On March 18, the advocates and PSP staff led a social justice teach-in for sophomore and senior scholars and mentors. After lunch in the Social Justice Hub, we gathered for an afternoon of collaborating to create a shared vision of our goals for the future we want to live in, and break down how we might overcome the obstacles that exist in getting to that world.
Day started with quiet reflection time in which scholars did a free writing session on questions such as where do you come from, where are you now, and where you are going. This helped everyone to get themselves in the frame of mind to dream about what life could be like outside of any limitations.
We broke into groups and sat together to finish the sentence “We want to live in a world where…” Small groups spent time collaborating on coming up with these visions which were then shared with the whole group. From there, we all posted our visions on the wall and grouped them by theme. Small groups chose themes to address more in-depth by discussing what prevents this vision from existing now.
Our next activity was about mapping the assets of our community. Advocates led an activity that encouraged participants to think about what they know and want to know, what they’re good at and would like to be good at, and what they are passionate about and what their desires are. The idea was to connect these assets and strengths with some of the gaps to creating our visions so that we can realize and act on the fact that we all have something to bring in the struggle to a better world.
