Service Learning Activism Log: One

Rachel Miles

Prof. Meredith Tweed

WST 4021

3 November 2011

Service Learning Activism Log: One

Action:

This week, most of my group’s activist work was focused on general YWLP involvement. As part of a fundraising effort for YWLP, we all had dinner at Applebee’s on Thursday night. We also attended the big sister meeting on Wednesday, where we prepared for next week’s lesson on body image and self-esteem. Given the subject matter, I am both excited and nervous for the tweets we will receive from the girls after next week’s meeting; should they choose to use the tweets to respond to the themes of our discussion, they could be very telling of how these issues actually affect the littles we are working with this term.

Specific to our project, we received our first submission for the ’zine this week. Response to this has not quite been what we had looked forward to so far, but hopefully we will receive more as the term wraps up and we continue reminding the girls about the ongoing project. We had also planned to meet up and discuss this, the video, and adjustments to our UCF day lesson plan for next term, but that meeting did not occur. Instead, we are all going to continue brainstorming ideas for when we are able to meet, preferably sometime this week.

Reflection:

Because our group did not make much progress on our specific project, most of my own thoughts and self-reflections for this week have focused on larger YWLP activities, unfortunately in a more critical light. Probably because of the topic I chose for our last class paper, I have been concentrating on consumerist activism recently. As much as I enjoyed getting dinner with friends from YWLP tonight, I cannot help but feel a little uncomfortable at how much of the activism I do plays into consumerist ideas of the dollar and the choice of when and where to spend it as power. In eating at Applebee’s under the frame of supporting YWLP, I bought into models of activism that “[link] civic viability with consumption” and consequently construct “civic rights” as “exercised by making these kinds of consumer choices” (Harris 69), even knowing how these systems negatively impact girls’ leadership thanks to our in-class discussions. I recognize that much of this is a necessary evil; as Emily reminded me, YWLP receives no funding from UCF and depends entirely on donations and fundraising drives like tonight’s. Regardless, I still feel a bit hypocritical and like I should be working harder to change these systems instead of participating in them as necessary evils, even if I am not sure yet of how to begin doing that.

Reciprocity:

This week, the “work” I did with YWLP inspired some fairly difficult realizations about my own activist work and how often it falls into the category of consumerist activism. I still do not have any answers to that issue and do not expect to come across any through this project. It is, however, something to think about and work on as I develop my own activist involvement in future projects and undertakings.

Works Cited:

Harris, Anita. Future Girl. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.

[Word Count: 500]