Trying to get people to vote can be very difficult. A lot of the time, through phone calls, knocking on doors, or more, you only ever have the opportunity to speak to the select few willing to have a conversation with you. In working at the ACLU, I spend a lot of time with the community organizers helping them with their efforts, but Gerrlyn has believed in me enough as an intern to give me the creative freedom to do my own outreach plan as well. I was going to be presenting to young people all over San Diego, specifically court involved youth and/or “at risk” youth. I feel like many of my peers who are just getting an opportunity to vote for the first time are not aware of the upcoming election. They are only a year older than I am, so if I was not aware, then how could I expect them to be. I wanted to focus specifically in communities that are not typically reached by campaigns. These are the communities most impacted by the district attorney, who holds so much power over the criminal justice system, yet these are the places where people are not typically engaged in elections. This includes Chula Vista too! I set out to try to find organizations or schools that I could come present to and started mapping out my presentation. At first, this was very difficult. How was I supposed to turn such a vast subject as Smart Justice into something that could be taken in by a class/group of teenagers like myself. I know I often get bored or stop paying attention when someone gives me too much information at once, but as I got into planning I realized how familiar my process was. I looked back to my Ethnic Studies plans and tried to remember my lessons that were best received. Mainly, the best ones were the most interactive ones. When I asked our group lots of questions, gave them time to talk to partners, and used plenty of examples that put them in the subject we were learning about, we always ended up having the best conversations. I tried to replicate this in my presentation. I got my presentation fairly complete, but no one was responding about letting me come present! I emailed more and more people and reached out to connections I already had. I remembered what Gerrlyn taught me on the first day. If you want 10 people, talk to 30. As I did this, I eventually started to get responses. Now, I am scheduled to present at 3 schools and 3 community organizations! I am so excited to present and looking forward to finally putting my own work into action!
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What is this?Hi everyone! This is my junior year blog. Here you will find weekly reflections up until the completion of my junior internship. I hope you enjoy this inside look on my learning! Archives
June 2018
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