Personal Narrative: My Experience As A Social Activist

Through the duration of this course some of my opinions on civic issues have changed and some have stayed the same. An opinion of mine that has changed is the number of flaws in our education system. This is an important civic issue because the education of young people is deciding the future of this world. This is politically significant because this generation will grow up to be a part of politics whether running for a role in the federal, provincial, or municipal parliamentary or simply voting in an election.

The history of mental health in the United States show a robust movement towards the mental healthcare system we have today. Prior to the 19th century, individuals with mental health issues were widely considered to be demonically possessed, thus contributing to the stigmatization of mental illness and the proliferation of poor treatment conditions. However, in the 1800s, there was a dramatic change in mental healthcare in the U.S. The government took a proactive role in treating the mentally ill, leading to the dawn of state psychiatric facilities.

I want to run for Mayor within the State of Illinois one day. This Legislative staff experience will give me the hands-on experience that is vital to my career. This internship give me the opportunity to surround myself around people who have been in my shoes, and can give real feedback on the issues and policies that they encounter on the daily basis. After I receive my masters this semester, I wanted an opportunity to be exposed to the work field that I plan on dedicating my life. This internship highlights that real issues transpiring everyday within the state of Illinois. I would love the opportunity of obtain this internship, so that I can gain extensive knowledge on the legislative process. I plan to create different youth programs and policies for community with high crime rate. The legislative internship gives me the opportunity to have hands on experiences with the difficulties of accomplishing a long term goal of creating more opportunities for these

I’m part of Riverside’s 4th district Youth Advisory Council. The council enhances the community by identifying issues related to the public and working closely with government supervisors. We worked at one event called Baseball Buddies. At Baseball Buddies, disabled children are paired with a teenager, who would assist their “buddy” in a baseball game for several weeks.

Capitalizing on my past accomplishments analyzing policy, project management, coaching, and administrative work, I am enthusiastically writing to express interest in serving The Dream Corps as a Policy Associate. My education and work experience have provided me with research skills, a strong teamwork mentality, a keen detail oriented mind and dynamic relationship building skills. Bringing those qualities with me to the Policy Associate position, I know that I will be successful in contributing to the mission and objectives of The Dream Corps and the #Cut50 initiative by providing critical internal support for the successful dissemination of safely and responsibly reducing the incarceration rate by 50% over the next 10 years. This position

My communication skills, both verbal and written, have been honed through years of experience conducting open-ended interviews, working with individuals and families in forming and obtaining goals, facilitating groups, and producing documents. I am outgoing and able to engage people in conversations. I am an active listener in that I am able to reflect back what was said as a means of eliciting further information. The technology I have experience with includes a proficiency with the Internet to access information, website management, Adobe Photoshop, and experience with Microsoft Office Suite. Although my knowledge with Access is limited, I am advance user of Word, Excel, and Power Point. I have utilized various video conferencing programs and am comfortable facilitating meetings.

My passion for Human Services began while traveling in Asia, Mexico, and through different communities in our country. The most important lesson I learned whether overseas or here in the USA is compassion. Compassion and understanding for what is needed. Compassion for underprivileged people, the elderly, and most importantly the children. The one thing that has stayed constant with me since I started traveling with my family is that people need help.

The most significant impact I have made in public service/policy has been working with Inspire Arizona. Inspire Arizona is a nonpartisan non-profit program that focuses on registering newly eligible voters, specifically high school juniors, and seniors. The organization is trying to increase voter registration among young people and making sure students build a habit of voting very early in their young life. This summer I had the experience of participating in a political campaign. I canvassed for Athena Salman who is running for House in the Arizona Legislature in District 26. This is my first real world experience in public service

The other day, I tried to share an article, on a social justice issue, with my close friend [white, cisgendered female], but before I could start reading, she responded with “Ugh, don’t read that. I’m not in the mood for anything depressing,” all the while rolling her eyes.

For a reason I don’t understand, teenagers will often call their peers “Social Justice Warriors” as an insult. As if being proactive about the world around us is a negative thing that should be squashed through insecurity. I am someone who has often been called a social justice warrior. But despite how those who say it would want me to feel, it actually makes me happy. It makes me happy because it means that even if they don’t want to hear or think about how the world treats people and things that don’t fit in with the norm, they know that that’s what I am fighting. To Lewis & Clark I would bring this peaceful fury. There have been times over the years when I have stopped myself from speaking up for things, but I got tired of that pretty quickly.

As a proactivist teenager, my ambition is to establish something positive in the community that can be beneficial for everyone. Being involved such as volunteering in the church “La Luz Del Mundo” has permitted me discover who I truly am. I learned that with great communication and decision-making skills, you can accomplish laborious tasks and overcome burdens with the idea of teamwork. For the longest time, I believed that being an independent worker was much more effective than collaborating with a group of individuals. My past experiences volunteering in different events and cooperating in school clubs, proved me wrong. I discovered that that when you take everyone’s ideas into consideration and allow others to share their creativeness, you will have a much more outstanding result. Moreover, I consider myself a

Confessing one 's political identity in 2016 truly embodies the phrase “walking on eggshells”. Whether you’re a liberal or conservative, owning up to your political resolutions sometimes comes with some intense backlash. In this years’ presidential election we have an intense candidate with very radical views, and if you don 't know who I’m talking about you should probably move from the rock you are living under. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has gained a immense popularity amongst not only the American public but Internationally as well. His chauvinist rhetoric, egotistical outlook, and how he continuously fabricates lies upon lies has truly brought him into the public eye. Hearing Trumps incredibly horrifying agenda makes me proud to admit that I am a Democrat, a solid liberal to be exact. As a solid liberal I believe in the power of the people and that means all people.Whether you are rich, poor, black, white, gay, or straight building and creating a nation that caters to people inherently means doing right by the economy and when we do well for the economy we do well for everyone.

How many different “hats” do we each wear on a daily bases. From our careers, to our family and friends we all have different identities that we claim and live out day to day. These identities help us define who we are. “When we identify ourselves, we draw on a host of different characteristics associated with various social groups to which we belong” (King 2012, pg. 429). My ornament is explaining the social identity through a snow-women and her many hats.

Working with nonprofit agencies and AmeriCorp V.I.S.T.A. (Volunteer in Service to America), I had the opportunity to learn firsthand at the efforts given within agencies to service the environment and the public by making changes, and implementing reforms on different issues. I found I have a passion for people, legal policies, compliances, and I am very good as a spokes person, or advocate speaking on change. During the time when I was facilitating as a General Education Development instructor for

My Community Service Learning (CSL) placement was spent as an event planning assistant at the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), located on unceded Algonquin territory in Ottawa. The mandate of the organization is to provide national-level advocacy for First Nations policy issues in Canada, as directed by the Chiefs from across the country at bi-annual assemblies. The AFN receives its mandate from resolutions passed at these assemblies, and is accountable to over 630 First Nations, as well as urban and rural First Nations peoples, through this process (Assembly of First Nations, 2017a). My placement fell into the Social Development secretariat, which works on such topics as early learning and child care, First Nations child and