Post Service Reflection
My personal understanding of social justice has evolved throughout my service-learning experience. Previously I understood social justice as human rights, access, participation, and equity. I agree that these aspects make up social justice, but my overall definition has changed. Now I believe social justice is the distribution of privileges, opportunities, and wealth in society. Social justice provides justice to those that are negatively impacted by being on an uneven playing field from everyone else. Therefore to achieve social justice, I believe that the world must see the social injustice that is afoot in order to strive towards providing better social justice in the future.
In this course, I have gained some insight between the course material and service-learning. In class, we discussed the “Conditions of Difference” wheel which are essential conditions that shape every person’s experience. I learned that oftentimes people are a lot more similar than they may initially seem. While working with my partner, Jay, we discovered that we are both the same age and are double-jointed. Those are things I wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t disclosed our inner and outer cores. That experience allowed me to open my eyes and have a larger understanding of the importance of someone’s inner and outer core when interviewing them. Therefore for our final project, I will make sure that my team utilizes the “Conditions of Difference” wheel to create a more meaningful reporting experience.
I will now identify several areas of curiosity related to course content and provide several questions that have been piqued by my service-learning experience. I have learned the importance of small businesses and the impact they have on creating opportunities for people in their communities. Without small businesses, people may not have the freedom to work a job that allows them to focus first on the customer and secondly on making money. I am interested in seeing the difference between someone working for a small business and also a large business? I know that oftentimes large businesses give workers great benefits and retirement funds but are that worth it in terms of overall job satisfaction?
The most valuable lesson I will take away from this class is to make sure that I always put in the effort in the beginning because, in the long run, it will pay off. I learned that this means finding what area you work best in order to be a leader for others in the group. I seem to be a natural leader and find I work best in groups when I keep everyone informed of due dates, and on schedule. This is interesting because it will impact my future endeavors. I want to carry my newfound strength of leadership into making the world a better place filled with justice instead of the injustice we are now in. I have also continued to put in the effort on social media. This has made a difference by keeping the community, specifically, Twitter, informed of social issues and I hope to continue to stay active on social media.
I can apply this knowledge to other areas of my life such as my career. I want to be able to work with people and be able to directly impact people’s lives in a positive way. Therefore this course has helped me understand the importance of having meaningful interactions with everyone I meet and the value of keeping personal biases at bay. Overall, I am grateful for this course and my expectations were met.
