CTZN 410-51 Lancer Launchpad

At first, I was incredibly intimidated by the prospect of having to create something. Neither my academic nor personal life had ever included spontaneous creativity, projects, etc. Additionally, I felt uncomfortable with the openness of attempting to solve any problem I felt passionate about. Every class before was often constrained by a singular topic with specific criteria that had to be met, the equivalent of “Just tell me what to do.”  Luckily, my professor was aware of the atypical nature of the class and used community building, simulation activities, and supportive readings to scaffold us towards our end goal.

Over time, we all began to realize that we were capable of far more than we had originally thought. Many students in my class were working with real leaders in the community, actively working to help an issue they were passionate about. As a leader, it helped me see how to approach a problem with a full perspective, focusing on problem solving and solution building. I also learned that it is okay to take risks, that we should encourage more risk taking in our society if we want to produce attainable solutions for seemingly unsolvable problems. As a future educator, I plan to take this growth mindset into my classroom and empower my students in the same why I was empowered.

For my symposium presentation, I created a standardized rubric in order to combat the variability of book bannings happening across the United States. My goal was to both inform and illustrate a better way of managing these challenges, particularly through the use of quantitative data.

Final Rubric – Emmie Evans, CTZN 410