Being a global citizen scholar can take shape in a lot of different ways. It can be in the tangible - going out and doing the work, or the intangible - developing morals and values to live by. But there is an overarching concept that I think is valuable to consider when defining the relatively vague idea of "leading innovative efforts toward solving the world's complex problems". This overarching concept lives in the realm of self-awareness - understanding where you stand (considering your privilege and potential), finding the skill sets you may have to offer (teaching, empathy, community service, creativity, etc.), and then finding things you are truly passionate about to devote your energy to. This being said, self-awareness stretches and grows as you experience new facets of life and your perspective changes. I find myself continually reconsidering my “self,” especially when it comes to my privilege and my passions. There are values and principles that are essential to my person, but the context of them shifts constantly - the “why” sifts through all the temporary/unimportant aspects of life. As of right now, though, I seem to be split between the tangible and intangible ways of approaching of being a “global citizen scholar.” I find a lot of fulfillment in connecting with people and sharing opinions and ideas, and then on a more personal level; doing the work to be informed and aware of the social issues in this country and around the world. So the tangible work comes in bringing people together to discuss ideas, being open with people, listening to people, making work with people. The intangible work comes in a natural flow of personal experiences, research, meditation, reflection.
Going into it, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the gateway to honors class. The class ended up making an significant impact on how I thought about the subjects of success, happiness, and my own personal values and priorities. I think there is a lot of value that comes from open discussion and sharing opinions with people you hardly know. From the first day, we were encouraged to ask and answer questions with people we just met. It made me seriously consider my responses to these questions for the sake of representing myself in this “first impression” situation.
We discussed the concept of reflection as an integral part of self evaluation and growth. Where reflection becomes a vehicle for finding what is important to you and where your priorities lie.
One of the last weeks we got a deck of about 20 cards, each card with a value and definition written on it, and were given a short amount of time to pick 10 cards that we associated most with. It was interesting to see the process each person had for choosing their 10 cards: sorting the cards out in unique ways to knock options out. My process started by looking through the deck and putting aside cards according to my initial reaction: Associate or don’t associate. Some of the ones I associated with were things like “honesty,” “justice,” “passion,” “relationships,” and other values that I found to be pretty emotionally driven. I then split them even further by taking out cards that felt repetitive like “friendship” vs. “relationship” and choosing the one that I felt embodied the general idea - in this case i chose “relationship.” By the end of it I realized I associated with most of the cards in the deck, some more others. The 10 that I chose were split between values that I have thought about for years and have always heavily associated with, and values that I think I chose because of the current context of my life. This idea that there are continuously the same core values and then others that come in and out of life depending on where you are what what you find important at the time.
Moving forward I want to keep those core values in mind when dealing with stressful situations, or times where I feel I’m compromising certain things for less important things. I can use those values to push me past the difficulties and remind me of the things I find truly worthwhile. And in terms of reflection, I see myself using reflection as a tool for looking back on situations or periods of time to finding the value in them: giving meaning to the mass of experiences I go through every year, month, week, day. There is a lot I can learn from serious reflection; reflection tends to point out things I need to work on as a friend/citizen/activist, which then allows me to strengthen the weaker parts of my person. I have already noticed the way my core values have influenced my reflection periods. It gives the feelings that I’ve always known to be important to me a word and description to live under, and that gives me points of reference when reflecting on the certain situations and how/why I dealt with them a certain way.
I still have a long ways to go!
Going into it, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the gateway to honors class. The class ended up making an significant impact on how I thought about the subjects of success, happiness, and my own personal values and priorities. I think there is a lot of value that comes from open discussion and sharing opinions with people you hardly know. From the first day, we were encouraged to ask and answer questions with people we just met. It made me seriously consider my responses to these questions for the sake of representing myself in this “first impression” situation.
We discussed the concept of reflection as an integral part of self evaluation and growth. Where reflection becomes a vehicle for finding what is important to you and where your priorities lie.
One of the last weeks we got a deck of about 20 cards, each card with a value and definition written on it, and were given a short amount of time to pick 10 cards that we associated most with. It was interesting to see the process each person had for choosing their 10 cards: sorting the cards out in unique ways to knock options out. My process started by looking through the deck and putting aside cards according to my initial reaction: Associate or don’t associate. Some of the ones I associated with were things like “honesty,” “justice,” “passion,” “relationships,” and other values that I found to be pretty emotionally driven. I then split them even further by taking out cards that felt repetitive like “friendship” vs. “relationship” and choosing the one that I felt embodied the general idea - in this case i chose “relationship.” By the end of it I realized I associated with most of the cards in the deck, some more others. The 10 that I chose were split between values that I have thought about for years and have always heavily associated with, and values that I think I chose because of the current context of my life. This idea that there are continuously the same core values and then others that come in and out of life depending on where you are what what you find important at the time.
Moving forward I want to keep those core values in mind when dealing with stressful situations, or times where I feel I’m compromising certain things for less important things. I can use those values to push me past the difficulties and remind me of the things I find truly worthwhile. And in terms of reflection, I see myself using reflection as a tool for looking back on situations or periods of time to finding the value in them: giving meaning to the mass of experiences I go through every year, month, week, day. There is a lot I can learn from serious reflection; reflection tends to point out things I need to work on as a friend/citizen/activist, which then allows me to strengthen the weaker parts of my person. I have already noticed the way my core values have influenced my reflection periods. It gives the feelings that I’ve always known to be important to me a word and description to live under, and that gives me points of reference when reflecting on the certain situations and how/why I dealt with them a certain way.
I still have a long ways to go!