What skills and talents are most valuable in carrying out the social change work you are doing with your community partner? How well do those skills mesh with the talents or limitations you have come to see in yourself through the experience?

Communication was a very important skill to have when working with our community partner. Whether it was my team’s skill of explaining what skills we have in a way that someone who doesn’t know anything about coding or trying to understand what exactly the client wanted. It took us 2-3 meetings to really be on the same page as the client. We finally knew what they wanted and they had a better idea of what we could give them. Another skill that was important to have was being able to research how to do things that we didn’t know. There were many things that my group had to learn along the way while completing this project. We definitely had to power through our frustrations when things wouldn’t work. While having a background/ general understanding of code was important, having good communication skills and motivation to keep trying was more important.

Consider the social, environmental, or spiritual need on which you are focusing for this Odyssey project. Do you feel that the approaches to creating social change employed by your community partner are effective ways of creating change in this area? Why or why not?

While my team was accomplishing a service to the world, it didn’t really feel like that. When I think of doing service, I think of active volunteering, going out, doing something physical. This project really opened my eyes to the broad span of what volunteering can be. My team offered a valuable skill to our client and spent so many hours working on this project. However, it’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact that this was a service project. Regardless, I am so proud of my team, our work, and being able to be a part of something bigger on campus. It’s easy to get caught up in the Hendrix bubble, but this project was a great way to remind us and connect us with the outside world.

Have any of your fundamental values, social ideals, or significant beliefs been challenged or confirmed through this experience? Have you found any of your academic coursework helpful in understanding what you have observed and experienced? Anything you learned in class that you would directly challenge now that you have had this experience?

I am definitely a person of privilege who was extremely lucky that my parents were always able to do their own taxes. I never really thought about what happens if you can’t do your taxes and you can’t afford to have someone do them for you. This definetely opened my eyes to a more extensive world with more extensive problems.

There are many social, political, environmental, or community issues on which you might work in the years ahead. How has this experience reshaped your views on the public issues that call you to action?

There will always be problems that need to be solved, you just have to look closer. No matter what field I go into and where I end up in the country I will always be able to find someone or something that needs help. Whether that be through another website or database or offering up other skills I have gained while being at Hendrix, I feel like I have a usual set of skills and the motivation to help. I really appreciate the Hendrix Odyssey projects because they really push us to work outside of the box and become better people.