One day for lunch Cindy and I went to another house where Sebastian and Sula were eating lunch.  I can’t remember the house name or the name of the House Father that we ate with, but from the moment we stepped in the door I felt welcomed. In the days before I had eaten at Sycamore and other than the others villagers who were very friendly and talkative, the house felt very cold. The House Mother, Taya, was very stiff and seemed constantly stressed. So when I went to lunch I wasn’t expecting to have much of a conversation with anyone but Cindy, Sebastian, and Sula.

Silvi Shameti

Identity, Access, Innovation

Fall 2014 Curriculum Project

Hey all, 

I found a couple really interesting articles that I thought were relevant to our last class 

The first article is about a high school teacher who had his students write letters to themselves, and has his students revisit them 20 years later. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/15/teacher-has-students-write-letter-future-selves-posts-20-years-later_n_6326120.html

The second article is a blog post. It is a letter that the author wrote to his English professor from 1978. 

End of the Semester Self-Reflection

       As an incoming freshman from the Philadelphia School District, I didn’t think I would be able to grasp every concept thrown during class. I expected everyone else to come from prestigious private schools and to have everything they needed in order to succeed at Bryn Mawr. But, through my ESEM, I was able to learn that everyone felt just as vulnerable as I did. Everyone was coming in at different levels. It was an interesting process learning about the contact zone, while swimming in a contact zone, which is essentially Bryn Mawr College. 

A lot came up for me in my meeting with Anne, Kristin, and Sara, as well as in the time I spent beforehand, preparing. I was finally able to put a name to what it was that made this semester-long experience so special.

When going out into the beauty of the world that so abundantly surrounds us, we always speak outside of ourselves. When we talk about landscapes, we focus on the trees and flowers. We so often find ourselves as something added onto the backdrop of the environment. In doing this, we subject ourselves to the idea that nature is something outside of ourselves. We get it in our heads that we taint the natural world and, in doing so, ignore our position in the natural world. I assert that the environment is defined by the variation it can exhibit, includes life in a multitude of forms, and is subject to change. Nature is not simply a construct but a vessel by which life can manifest and permeate.

If I were going to write a web event on global feminism, I would be interested in researching the relationship between maternal health and female empowerment in India and China. There’s a ratio of 140 to 100 boys to girls born in some regions of India. Because daughters are seen as drains on families’ resources and boys are seen as bringing strength and wealth to families, it’s very common for baby girls to be aborted, killed soon after birth, and abandoned. This gendercide is the direct result of cultures that value the lives of men and undervalue the lives of women. As a result of this huge gender disparity, there are fewer women for men to marry. This has lead to the rise in human trafficing to ensure the possibility of marriage for wealthy men.

I’ve been thinking a lot about our intersectional event. I’m glad we were able to showcase some of what we’ve been doing this semester, and I think it was a really good idea to have the portrait gallery leading up to our event because it drew a lot of people in and it sparked conversations between people who were unable to attend our event. It’s unfortunate that putting the zine together produced so much stress and anxiety for so many people, but the end result was really amazing. I’m so glad we have it to remember each other and this semester by.

            This course, Changing the Environment: Shifting Identities, Altering Environments, did much to shape how I will go into my next semesters in college and years after. The provocative readings and investigative discussions opened the door to a school of thought I had not entered. In challenging the berth of my contact zone through the ten week project, I have a whole new outlook on how I spend my time and money. I know that I have grown over the course of this class and can look into my writings to see this growth. This one class had a great impact on me as an individual. Realizing the different ways in which we relate to the world around us and infinite possibilities within us is a art of figuring out our place in the world today.