Weekly Activism Log for Service Learning-Week 3

3.   Activism:

This week provided an opportunity to have an “in hind sight” meeting with my group’s community partner, Professor Meredith Tweed. We were successful in pinpointing ideas to improve any future events. Firstly, spending more time to market the event (tabling, flyerng, etc.),not only would that hopefully garner more support for attendees, therefore spreading the message out to more students, but it would also grant the group more service learning hours. Secondly, having a room more enabled for discussion, being that our room was set up for a lecture, so when the discussion part of the activity came along it was a little awkward to communicate effectively. Now that this project is over, we are looking around for more things to do to help the community. I sent a letter as the representative of my group to the LEAD Scholars who hosted Leadership Week, to thank them and suggest the discussion room idea. I also asked about pictures that we can use to display for our project presentation.

2.   Reflection:

This week taught me a bit more about leadership styles, as we all sat in the room discussing the “Wallet” seminar that occurred I recalled how different women asked and answered discussion questions with a different kind of approach, and how certain women unpacked their backpacks and explained things differently, too. I feel like women seeing other women lead the seminar and discuss these issues further advanced the education of the next generation. As Eagly and Carli note, “women’s increasing education predicts their future workplace advancement,” not only in the classroom but also seeing women outside of the classroom lead (16). Once women leaders become the “norm,” I believe that it will be easier to diversify the workplace to include a fair balance of men and women of all backgrounds.

3.   Reciprocity:

I am treated to the involvement of woman's liberation on campus. Being around so many people motivated to empowering women is a gift of its own. I learn so many things that are occurring in society that can help make the labyrinth more difficult for women to navigate, in this case knowledge is power, and I feel I am more adept at stopping these events from occurring (for things like sexist jokes, answering people’s questions about women advancement who do not know the statistics, or influence on hiring trends in a job where I have a say). In this way I feel I am growing as a cultured individual who can know the sad current truths about woman’s difficulty in advancing, and help to create new truths in any way I can.