Activism Log #4

Activism:

This week, we have received our first few submissions for the 'zine from several YWLP Littles. I began compiling the scrapbook pages that the Littles created on UCF Day. My groupmates and myself attended a Big Sister meeting on Wednesday and last night attended a fundraiser night at Applebee's where 10% of each check would go to YWLP. My groupmates and I have also gotten together to discuss changes to next semester's continuation of our service-learning project with several large changes and multiple minor tweaks. Next week we will be handing out reminders to the Littles that we want their submissions for the 'zine because we only have a handful of submissions as of yet.

Reflection:

What I have most gained from our Service-Learning project so far is a greater understanding for what it is to compromise and I have become greatly interested in implementing a shared power system with girls, either in this particular chapter of YWLP or in another girls' leadership organization that I will become a part of wherever I end up. "While this shift is by no means absolute, it does create openings for marginalized groups to participate more fully in leadership processes" (MacNeil 36). This can most specifically be applied to our approach with working with the girls to hopefully have more say in lesson plans and letting them help us decide what to include in our program.

Reciprocity:

As I said in my Reflection section, I have learned a great deal about compromise. Though youths are often mistaken for immature or unhelpful children, the fact is they are the ones that hold the key to unleashing and developing their own development most efficiently. My adulthood does not grant me infallibility, and so compromising my plans and hopes with the girls who also have ideas and dreams to combine a greater lesson plan and a more successful farther-reaching program seems like a positive direction to go in.

Works Cited

MacNeil, Carole A. "Bridging Generations: Applying "Adult" Leadership Theories to Youth Leadership Development." New Directions for Youth Development 2006.109 (2006): 27-43. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.