the background, what is already being done, and where we can fit into the picture. I think this “fitting into the picture” is what I’m trying to achieve with my class, and I hope that I’m reengaging some of the university with the area.