Author: Ellen Converse (Page 1 of 2)

Meet the ECC Members– Tate Clemen

Alright, so quick introduction, I’m Tate Clemen. Currently, I’m pursuing a B.S.B.A in Accounting and Finance and a B.A. in Theatre, and I’m originally from the Kansas City area.

So, last year as I was making my second round of visits to Drake, I was talking with my admissions counselor, Evan, and we were discussing different scholarships that Drake offered. The Engaged Citizen Corps (ECC) came up, and, being so involved in service, I thought I’d look into it a little more. I ended up applying and got an interview with Amanda. In the car, on the way home from my third and final visit to Drake, I got the email that I had been accepted. That was one of the things that helped to secure the deal for me.

At the beginning of the year, we started the first part of the in-class section of the programs with FYS 024, “The Common Good,” which consisted of only the nine members of the ECC. This class was centered around Robert Lupton’s book Toxic Charity. Lupton’s book is a critique of the charitable industry, and shows the need for organizations that eliminate dependency and are sustainable. The ideas of his book had always been in the back of my head, but once put in words and examples, it was easy to see he was right. But this knowledge especially helped when transferring it to our worksite.

After a short “speed-dating” style of interviews with each partner site, I was paired with the Des Moines Music Coalition (DMMC). The DMMC is a Des Moines based non-profit whose main goal is to turn Des Moines into a “music city” through education and various advocacy projects. Their most known project is the implementation of the 80/35 Music Festival every July.

Going into the internship I had virtually no expectations, because I knew that it wouldn’t matter what work I was doing as long as I had the passion for cause, which I found with the DMMC. I soon discovered that I would be working as a Digital Marketing and Communications intern, working on various projects around the office, everything from designing and producing a new website to reorganizing our storage unit. The Music Coalition is quite a bit different than the other organizations the ECC works with, because they do not necessarily deal with what one would usually see as a “social problem” like poverty or homelessness, but instead the untapped potential of the Des Moines music and art scene. When people think of Des Moines, their minds usually don’t go straight to music, as it might with Nashville or New York. Due to this mission, my work with the Des Moines Music Coalition has helped me integrate myself into the Des Moines community, and further my understanding of the art scene in the city, and the struggles that it holds.

In my time with the DMMC, it has become very apparent that the government within Des Moines is limiting the growth of the scene. This is currently an ordinance within the city limits that dictate that if a music venue’s revenue is over 50% alcohol sales, then anyone under 21 is not allowed in after 9pm. This highly limits smaller venues like Lefty’s or the Vaudeville Mews from fulfilling their potential. A majority of Drake’s population is under 21, and with Lefty’s being within walking distance from campus, there is a huge market that cannot be tapped due to Des Moines’ ordinance. It was important to first understand what was happening within the music scene, and then I was able to see the DMMC’s vision and mission.

One of the largest projects that I’ve worked on is the Music Coalition’s new website. Jarin, the executive director, wanted to completely overhaul the old website and wanted something that resonated more with our target market. The old website read as “a nonprofit website,” and we wanted to cater to where a majority of the DMMC’s patrons reside, in the younger, millennial generation. We wanted to represent a feeling and an idea, a feeling of fun and of what we are truly about.

This experience has really helped me to get a greater grasp of the Des Moines community, and the need for the presence of art in the form of music within the city. It has also given me the opportunity of seeing the inner workings of how a nonprofit works. Almost all of my prior experience with the nonprofit industry was on the front lines, what is referred to as “direct service,” what people would usually think of when talking about volunteer work. But very seldom do people get to see the behind the scenes of an organization. This program has helped me apply what I’m learning in class to “the real world,” and helped expand my views of the world and the nonprofit industry.

“Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.”
― Oscar Wilde

Written by: Tate Clemen

IRIS Coordinator–Emily Larson

Hi! I’m Emily Larson. I’m the Service Learning Ambassador for IRIS, the Iowa Radio Reading Information Service. I’m a sophomore News, Magazine, and Writing major. As a student in the J54 class, I read for IRIS. I loved the impact such a simple service was having on the community. Reading the news for the blind and print handicapped helps people all over Iowa. And all I had to do was go to the basement of Meredith Hall and read the Council Bluff’s Daily Nonpareil! The first time I read I was super nervous. I figured I’d mess up and ruin the news for all those people. But with the help of the SLA who trained me, I read for an hour and enjoyed it. The worst part was that I forgot a water bottle and my voice was pretty sore afterwards. Now, when I train students, I always tell them to bring water—it’s a lot of reading after all. Students from the J54 class read for IRIS as a requirement of the course, but I like to make it more than that. Service isn’t about what you’re getting, a grade, it’s about what you’re giving. I try to stress that during trainings. In the booth, I tried to spice things up with a couple posters. One of them is a “5 W’s of IRIS” poster that reminds students of why they’re doing what they’re doing and who it’s for, and a whole lot of sparkle. The other one is a “reflection” poster. After they’re done reading, students can take a popsicle stick and draw a little face on it and put it on an outline of Iowa, representing someone in Iowa they’ve helped that day. It’s cheesy, but I think little things like the posters and upbeat training sessions remind the students that what they’re doing is important. They’re not just reading into a microphone in a booth in the basement, they’re actually helping real people.

Meet the ECC members–Katie Carlton

Hi everyone!

Following my acceptance to Drake University in 2016, I had mail coming from the university almost every week. Pamphlets, brochures and flyers all began piling up on my desk, but one item really caught my eye. One of the pamphlets contained opportunities for service learning at Drake and after coming from a high school with a service learning curriculum I was intrigued. Service learning had given me some of my most memorable experiences in high school, so I wanted to be able to continue service learning in high school. I decided to apply for the Engaged Citizen Corps (ECC) program that was listed in the pamphlet because the idea of being with 9 or so other first-years that were as passionate about service learning excited me. I hoped that the program would allow me the chance to make friends with other students that wanted to be engaged in their community.

Now that I am almost done with the ECC program, I feel that I have gained so much more than just friends. As part of ECC, I have had the opportunity to intern at the Iowa Radio Reading Information Service for the Blind and Print Handicapped (IRIS), which is a non-profit that reads print materials over the radio to those who would be unable to read them on their own due to blindness, visual impairment or a physical disability. Through interning with IRIS, I have made connections with people off the Drake campus and have learned about disability access. I feel that my internship with IRIS has personally popped the ‘Drake bubble’ for me because my eyes have been opened to so much that goes beyond campus life.

One of my most memorable experiences with IRIS was helping with the coordination of the Big Band Bash in the fall. I had a lot of responsibility put on me because I had to make sure the minor details of the event were taken care of prior to arrival, assist in photographing, checking people in and helping the guests. I was pretty nervous about the event, but I put all my effort into it and later my director, Maryfrances, thanked me for everything that I had done! I felt a lot more confident following the event and was able to see that although I was young that I could be a great help to my internship. I also was able to mingle amongst the guests at the event, many of whom are blind or print handicapped. Through this interaction, I was able to learn more about the blindand print handicapped community in Iowa and really understand the importance of the service that IRIS was offering them. Many of the guests exclaimed their thankfulness for IRIS which made me realize the importance of disability access.

While the Big Band Bash stands out in my mind, a lot of my time at IRIS has been spent doing more “behind-the-scenes’ work. As an intern, I am tasked with the responsibility of making the organization run smoother and often that means getting things ready for the director. I have played around with a lot of different software programs, tinkered with radios and made tons of excel spreadsheets. While initially I did not see the importance of the work that I was doing, I began to see how important it was to my director. As I worked on small projects, it saved her time and she was able to do more things important to running the organization like applying for grants. I’ve realized that when you’re working the small tasks may seem unimportant, but they contribute to the larger goal of the organization.

The other component of the ECC program outside of the internship is the curriculum at Drake. As an ECC member, I have taken a seminar class specific to ECC each semester, an FYS about the common good, and am currently in a Sociology class about social problems. In the FYS, we read Toxic Charity and discussed the importance of service that empowers those who you are serving. I was able to draw connections between what I was learning in the classroom and what the work of IRIS was doing. I saw how IRIS empowered its listeners by giving them access to information that they would be unable to do on their own. Using this information, they could make informed choices about politics, their community, current events and even know what the deals are in the grocery store! I also formed strong bonds with the other ECC members through talking about our personal beliefs and experiences. My personal beliefs were challenged and opened through our dialogue.

I am grateful for my experience in the ECC program and plan to continue my service-learning next year as the Student Learning Ambassador for IRIS at Drake. I hope to spread more information about the importance of disability access and encourage other students to become involved with the work that IRIS is doing. I hope to expand on what I have already learned through ECC and continue to grow as both a student and a public servant to my community. I hope that next year’s class of ECC students have the same great experience that I had!

Written by: Katie Carlton

The Many Faces of Randomness J-Term

What is randomness? We all have some preconceived notion for what it means, but how does one describe it mathematically? The purpose of this J-Term (The Many Faces of Randomness) was to look at a few uses for concept of randomness, and determining what, if anything unifies them. We started out by analyzing card games, dice rolls, and coin flips. We then moved on to discussing some of the common perceptions and fallacies regarding randomness. These fallacies usually arise when people attempt to find patterns in random sequences. They range from the semi-rational “hot hand fallacy” (when a player of a particular sport seemingly increases their odds for making a shot based on their previous shots that game), to the almost entirely irrational “gamblers fallacy” (when a person is playing a game of chance and determines that, due to previous failures, they are due for a win). After touching on these topics, we moved deeper into the mathematics behind randomness. We discussed many concepts including entropy, determinism, random number generators, Kolmogorov complexity, and much more. So, I think it is safe to say that we didn’t spend the entire time drawing cards and flipping coins.

IMMAW

After spending our J-Term studying randomness, we were invited to create an exhibit for the I Make Me a World in Iowa Education Day STEM Festival. Over 1,000 middle school and high school students from across Iowa came to learn about African American culture and to explore higher education. Our class came up with four different stations for the students to interact with.

Station 1

The first station was focused on the perception of randomness. We laid out eight pieces of paper. Four of them displayed randomly generated binary strings, and the other four displayed patterned binary strings. On the back of each sheet was a statement either saying that the string was random or describing the pattern that the string held. The students task was to try to pick the random strings. This helped convey the idea that a random string may appear to have a pattern, and a patterned string may appear to be random.

Station 2

Our second station was focused on probability and randomness. We created a plinko board with twelve rows of nails and thirteen possible outcomes. In theory, the board would display a normal distribution due to the probabilities involved. All we had the students do was drop a penny into the plinko board and watch to see where it landed. It sounds simple, but the students had a great time trying to see if they could get a penny to land in a lower probability slot. By the end of the day, we had what looked to be a relatively normal distribution of pennies.

Station 3

At our third station, we let the students attempt to generate randomness. The idea was to give the students thirteen cards, all in order from Ace to King, and let them shuffle the cards until they believed they were randomly  distributed. We had a computer set up that calculated how random the string the students had generated was, so they got to see firsthand how good they were at generating randomness.

Station 4

Our fourth and final station was about interacting with randomness. This station was our most popular station by far because it involved Virtual Reality. The game we created was based off of a famous way to generate a random sequence called a random walk. The basic idea is that an object in a 3D plane has six different directions it can go, and it has equal probability of going in each direction. The game involved an object moving through a 3D plane with that property, and it was the students job to shoot the object               with the virtual bow and arrow. By letting the students interact with randomness through Virtual Reality, they got to learn and play at the same time.

Overall, the students that visited our stations were extremely interested in what we had to offer, and they walked away with a greater understanding of randomness.

My Takeaway

I am honored to have been able to not only attend the festival, but to have run a station at our exhibit. Watching the students come to our exhibit and learn about randomness through different games was wonderful. Even better was when they asked questions. Helping educate and inspire students that were intellectually curious about mathematics and randomness made the whole event worth it for me.

Written by: Connor Ellingson

 

 

Meet the ECC Members–Ashlie Bunten

Upon applying for the Engaged Citizen Corps, I was under the impression that it would be like any other form of service I had done throughout my lifetime- direct and short-term contact with whomever I was serving. Little did I know that being a part of the ECC would cause me to reexamine the way I viewed myself and the service I do. In short, the ECC has not been what I initially expected. In reality, it has been a much more enriching and impactful experience. Through combining my academics with service, I have gained a deeper understanding of social issues (specifically homelessness) and how my actions impact others.

As an Engaged Citizen Member, I have been paired with Iowa Homeless Youth Centers (IHYC), a non-profit that works to end the cycle of homeless and promote independence through assistance and support. IHYC works primarily with the ages of 16-22 with direct assistance in the areas of education, employment, safe housing, positive community engagement, and life skills. There are several programs instilled at IHYC in order to achieve the youth’s goals within the said areas including the Youth Opportunity Center, Post-Secondary Education Retention Program (aka PSERP), counseling, Street Outreach, and Emergency Beds. The Youth Opportunity Center is a safe-space where youth can have a warm meal, use computers, socialize with others, and relax. Meanwhile, PSERP works closely with the youth as a form of support while achieving a higher education. Several of the youth utilize the counselor, while even more participate in Street Outreach, a program in which every other weekend, members and volunteers of IHYC bring survival packs to people experiencing homeless. Finally, the Emergency Beds are available for up to 10 youth, in which they can reside for a short amount of time while they work with IHYC’s staff to figure out their next steps. Needless to say, IHYC is dedicated to helping the youth reach a level of self-sufficiency.

As an ECC member, I work closely with Taylor McKee, the Development Coordinator and Emma Christianson, the Development Director. My main responsibilities at IHYC include helping organize special events. I am also responsible for revamping IHYC’s presence on social media and occasionally interviewing youth or staff members for the IHYC’s newsletter. During my time thus far at IHYC, I have gained a better understanding of the inner workings of non-profits and the amount of thought and work that goes into every aspect of the programs. More importantly, I have become more educated on the social issue of homelessness and now feel as though I have a greater understanding of how I can act as an advocate. All in all, this year has been a very humbling and eye-opening experience.

As a part of the ECC’s service-learning component, I took a class called the Common Good with my fellow ECC members. While this class was not what I was expecting, it caused me to reexamine my preconceived notions about service. Essentially, we read and discussed Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton, a book that enforced the idea that service often hurts and disadvantages the ones it aims to help. Initially, this message seemed rather taboo and cynical. However, after further analyzing Lupton’s message, I was able to acknowledge the root of his message. Too often in the field of service, aid is given without fully examining what actually needs to be done and how it will affect those being served in the long run. Additionally, some service provides too much assistance that it leads to dependency, which in turn creates and perpetuates a cycle. In contrast, IHYC believes that the only way to break the cycle of homelessness is through promoting self-sufficiency among the youth. Through doing so, the youth are able to take accountability for the progress and their future plans. I have seen first hand how thrilled and proud the youth are when they complete a major task or milestone. After seeing the impact that IHYC’s tactic had on the youth, I was able to better understand Lupton’s message and its implications.

While I have had many wonderful experiences during my time in the ECC and IHYC, I am most grateful for the level of social awareness the programs have given me. Before this year, I considered myself a knowledgeable and socially-conscious member of society. However, I now have a better understanding of the causes and social construct of homelessness than I did before entering this program. Our society has a habit of ignoring topics or issues that make us uncomfortable or don’t directly affect us. This is a major flaw as it only perpetuates the issue. Thus, I’ve realized that advocacy can start small. In fact, change can start from simply realizing there is an injustice. For example, several times throughout the year I have found myself acknowledging stereotypes our society has on a day to day basis. I have also become more self-aware of my privilege. More specifically, I have realized that while I cannot control the fact that I am a privileged individual, I can control how I use my privilege. For example, I have used my privilege of going to Drake to promote change and advocate for others through serving as a member of the ECC.

It is amazing to think that I have gained so much experience and awareness just through simply applying to the ECC. Drake University and the ECC have exceeded my expectations and made my first year of college an enriching and unique experience, and for that I am thankful. As my year draws to a close, I am saddened to think that my time as an ECC and IHYC member are almost over. However, I know that my journey to becoming a better advocate has only started and has been greatly aided by my experiences provided by the ECC.

Written by: Ashlie Bunten

Feed Greater Des Moines Conference

On the morning of Saturday March 3rd, 2018, I walk into Grace Lutheran Church for the Feed Greater Des Moines conference, eager to learn about Des Moines’ food systems and what is being done here to help those in need. Right of the bat I got what I was looking for with the first keynote speaker, Nick Kuhn. Kuhn graduated with a degree in civil engineering but was never truly satisfied with what he was doing. He started a food truck business with the Justice League of Food and began looking for ways to give back to the community. He and the food trucks started by donating leftover food to the Central Iowa Shelter and Services (CISS) but realized that was simply a Band-Aid for those at the shelter and not really solving any long-term problems that the residents at CISS face. He knew he could be doing more by ‘teaching a man to fish’ instead of ‘giving a man a fish’ so he bought a space in Valley Junction that has a bar and a commercial kitchen. This opened up an opportunity for the chefs of the food trucks to rent and have an adequate space to prepare meals for the day, as long as the chefs agreed to take on residents of CISS as apprentices and workers. This is great for the residents of CISS who get into the program because they have a chance to make a living wage and learn valuable skills for future job opportunities in the food industry. This is just a small summary of Kuhn’s operation that is growing and taking off.

I found his story very inspiring and it’s not done yet. I believe he is constantly looking for ways to improve what he’s doing in his own project and what he can be doing for the community around him. I struggle to remember that there is always something that can be done to help those in need, and this conference has reminded me of countless ways to better our community and better the lives of those in the community. Food insecurity was a large topic discussed at the conference whether it was surrounding those who live at CISS or families who are the working poor and don’t always have enough to buy food. This topic relates directly to Next Course Food Recovery here at Drake which I have the pleasure of working for out of the Community Engaged Learning & Service office as a Service Learning Ambassador.

 

Food recovery, or rescue, is something that I have become very passionate about within my first year at Drake. This new position I have taken on has allowed me to network and learn more about what is happening locally and globally in the food scene. I think it’s very important to attend conferences like Feed Greater Des Moines and other local or nationwide conferences to tell stories of success and stories of loss, to learn what other service systems are out there, and to realize how we all fit together in the larger picture of our shared goals of social, environmental and food justice for all. I strongly believe that if we collaborate together, advocate for each other, and keep pushing forward for equal opportunities for all, in good time, we can achieve these goals together.

By: Catie Mullen

Meet the ECC Members–Hannah Smith

Hello all!

My name is Hannah Smith and I am a new member of the 4-H Iowa State Extension and Outreach community and have never been so excited! I started working with 4-H around the end of August of 2017. I have been working mainly with Tiffany Berkenes, a Youth Program Specialist, as my supervisor, and I have been having a great experience so far. I am a part of a small program at Drake University called the Engaged Citizens Corps, in which we work with a number of non-profits and learn mainly what it means to properly serve. I’m originally from the south side of Minneapolis where I was born and raised and now I am a member of the Drake University community. I am a first-year student with an Elementary Education major and a minor in Spanish.

During my time so far at 4-H, I have had the opportunity to work with multiple afterschool programs in Des Moines including Hillis Elementary, Harding Middle School, and Callanan Middle School. I am so blessed to be able to work with such a diverse amount of kids coming from all types of backgrounds. This has helped increase my awareness and ability to work in situations that aren’t necessarily in my comfort zone. I am grateful to be able to work in such an inclusive community. In addition to working with a number of schools I had the opportunity to participate in the 4-H Ujima Retreat at the beginning of my service, which was an awesome experience where African/African American and Asian/Asian-Pacific Islander students were exposed to what higher education is and the doors it could open. I plan to do a lot more during my time with 4-H, including more afterschool programs, retreats, and creating a joint service project with a few Drake organizations such the APO Service Fraternity and Hillis Elementary.

A child’s education is one of the greatest things you could offer – an opportunity to expand their minds and enjoy all the light it can bring to certain situations. In many under privileged areas education is not emphasized as it should be and the children miss out on reaching their full potential and the future they truly deserve. What my goal is as a beginner educator and role model is to show these kids how fun learning can be and aid them in finding their passions and showing them the steps to reach their goals. This will not only show them what they are truly capable of but also create integrity, grit, and leadership. To teach that when things get hard, it doesn’t mean it’s time to give up but to work harder than they did before. A lot of the work I do also gives them light on our current events and history. For example, I recently did a lesson on both Black History month in February and International Woman’s Day in March. I believe it is important for the kids at a young age to understand what environment they will be encountering on their journey toward the future.

I hope to serve for a higher purpose and continuously aid in creating happier and healthier communities. I am proud to say 4-H and the Engaged Citizens Corps have been the start of a long line of service and internal growth.

Written by: Hannah Smith

J-Term Service-Learning Project

Professor Heidi Sleister’s Personal Fitness and Nutrition J-term class did a service-learning project with DMARC food pantries to educate themselves and the community on healthy food options. One thing the students created were “shelf talkers” which help inform people about healthy food choices and the foods they are consuming.

2018 IMPACT Conference

The IMPACT Conference is historically the largest annual conference that is centered around civic engagement. Building on its 32 – year tradition, student leaders like a few of our own Service Learning Ambassadors ventured off to Dayton, Ohio in search for innovative ideas for sustaining leadership programs, encouraging student volunteerism and ways to impact the community we live in. IMPACT is a one – time opportunity where students, administrators, AmeriCorps members and VISTAs, and nonprofit professionals are brought together to share effective practices and improve personal skills to bring back to their home universities.

My biggest takeaway from the conference would have to be the idea that it is not our responsibility to volunteer, it is our privilege. I would like to think other Drake students could use this statement, as a way to reflect on their approach to student volunteerism. I thought it was interesting to compare what the student body at Drake University contributes to service-learning projects versus the necessities that we should and can be provide but that we are overlooking. Shifting the perspective from responsibility to privilege removes that idea of simply ticking off a volunteer requirement on a to do list. Hopefully, if we start looking at our service learning projects through the lens of our privilege – we will see how easy it is to leave an impact and how beneficial that act truly is.  This new way of thinking for me could only be obtained looking at things from the outside in and that is exactly what the four days at the IMPACT conference pushes you to do.”

By: Jazlin Coley

Meet the ECC members–Brittany Freeman

When I opened the email about the Engaged Citizen Corps last year, I thought I was just clearing more “college propaganda” (as I like to call it) out of my inbox. Little did I know, my decision to actually engage in the content would lead to a defining program of my first-year experience. The Engaged Citizen Corps is a holistic program where you work, live, and learn in the same environment of your cohort. Through a mutual pairing process, each member is assigned a local non-profit agency in Des Moines. For me, this meant that I would be working with Anawim Housing, an affordable housing and homelessness outreach non-profit, to complete my 300 hours of service as an AmeriCorps member. Though the face value of 300 hours seems a bit daunting, it truly is necessary to connect with the organization on a deeper level. But what does this actually mean? It is easy to get caught up in the opportunity to build your resume especially as a first-year, but this experience is far more than another line on your resume.

Let me preface my experience by saying that I had virtually no expectations for this program. I had done internship programs before, so I already knew the importance of keeping an open mind. So, I kept it simple. I looked at this as an opportunity for growth and education. Having never been to Des Moines, I thought there was no better way to become acquainted with the problems and struggles facing the community. This was exactly the outlook I needed. Going to Drake, it is rather easy to get caught up in the micro-community of the campus, but it is important to remember that people’s entire livelihoods exist beyond the confines of the campus.

These “livelihoods” that I describe are often wrongly stereotyped especially within Anawim’s tenant basis. Though these people may be experiencing drug addictions, alcoholism, single parenthood, etc., they are not lazy, helpless scum. They are just people who have been bogged down by society’s unequal distribution of resources. With a deepening gap between the haves and the have nots, they feel the inescapable burden the most. Non-profits like Anawim are designed to provide opportunities to those who might not otherwise get the chance. But, it is important to note, that even Anawim’s programs do not extend to everyone. These man-made boundaries put people at risk for an on-going cycle of self-hatred and frustration. I regret to say that it is this that results in giving up. In doing so, people experiencing homelessness accept the wrongly attributed labels and become what they are described. This is not their fault. It is ours – for not speaking up or changing our language (one of the most powerful tools we have).

Seeing the narratives of Anawim’s clients – those who have experienced homelessness and those just in the need of reduced housing costs – I have begun to understand the diversity of Drake’s surrounding community. Without this experience, I would imagine that I too would be swept up in the luxuries of a small, private, liberal arts university. But instead, I have had the privilege of truly assimilating into the community and recognizing the importance of changing my dialogue. Though I may just be the “intern” at Anawim, I am doing so much more. I am documenting histories and completing tasks that aid in the overall functionality and vitality of the organization. I am educating myself and preparing to educate others. I am connecting.

Nonetheless, I know it is easy to get caught up in my story or the stories of the people, but it is important to also reflect on your own personal impact. It may seem like as a single entity you have no ability to affect change, but you do. It is this flawed thinking that is perpetuating our systems of inequality. Active reflection and implementation act as counter measures to the superficiality that is plaguing our nation.

To bring this full circle, let me return to Drake – what it means for the campus, for the students, and for the surround community. The Engaged Citizen Corps is not a program of single-student reflection in the community. It is a program designed to bridge the gap between Des Moines and Drake. For me personally, this has resulted in the pursuit of leadership roles in various organizations on campus where I can affect change within the realm of service and beyond. It means planning service events not only for the women in my sorority but also the greater student body. It means encouraging active education about issues and inspiring the pursuit of individual passions. It means making service a desire not a requirement. Together, we can inspire activism, advocacy, and service on campus with the purpose of translating it elsewhere as well. We have the privilege to serve other people, and we shouldn’t take that lightly. To that, I am going to leave this blog post with one final remark – “community service has to be less about random acts of kindness and more about strategic acts of justice,” (Wayne Meicel).

By: Brittany Freeman

 

« Older posts