Inquiry into Citizenship
I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this class as I had never been in a class centered around citizenship. The main focus was on Social Entrepreneurship and was looking to create “outside of the box ” solutions to a largely felt issue. I enjoyed this class because each meeting was something new and explored how different companies and businesses had come up with amazing ideas that solved problems majority of people faced daily. The lessons focused on how the upcoming generation could take issues that many faced and create ways to combat it that were both ethical and just. It was interesting to learn that there aren’t many true social entrepreneurs as you have to have no selfish gain from what your success and that you solution helps as many as possible while also causing no harm. Many of the classes included team building exercises like trust games and puzzles, but also informational videos that made you think in ways you didn’t think possible. I enjoyed the swarm of questions that came with each lesson how the professor did a great job of making each persons voice heard. The main project of the class was creating a solution to a large issue present in a way that not many had done before. My group focused on the amount of pollution, especially plastic, that is dragged out and left behind in the Chesapeake Bay. We chose this topic because it hits close to home and many of the students we reached out to could connect with this predicament. While we didn’t come up with an exact solution to wiping out pollution, our main focus was bringing attention to the issue to those that were blind to the effects they were having on the Bay. We did this by collecting as much recyclables as we could, with over 10 garbage bags worth, and then dumping them in an area where tons of faculty and staff would walk by. We wanted to capture the reactions of those that walked by and to see if they would question the piles of trash or ignore it, much like how society is to the current issue. This was a cool was to interact with Longwoods students because many didn’t know the level of pollution so close by and thought our method was effective. We essentially wanted them to ask us why there was trash here in this public area and to tell us it was gross. We responded with: How come we ask when it is directly in front of us, but not when we can’t see it? If its not supposed to be here, then why is it allowed to pollute and flow in out Bay? It was a super cool project that actually got a ton of people involved and it showed me how much Longwood really cares about supporting their students! Overall it was a super cool class that let me have an awesome experience!
This is a link to our final presentation on the proposal of recreating this event at other schools to help spread awareness.