Can this class change your life?

I took this class because I have always been an advocate of social justice and wanted to learn about social activism.  I have learned valuable information and useful information. Like why people feel a need to change things up and how certain groups view their/our world.  The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Anti-Nuclear Movement, Environmental Movements (especially my own carbon footprint) and others have again made me focus on the importance of looking at who holds power in this country (and as well, internationally). Never assume that the government has your best interests at the forefront of its goals.  I am continually disheartened when I find out that corporate greed is winning out over the common good.  As members of the same country and planet that seems such a short-sighted approach for big business: short term gain for profit over long-term problems and destruction of our health and environment.  I have tried to be involved when I can and encourage all of you to always try to stand up for what is right.

A small example of my own commitment involved our local school superintendent who was putting profits ahead of the student's welfare. My rage led me to raise community awareness by attending school board meetings, starting petitions, passing out information to parents and letting the board know that kids MUST come before short term profits. Through this I discovered that one should never assume that their voice is not important. I garnered the support of educated and respected individuals in the community who helped to organize a public meeting with the superintendent.  Though  I was labeled a lunatic by some of my neighbors who felt that the superintendent was a "god" who could do know wrong, I kept at it.  In the end, the school board listened to our group and realized that we wanted them to put the welfare of the children first and expected them to also.  We made a difference!!!  They made the superintendent change some of his programs.
We all hate bullies yet allow ourselves to be bullied all the time because we don't think our voice matters.  As I read your blogs Iam so encouraged by how you are changing things around for those that need your time and commitment.  Many of the children and adults you work with are on the lower end of the economic spectrum and you have changed things up for them. 
Awareness of situations comes first and because of this class we all are becoming more aware of the world.  But that is not enough.  Action must follow awareness or we really are letting the bullies win.  

Empowering Conference. . . Glad I Was There1

The Women & Careers Conference was a very worthwhile event.  Dr. Jeane Caveness, the Asst. Dean of Students, is the director of this annual event and her planning and vision came together in a very empowering program.  The speakers ( professional women) spoke about their professions and how they were able to make the leap from college to career.  The keynote speaker was a regional VP for Kohl's. She believes that it is important to have a great mentor and be open to take different paths than originally thought you would take.  She traced her career from travel/tourism to working an insurance company, Target and now Kohls. One of my favorite speakers was an environmental attorney who formed her own consulting group.  She said that internships are very important and that one of her internships was working on the campaign of Barbara Boxer.  Another speaker said that she tried to find a career that best fit her personality and attributes.  She became the women's basketball coach at Cypress College. Another speaker spoke about her path to becoming Exec. Producer of Fox weekend radio.  She said that she started temping and tried to become the person that the company needed/wanted and it worked into a career.  All of the speakers recommended John Wooden's Pyramid of Success.
Though this was a very empowering and very informative conference I thought it was interesting that some of the speakers spoke about how they are perceived, as women, in their careers.  One speaker said that she has to give marketing presentations to mostly male executives. She said that the men became more interested in what she had to say because she is prepared, knowledge and confident.  This gave me the feeling that in the professional world men are still the default model that women are compared to.  At the break I asked the environmental attorney if that is her perception.  She said that over time she has seen that this is less the case, but, this may be because of her reputation in the field and her years of experience. She does believe that the comparisons of women as women to men in the same field still does exist.

I have now finished with my service learning project. I am doing my research into the Women's Resource Center to gain all of the historical information I can.  I hope that my search is rewarding. 
I am so glad that I became connected with the WRC.  Wish I had discovered it sooner.

Everybody is Busy. . .

I think I have a different perspective on my project this week.  I think that the reason that the reason that I feel that I am not leaning a lot or feel like I am being trained is that the Conference was only 6 weeks away when I went to my first orientation.  That did not give the director adequate time to meet with us or train us and I believe that she is overwhelmed with her other responsibilities as Assistant Dean of Students.  So, I think that my expectations may have been over jealous and now I see that in the short amount of time we/I have to help with this project, I have discovered more than I thought.  For one thing, I found out a lot more about the organizations and clubs that meet on campus.  I met with some of the groups to pitch the Conference and was surprised to discover how professional they are.  I met with mostly pre-med, science and math club, and physicians assistants and nurses.  Their meetings were very structured and held in the Union meeting rooms which are very much like the faculty conference rooms.  I also discovered that if I had been given the necessary tools earlier, I would have been able to solicit donations from many different vendors and businesses.  I did really well with just two weeks to solicit BUT most of the people told me that they needed a minimum of 6 weeks to get approval of my request.  Anyway. . . I also got to know more about the Women's Resource Center and how they provide a place for women to discuss issues in a safe space and the staff is so, so friendly.  The Conference March 16 and I feel that I will learn quite a lot the day of the function that I can use in the future.