I feel that I learned a lot more than I had expected to in fulfilling my Global Citizenship goals. I wanted to focus on the first learning goal: evaluating social issues and identifying instances and examples of global injustice and disparity. I thought that I was going to have to search for and interpret works that were subtly suggesting social change or injustice, but instead, I discovered entire collections and exhibits dedicated to strong comments on social injustice, such as Agitprop! in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It was very interesting to see how each issue was represented, not just in a painting or sculpture, but through multimedia efforts, utilizing videos, posters, papers, and handouts. In viewing, analyzing, and discussing these exhibits with my peers, I also engaged in another learning goal: to discuss and interpret world issues and events. For this goal, it was very easy to act on all of my methods because I enjoyed staying in front of the pieces and absorbing them, as well as revisiting them later and posting about them on Instagram or my WordPress. In the museums, I made an effort to seek out these exhibits for the purpose of my project, going to them first before another piece or collection I was interested in. This made me realize how self-motivated activism really is because even though it is available to us, we must realize it and seek it out, despite other things we could be doing that are easier or less rewarding.

My academic development through team learning and discussion was a bit more difficult. It required that I go out of my comfort zone and push myself to interact with others to find out their ideas. It is always easier to stay within yourself and not consider the perspectives of others, but I found that their perspectives or contributions to group efforts often broadened my own thoughts and improved the overall experience. Group interaction is not easy, however, and I found myself having to refrain from sharing some of my thoughts or sacrifice some of my wants for others so that they may have a good experience as well. All of my methods were very dependent on individual situations, but overall I could achieve them. They required much more consideration than methods for my other goals, however. I think that there is still more for me to learn and skills for me to develop in group work and discussion, but I think my skills did improve over the course of the week, The New York trip acted as a kind of immersion into the learning process. This development also helped me in my goal to see art as a medium of social change because it required me to gain a respect for other people’s views and knowledge,  which is important because significant change requires the efforts of many people.

The third, personal objective was probably the easiest. Although it was time-consuming, requiring me to sit and reflect in front of many sites and pieces, it was just me writing down my ideas. It would have been easier just to look and move on, but I think the writing allowed me to keep the important thoughts and impact words that the pieces inspired in me. It allowed me to return to them later and reflect on how these things are still relevant and how I can act on them. The creative writing pieces were a bit hard though. Even though I don’t mind doing the writing, sharing them on my d-portfolio was hard because I feel like they aren’t fit for being published online yet and they are both very personal pieces, especially the one about traveling to Ellis Island. The writing experience reminded me how personal art really is, not just mine but all of it that we saw on our trip. This goal to learn through journaling helped me a lot in my other two learning objectives because it allowed me to capture my thoughts in the moment and return to them later. Writing as also a component of both of the other goals, so, of course, it helped. I also feel like I interpreted the phrase “journaling” a bit different because that makes it seem like a diary or paragraphs of reflection. However, my journaling came more in the form of bullets or short thoughts written down because that wasted less time and reflected how the actual thoughts came to me. Of the three objectives, this is the one that changed the most for me over the course of the trip. After two days in New York, I realized that writing my nightly reflections in my journal wasn’t as effective as I thought it would be. The process was frustrating because I did not like having to phrase all of my thoughts into full sentences or long passages. Each night, I already practice personal meditations on my day, so I began to include a mental reflection in my nightly routine. This became more effective for me because I think it allowed me to think more freely and complexly about my experiences. I also decided not to post pictures or excerpts of my journal online because I felt it would not adequately convey my thought process and the photos would likely seem purposeless and unappealing. As this is a portfolio, I decided to keep it clean from confusing or useless images and include my journal observations into my other posts instead.

This reflection was originally published March 28, 2016, on another platform.