Taking Action

In class today, we focused on developing our Action Plans for most of the time. I made progress in developing my plan, and Kisa helped me consider some potential obstacles and difficulties. I also thought more deeply about what exactly I hope to accomplish by working with environmentally-conscious trail groups, why this is important to me, and why other people would care about it. I want to bring in volunteers from school to help with trail-building, and hope to simultaneously educate them about nature, why it's important to respect the environment, and how it will indirectly affect them if they harm the environment.

I was happy because I was able to meet up with my friend Irene Rojas-Carroll and have lunch with her today. It was great to talk to her about school, summer, and Women and Leadership, among other topics. Since she took Women and Leadership two years ago, it was interesting to compare my experience with her experience. I also ran my Action Plan by her, and she gave me some helpful tips on it. After lunch, she gave me a mini-tour of the campus and we stopped by the Environmental Studies building, which had a cool garden in front of it.

This evening after class, we had another Community Time, during which every class in the Leadership Institute watched a movie. My class watched Iron-Jawed Angels, which is about how suffragettes such as Alice Paul pushed for, and eventually succeeded, in the passage of the 19th amendment, giving women in the US the right to vote. I really enjoyed the movie, because it showed how incredibly hard Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and other suffragettes had to work to get the right to vote. I think it's important to remember that today, and not take for granted the fact that everyone in the US can vote. All the suffragettes are truly inspiring figures. I am definitely more motivated to change the world in positive ways as a result of their work.