Brigid OBrien

12/17/17
Reflection

To begin this project, my peers and I studied Martin Luther King Jr.s ideas of Civil
Disobedience and his belief of justice. This led into the act of thoroughly researching and
studying moral and political philosophies -- these including Deontology, Utilitarianism, John
Rawls, and Libertarianism. The goal of studying each of these philosophies was to understand
the different takes on justice and What is Justice? We also read the novel Justice, Whats the
Right Thing to do? by Michael J. Sandel. After we had a clear understanding of each of these
philosophies, we took an college style exam. These studies led into the realization that our class
would like to center our justice project around something that impacted the community. We
looked into immigration, environmental, and mental issues surrounding the Durango community
-- and as a majority we voted to center our project around homelessness. Various speakers
working on homelessness in Durango came to our classroom to educate us about different
perspectives. My classmates and I also visited test tracks, a homeless camp, to fully understand
and see the conditions homeless communities lived in -- rather than making assumptions. After
this research took place, my peers and I created a goal and a mission for our project, decided that
we wanted to create an event, and split off into groups. These groups included project groups and
event planning committee groups. From then on, we all worked hard to create this event.

The event included two keynote speakers, County Commissioner Julie Westendorff and
La Plata Youth Services Jennifer Turner spoke to begin. After this, student projects (art,
education and film) and community booths were on display for information for the community.
Lastly, we provided a meal which included a speech from one of my peers. Overall, I believe this
event went extremely well. We had a large amount of community members come, homeless and
non-homeless. I think my classmates and I did a wonderful job of addressing this issue and
bringing many different perspectives to light. One of the most memorable interaction I had at this
event was during the meal. A little girl who was homeless came up to me and gave me a hug --
this seems like such a simple interaction but it was truly an important experience. She and her
family really seemed to value our event and the work that we had done, and I am happy to have
created such an event that is appreciated by a myriad of different people.

Preparing for this event enabled me to push outside of my comfort zone in many ways.
As a project manager for the event planning committee, it was my job to work hard to make sure
that everyone in their own subgroup was on the right track, along with creating an itinerary and
designing the layout of the event. Every day of class I made sure my peer and I were being
productive and working hard to make the event memorable. This project involved outside of
school work -- this including communicating with the other class in order to avoid confusion, as
well as viewing the event space multiple times. One of the most difficult parts of this project was
making sure that every subgroup of the event planning committee was working hard. I wanted to
be kind and supportive to my classmates while also being assertive on getting work done. I found
this balance difficult to achieve but I do believe that I worked hard on it and certainly went out of
my comfort zone to complete this goal.
 This event/project impacted me for the long run in that I learned the many perspectives of
an issue such as homelessness. I have always been aware of homelessness, but never on this
level. Carrying out this project enabled me to recognize all of the different perspectives
surrounding an issue such as this, and I should never cast one off as invalid or unimportant. It is
valuable to recognize other opinions even if you do not agree with them. I also grew in learning
that leadership is important, but I have to trust my peers rather than doubting them in order to get
work done. I realized that doubting my classmates ability to work only made them feel less
motivated, whereas when I believed in them they felt supported and more motivated to get work
done. For example, one of my peers was working on meal outreach and support. I did not have a
lot of faith in her, and this made her feel insecure. Later, when I spoke with her I made sure to be
positive, supportive, and assertive, which seemed to be a lot more effective than the latter. I
believe this was a very important thing for me to learn in being a better human in general.