SJUS 2010 Final essay

The prompt
Make a convincing case for the community collaboration that youd like to devote your time to in the winter and spring:

Who are your proposed partners, and what do they do?

In what ways is the work that they do genuine social justice work?
What do you bring to the collaboration that you believe will be valuable to it?

Please post a 500-word draft to your learning journal by the start of class next week (Tuesday, Nov. 10). A 1,000-word final
draft will be due after finals, on Tuesday the 24th.
Well present our 500-word drafts to one another in class on the 10th and the 17th. Each of you will have 4 minutes to present,
which is approximately the amount of time it takes to present a 500-word piece of writing if youre reading at a nice,
understandable pace. (See the next page to find when youre scheduled.)
Some tips
Think of your audience as your classmates, Keelie, John, and members of the community organization or other group with
whom you propose to collaborate. The LLC segment of that audience is familiar with terms and concepts from our class, but
they dont really know about your proposed partners and their work. And though your partners know all about their work,
they havent been part of our class conversations and they dont know you as well as we do. So, in each section, make sure
that youre explaining yourself clearly enough to be understood by the members of your audience who bring the smallest
amount of background knowledge.
You could probably write simple answers to any of the three questions in the prompt pretty easily. But your purpose here
isnt simply to answer the questions. Rather, your purpose is to make a convincing case: i.e., a well-reasoned argument that
reflects your growing understanding of the nature of social justice work and of how you can contribute to it meaningfully. So
here are some tips to help you:
Who are your proposed partners, and what do they do?
To flesh out this section, dont just tell us what issue your proposed partners work on (e.g., homelessness, immigration, etc.);
explain the issue, concisely but in enough detail that we understand what makes it a social justice issue. Likewise, explain the
specific work that your proposed partners do in some detail. You can likely find info about your partners work on their
website; you may find info to explain the issue there, too, though you may also want to hunt around on the internet a bit.
In what ways is the work that they do genuine social justice work?
Some of you will work with community partners who do straight up, grassroots social justice work. But many of you will
work with groups who are also, or even primarily, charitable organizations or policy advocates. Whatever the case, make sure
that you use the concepts weve developed in class to explain where in the overlapping fields of social justice work,
charitable work, and policy work your proposed partner falls, with a special emphasis on social justice.
What do you bring to the collaboration that you believe will be valuable to it?
You bring a lot more to your proposed collaboration than energy, some free time, and a willingness to work hard. You all
have unique experiences, knowledges, talents, passions, and ambitions. So, in this section, talk about how those special
qualities make you specially suited to advancing the work.
Finally: A few of you are not partnering with existing, off-campus groups, but are instead launching actions of your own that
will involve creating groups of students, etc., on campus. If thats you, then adjust your answers accordingly, i.e., talk about
the folks on campus you plan to mobilize, about what makes the action youre proposing to launch a genuine social justice
action, and about what youll bring to the collaboration as a leader.
(See next page for schedule of presentations)

Tuesday, November 10
Cassidy
Ciera
Grace
Amado
Ariel
Chalen
Katherine
Rob
Meg
Randy
Ally

Schedule of presentations
Tuesday, November 17
Alexis
Gabriela
Tess
Stephanie
Jessica
Andis
Marie
Brendan
Ingrid
Queen
Abby