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Devin, Oluwadamilola, and I facilitated a class discussion on food inequality/accessibility in the dining halls. Linked below is our facilitation guide.

Devin, John, and I facilitated on readings having to do with cynicism, more specifically what that means for complacency and how to break out of the cycle of cynicism. Our lesson plan is linked below.

Before I met with Oluwadamilola, I already knew we had one struggle in common: the French program at the Residential College. There’s no better way to bond with a group of people than be forced to spend time with them for eleven hours a week, not including the time spent studying together outside of class. Having experienced that last winter semester, I was able to bond with Oluwadamilola, since he is currently taking the same class I did. Past that, we don’t have much in common, but that didn’t really matter for the purpose of the assignment.

Honestly, the whole experience reminded me of a first date, but higher stakes, since this is a class assignment and if the one-hour conversation was awkward, we would have to deal with it for the rest of the semester. Overall, the conversation wasn’t as forced as I thought it would be. We ended up finding out that Oluwadamilola knows a girl I randomly chose to be my partner on an EECS project – so we talked a lot about how small campus feels sometimes, even though this school is made out to be so large. In the past, these type of “first-date” conversations have been hard for me, since I can be socially awkward and I often feel the need to fill every little silence, especially when I can’t get a read on what the other person is thinking. However, the questions given to us to help guide the conversation were super helpful, especially in relation to talking about our families and childhood. Oluwadamilola and I had such different experiences in our childhood, especially regarding our families, but both of us ended up being the treasurer for the National Honors Society chapters at our respective high schools, which also happen to be in neighboring cities.

Two identities I hold that are important to me are my gender and my class status. As a target identity, my gender is something that has shaped so much of who I am. I spent much of my childhood trying to break out of the box I thought I would automatically be placed into due to gender norms and stereotypes. I always played with boys during recess, taking genuine interest in things like baseball and Pokémon card trading, and black and blue toys instead of pink ones. I still loved to play with makeup and dolls, but I wanted to prove I could do both.

When I got to middle and high school, my most meaningful friendships were with guys. Most of my friendships with other girls were filled with toxicity and competition over boys. As a young woman, the stereotype of girls being dumb and boy-crazy were perpetuated by my orchestra teacher, who had been my instructor since the 4th grade. As soon as I showed an interest in boys, he would tease me by frequently saying, “Hey Sarah, remember when you were smart?”, and then comparing me to my friends who didn’t openly have crushes on others. At the time, I didn’t realize how much a trusted adult saying something like that affected me. Throughout high school, I always felt the need to prove that I was as smart as, as good as, as whatever as the boys that surrounded me in my daily life, and better than the girls that were pitted against me. Looking back, much of my high school experience was formed based on competitions that other people created for me.

Now, I have the most supportive and positive friendships with other women. My freshman year of college was a journey in figuring out who I am in relation to my identity as a woman, away from the expectations people had for me in high school. I took control of my identity and learned to embrace my womanhood so I could celebrate it by loving myself. Even though I often feel more pressure to look and act a certain way here than in middle or high school, I try to remind myself that my comfort in my own body and identity is much more important than the mold that strangers try to make me fit into.

My agent identity of class/SES status is an important part of who I am. I am fortunate in that my family never had to worry about having a roof over our heads or where our next meal was coming from. My parents raised me to be independent and hardworking from a young age. I started working as a mother’s helper in middle school, and not long after that I started babysitting for money. I got a real job when I was sixteen, and even started working two jobs before I got to college. I always had to pay for my own things, whether that be new clothes, going out to eat with my friends, or a new phone. I support myself in school, and parents haven’t had to help me pay for any of my tuition or housing so far. I am grateful that my family pays for my insurance, phone bill, and occasionally send me money to help cover the cost of necessities. Working for the last few years has instilled in me a work ethic that is integral to who I am. Not only that, but the people I have met and worked with through all my jobs have helped me grow as a person and be someone independent of my school district, where every family knew every other relevant family. My coworkers from my previous jobs have all come from such different walks of life than my own and hearing their life stories has been humbling and a learning experience.

Animation #3 - Bag Drop

Pencil Animation, FlipBook 6, poor classroom lighting.

Water Pollution