The first
few weeks of this course seemed a bit choppy. Each time this class
met we had a clear agenda; however, each day’s purpose seemed disconnected from
the others. In contrast, the last few times we have met have flown
together nicely, leaving me to connect the ideas of giving circles to my core
values to various areas of need in Broome county. Having the
opportunity to reflect and determine my core values before diving into an analysis
of the needs of Broome County has allowed me to take a more objective
perspective then I could have previously.
Before
entering this class, I decided that my topic of interest was literacy. I have identified one of my core values as
enabling individuals to better themselves, but I didn’t exactly know how to
address that through various issues. The
really corny quote: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a
lifetime” describes in a way the mentality I generally use when addressing
public service and philanthropy. I
realized from the Vision of Philanthropy assignment that my core value was more
tightly associated with empowering individuals to be self sufficiant in a
general sense, as opposed to in a specific facet of their lives. Adjusting
my perspective has allowed me to view issues that I have never really
considered through a different lens.
This
realization has also given me a greater confidence in terms of choosing an
organization. When we went around in a circle on the first day of class
stating our core motivations of philanthropy, I got worried that I would never
see eye to eye with someone inspired by theater or music, because we don’t
share that same immediate interests. I now realize that I have more
to learn from those inspired by different means. Although we may
have different interests, we very well may share core values, and I shouldn’t
have jumped to the assumption that we are all extremely different. I
look forward to making this decision as a class. While I know that myself, and many of my
classmates, have expressed fear for this process, I have a feeling that we will
have more in common then expected.
Hi, Lindsey. Your realization was very similar to the thoughts that made me struggle with the Vision of Philanthropy paper. I think that people can't inherently know what their values are; they use their cumulative interests and beliefs to attempt to derive what values they have. In my paper, I wanted to discuss the importance of education to me, but I realized that education isn't really a value. It's definitely an outlet for my values, but there's an underlying mentality and emotional response that causes me to feel strongly towards improving education.
ReplyDeleteI'm sincerely glad that the paper gave you insight into your values, but I believe that we all have a long way to go to understand why it is that we believe in what we believe. For example, could you explain, in terms of your own self, why you truly regard self-empowerment and self-sufficiency to be the most important issue? I think when you start questioning yourself deeper and deeper, you'll find that the answers will become increasingly difficult to answer.
I do think you're completely correct about having common ground. We may disagree on the exact issues or organizations we support, but we're likely to find that our motivations and values are quite similar, and that will help us understand every side of the discussion. It's important to remember that we must agree on our values before we can agree on an issue. As a collective unit, we must find an organization that can best agree with our values and not just the causes we believe in.
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteI loved your declaration that philanthropy is "empowering individuals to be self sufficient": It's concise, powerful, and it helped me sum up my similar vision in a single sentence. I'll always keep this aphorism in mind when asking myself what philanthropy means to me.
In your post, you discussed your apprehensions and anxiety regarding the choosing of an organization in a class where everyone has conflicting views. I believe your new objective perspective, that deep down we're all more similar than we'd expect, is crucial to holding meaningful discussions, but I think there's another important lens to view your original worries with.
You mentioned "jump[ing] to the assumption that we are all extremely different" as a negative, but I argue for the contrary: the amazing thing about a class centered around decision-making and discussion is in fact in our extreme differences. The more wide ranging and skew beliefs we have, the stronger and more developed our debates and decisions will be in the end. I advocate for people to hope that others they meet have new and conflicting ideas. This is how we learn to view the world with a wider outlook and this is how we grow as a society, further making new progressive decisions.
I agree that in the beginning of the class, we seemed to be jumping around a lot. It wasn't until we got into learning about the community that I started to get very excited about making our decision. It makes a big difference being able to put faces to statistics because we see people who struggle in Binghamton and Broome County very often. I got more excited as we learned about Broome County because one of the core values I talked about in my Visions of Philanthropy essay was community. I spoke about how philanthropy is more meaningful to me when I can see who I am helping and when these people live around me. I really enjoyed the in class presentations because I got a better idea of Broome County and its problems. Seeing local statistics compared to national averages and hearing about local organizations got me very excited to move on in our process of picking our finalists.
ReplyDeleteYou also spoke about empowerment, which happens to be another core value I wrote about in my essay. I believe that by empowering someone, you are helping them in the most efficient way possible. When you just give something out, people may become dependent on that. However, when you teach someone to do something themselves, they become self sufficient and are therefore much better off.
Lastly, I agree with your thoughts on our class as a whole. In the beginning, I was worried we would all have very different ideas and values, but as time passes this semester, I realize that we are all much more alike than I originally thought. We all share many common core values which will help us when we make our decision. While I know many of us will advocate for specific organizations, I am confident that we will reach a final decision that we are happy with. In the end, the money is going to Broome County, our community.
Hey Eddie!
DeleteI really liked your input on community, because as talked about in class, it is really easy for those of us who are not from this area to look at Binghamton as a temporary home. Many of the groups discussed how the student population greatly defines the needs of this community. I felt that the presentations instilled me with a greater level of accountability for the wellbeing of this area, as well as allowed me to see the interconnections of all of our issue areas. In this blog post, I tried to work through the idea that different people with different passions could still have the same core values. I now realize that the varied interest areas, while they may seem different, are actually closely related. I look forward to reviewing the applications and understanding the complexity behind an organization's main goals.