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Area of Specialization: Community Engagement with a Social Justice Lens

            I came into CSSA with a special interest in service-learning. Through my personal experience with service-learning projects, I engaged in conversations that were really impactful to me and allowed me to see things, individuals, and societal structures in a different perspective. By involving the community with a common goal of service, it will provide everyone with an opportunity to interact and engage with someone they may not have had an opportunity to do so otherwise. And thus, service-learning to me meant bringing people together to achieve a goal while learning more about themselves and others around them.
            Through my CSSA journey, I began to see the need for bringing people, people from different backgrounds and identities together. The racial tension brought by the University of Missouri where racial tension on campus became national news. Students at the University of Missouri protested (one student went on a hungry strike), and demanded new administration and training for their staff and faculty. The tension resulted in the departure of the college president and sparked a nationwide discussion around students of color on campus and whether or not administrators were doing their part in ensuring their voice and safety were being met on campus. As I began to better understand the impact of social injustices on campus, and how it was impacting students of color, I wanted to better understand and support them. I learned through various conversations, multiple reflective moments and critical analysis that: yes, there is a need to support students of color. Yes, there is a need to educate members of the white community around white privilege, and the role they play in our current social structure. Yes, our society is divided and tension has risen and will likely continue to rise.
            With my area of specialization, I wanted to focus on bridging the gap between communities together through service-learning. Community engagement with a social justice lens encompassed my passion for educating and engaging everyone about our community (including the diverse members of societies to community organizations). By doing so through a social justice lens, I hope we can begin to break down societal structures that have created systems of oppression and continue to privilege certain identities. We need to bridge the gap between different communities, so that understanding and empathy can begin to develop between members of society. By bridging the gap between communities through service-learning and thinking about critical issues with a social justice lens, I hope people from various backgrounds can learn that through a common goal of service, we are not so different despite our different identities. We may speak a different language or have different beliefs but none of that should matter because we are all human. Members must recognize that society is not equal for all members, and in order to disrupt it, we must work together. Community engagement with a social justice lens, allows members of society to work together while establishing a deeper understanding and empathy towards others and the community, and ultimately forming solidarity.
             
 In order for me pursue this area of specialization, I took classes that really had me think of the social injustices our society and campus was experiencing. I learned through my Social Inequalities course about the various forms of inequalities and that the “American Dream” is not relevant for most people. A big take away from that class really understood how people relate to other people, especially those from a different community. And the realization is they don’t. Society has intentionally segregated certain communities by neighborhoods, schools, and occupations. Higher education has been thought of as the key to social mobility and although this is true for those with a master’s degree, it has yet to be proven for those with a bachelor’s degree. How can we as student affair professionals ensure that students who graduate have the best chance for success?
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My Ethnicity and Social Justice course taught me about the unique barriers and struggles of each ethnic community. By developing a deeper understanding and historical knowledge around the development of these barriers can I then begin to develop empathy towards others from these marginalized communities.
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Through my Reading and Conference: Social Justice in Higher Education, I engaged in conversations around what unique injustices students faced while on a college campus. Connecting the three classes together has given me a deeper understanding of social justice and the important role colleges and universities has when educating our students.

Curriculum:

Internship Experience:

My internships with the Center for Civic Engagement have educated me on the role of service-learning and the value of being a conscientious active citizen. Conscientious active citizen relates to seeing society through a social justice lens and disrupting structures that have to perpetuate systems of oppression.  By providing members of the community an opportunity to engage in service-learning opportunities that address social injustices can we begin to bridge the gap between all members of the community through understanding and empathy.

Looking ahead:

My specialization naturally came to me as I delved deeper into my passion for social justice and creating awareness around privilege and oppression. In my current role as Multicultural Academic Advisor and Retention Specialist for the Asian and Pacific Islander at the University of Oregon, I look forward to providing students with support and guide them towards their cognitive and identity development. I look forward to gaining more confidence in educating others about inequalities that our societal structures have created and how we together we can work towards bridging the gap between our alleged differences. I look forward to being challenged and growing while impacting others to grow, critically think and challenge others. 

The Why:

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