WHY I ENJOYED BEING THE GRADUATE ASSISTANT FOR MY DESIGN CRITICISM STUDENTS.
Last week, I had the opportunity to give a lecture to my students about Design for Social Change. I started the lecture off by having them watch the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show with Coldplay as the headliner featuring Beyoncé and Bruno Mars and addressed the different messages/movements represented within their peformance. For example: Black Lives Matter, Women Empowerment, LGBT Rights, Black Panther Party, The Something Yellow Foundation (raising awareness to benefit the young heroes of childhood cancer).
Later, I gave them a presentation on 10 Strategies of Community Based Graphic Design from Andrew Shea's book, Designing for Social Change. I gave them examples of different campaigns designed by professional, well-known creators to college-based students.
For their homework, I gave them two days to give me at least a 300-word essay on social change. Tell me what song, movement, person, campaign, music video, performance, speech has impacted them and why.
Oh my goodness! I have graded these papers, and I can honestly say that… I AM MOVED. I had so many students open up about how songs, such as "I Am Not Racist," "1-800-273-8255," "This Is America," "Praying," "Where Is The Love?" have moved them, given them hope and a different perspective on another's culture or background. Some have opened up to me about depression, their sexuality, identity, their upbringing, losing their friends to depression and mental illness. I even had two young men who addressed their white privilege at the beginning of the papers mentioning how they never thought about social change or been affected by it, but have shared their stories of their background or witnessed incidences that have affected them to be more understanding and helpful from people unlike them.
I have shared my stories of what it is like being a small town African-American woman, who is considered the most underrepresented within corporate American and academic institutions and how hard I am trying to make a change within the community despite my views or my features differing from others. All I want to do is see people succeed, but have people understand what it is like to be me. These papers had me shed tears but also given me more hope that I am doing a damn great job at what I do. I never thought about being a teacher until this quarter. Maybe God is telling me that there is another calling out there for me. Who knows? These students are my world, and they are the future.
My students... if you are reading this. THANK YOU FOR BEING MY INSPIRATION. CONTINUE TO GROW. CONTINUE TO HELP OTHERS. CONTINUE TO MOVE YOUR COMMUNITY. CONTINUE TO LOVE. CONTINUE TO SPREAD PEACE. YOU ARE THE NEW AMERICA.