Final Service Learning Paper and Presentation

WST 3015:  Final Paper and Presentation on Service Learning Project

* Your Hours LOG signed by your community partner should be stapled to this paper. You should also include artifacts from your project (pictures, a flyer you made, newspaper articles you are featured in, the lesson plan your group created), which will be part of your presentation.

This should be all one document (MLA style) and should include the following labeled sections:

·      Project Summary: (250 words maximum; please be concise; note that much for this section probably already exists in your proposal and log, which I hope you will draw from here.)

o   What exactly did you do?  How did the project evolve, what were the successes and limitations of your project and its goals, and what have you learned from that?

o   What institutional framework did your project interact with?

o   What was the significance of your project to the texts, themes, and goals of the course?

o   How was your understanding of the texts/issues considered in the course upheld, complicated, or negated by the process of completing the project?

·      Synthesis:  (Answer ONE of the following questions that most connects with your SL project.  This section should be approximately 500 words and should include effective textual support and/or documentation from at least two external resources besides our course texts.)

o   What can people do in their communities on behalf of women and/or girls?  Discuss how one or more of the following impediments impacts action in communities:  internalized oppression, path of least resistance, subscribing to a hierarchy of oppression, not knowing one another’s history.

o   Discuss a single institutional framework that shapes women’s lives and impacts their lack of human rights.  Discuss how that institutional framework could be redefined from a feminist perspective.

o   What idea, concept, or story stands out as the most significant thing you have learned about women and their experiences with regards to diversity of women across differences in culture, religion, sexuality, race, age, socioeconomic situation, ability, location, etc? How does it connect to your experience in the community?

·      Reflection and connection: (approximately 250-500 words)

• This section will consider the ways that what you’ve read, discussed, and experienced throughout the semester, both in and out of class, including both the readings and the SL project you completed, impacted how you understand the ways that institutional frameworks shape women’s experiences and position in societies from a social justice perspective. Describe specific moments or readings or events and connect them with specific thinking or behavior of your own.  Of course, these specific instances may be positive and negative, clear and unclear (sometimes both at the same time!).  The important thing here is to demonstrate that you have connected what you have read and done in this class to who you are as a person who lives in a world with women and how you might think and behave in the future.  Here you might consider what is next for you, as a student or as a global citizen. 
• This can be in the form of expressive art, a photobook, or something you decide but it must meet the criteria for the section and the approximate "work count"

Post word count after every section. Do not exceed 1,300 words.

Presentation:

You and your group (if you worked in one) are responsible for putting together a mult-media presentation and/or poster for the class on your service learning project.

This project presentation should reflect the work of everyone; that means if someone isn’t speaking then they better be acknowledged as the multi-media whiz. It should include:

·      What did you do in your project?

o   Include excerpts from materials you generated, pictures, flyers, newspaper articles you were featured in, maybe a t-shirt you created.

·      What did you learn by doing this project? How does this connect to Women’s Studies or feminism?

·      What do you want other people to know for the future (how to get involved, the significance, something about how you felt, etc.)

·      Works Cited

Your group will only get three-five minutes per presentation: be concise, be creative, be academic.

Rubrics for the assignments are included as pictures here. Click on them to enlarge.

Environmental Scavenger Hunt

Amid all the jazz-hand hype about going green, this unit begs the questions:

•  What are the reasons that feminists care about the environment?
• How is oppression connected to issues connected to the environment?
• Why does how we value the environment, define safety and health connect to the liberation of women and people in general?

To answer some of these questions, we are going to do some research.

This course assignment asks you to scavenge and hunt for the answers to some basic and important questions. In order to complete this assignment you will need to research the answers to ONE of the questions below.

Then, in a comment to my blog post you will respond with your answer/research to the question you choose to look up, including your thoughts on the answer(s) you found, and a response to one of the BIG questions posed at the top. Your answer should be roughly 300 words and should site data from the websites used to generate them, along with any course texts you use.

Here is the catch; this is a scavenger hunt, and we want answers. So, you must answer a question that has not yet been answered by your classmates. There are enough research areas that everyone can research at least one question. I encourage you to look up several and to read the responses of your classmates.  In particular, I suggest you all do #4, as most people use some form of cosmetic daily (deodorant, shampoo, body wash, toothpaste, make-up, hair products, shaving cream, etc.).

This activity will be graded by credit/no credit using the following rubric:

	Credit	No-Credit
MLA and Technical Writing	Sources are cited properly and integrated smoothly. Minor errors.	Major errors and/or there is superficial textual inclusion and/or missing MLA
Posting	Student posted to the appropriate place on the blog, met the deadline, and followed posting guidelines	Student did not post to the appropriate place on the blog and/or missed the deadline and/or did not follow posting guidelines
Content	Student answered the question thoroughly by synthesizing research and its implications for women/environment	Student provided a superficial or undeveloped answer to the question and/or did not adequately address the implications for women/environment

1.  What is fair trade? Go to http://www.globalexchange.org/about/ and read about it. Then, investigate fair trade in our neighborhood by looking at Ten Thousand Villages, Winter Park FL: http://orlando.tenthousandvillages.com/php/stores.festivals/store.homepage.php 
2. How far away do you live from the farms that produce the food you eat?  http://www.foodroutes.org/  Research and determine do we have a program like that here at UCF?)
3. Research community gardens (http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/). Then, go to www.localharvest.org and think about how might you buy locally grown food? Finally, check out the UCF Arboretum, where you can work in the organic garden and then take home food organic produce:  http://www.arboretum.ucf.edu/
4.   How safe are the ingredients in your cosmetics?  Go to Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Project at www.ewg.org (under “more tools and resources” on the right and scroll down). 
5. What is your "ecological footprint," or, how many earth's are you using?  Go to:  http://www.footprintnetwork.org/index.php or http://www.myfootprint.org/. 
6. What sources of pollution, environmental waste, or other toxins exist in central Florida?  Go to www.scorecard.org to learn about toxic producers in the Orlando area.  (We are in Orange County.) Then, go here http://scorecard.goodguide.com/community/ej-index.tcl to see our environmental racism scorecard.
7. What impact does the military have on the environment?  Go to www.globalgreen.org and research and explore the military impact.  
8. How might you cut down your own consumption of the earth's resources?   In what ways could you better distinguish between "want" vs. "need"? Go to www.worldwatch.org and research what you can do to curb consumption in a planet that is populated by 7 billion people.What is the simplicity movement about? You can read about one aspect, finical integrity, here:  http://www.financialintegrity.org/index.php?title=About_the_Program
9.  Research Recycle centers in your area: http://earth911.com/ and then look at the ones that do not ship their waste to developing nations here: http://e-stewards.org/ 
10. Research nuclear waste and environmental racism here: http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/pfsejfactsheet.htm.  
11. Research what the EPA says about cleaning products http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/products/cleaning.htm and then read here: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/green-guide/ about how to clean without the chemicals.
12.  Read about what students do to combat these issues: http://www.seac.org/ 
13. Who works with the food you eat? Research Fair Food at: http://www.ciw-online.org/101.htmland then read about organizing for farm workers http://nfwm.org/. Finally see how in our area toxic dumping impacted farm workers in Apopka: http://apopkaquiltproject.blogspot.com/ 
14. Research some of the top environmental current events: http://www.enn.com/.
15. Look at issues of biodiversity at: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/about-biodiversity_133.html.  
16. Explore the concepts of ecofeminism and read about a feminist response to environmental problems: http://eve.enviroweb.org/ and here: http://www.wloe.org/what-is-ecofeminism.76.0.html 
17. How is health connected to he environment, explore this issue http://chge.med.harvard.edu/ and here: http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/home.action 
18. What is the role between businesses and chemical safety? Read about current issues by exploring here: http://www.chemsafety.gov/ 
19. What are the environmental stats for an area? Look these up here: http://www.epa.gov/enviro/index.html and report on our Central Florida region.
20. What is the state of women’s global health worldwide? Read about these environmental and health issues here: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/climate_change/downloads/Women_and_Climate_Change_Factsheet.pdf or http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Resources/resources_-_statistics.html and listen to a podcast on women’s health.
21. What about our water? Look into issues of water by going here: http://www.wef.org/ and http://www.ejcw.org/. Then look at our local area here: http://www.sjrwmd.com/.
22. What happened after the hurricane? Read about women’s response to Katrina: http://www.womenofthestorm.net/about.php and then read about Florida coast protection: http://flcoastalandocean.org/.
23. As we have reached 7 billion people on the planet, what about the environment, population, and reproduction: http://www.unfpa.org/pds/sustainability.htm and read here: http://www.cwpe.org/
24.  Look up one of the Women’s Environmental Institute campaigns: http://www.w-e-i.org/policy.
25. What does the government say about the connection between the environment and women’s health: http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/environment-womens-health.cfm 
26. How harmful is that job, look up the scorecard of some gendered careers (like dressing hair): http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov/hazmapadv.html
27.  Tampons are bad for my healthy? Oh-My! http://www.seac.org/history/past-campaigns/ and http://www.mum.org/ and http://www.thegreenmama.com/

Women's Work

Here are the links we have been discussing in class:
The White House Project Report, Benchmarking Women's Leadership

The AAUW Wage Gap Report called "The Simple Truth about the Wage Gap"

The Miss Representation Video. You can also go to their website.

What does Twitter have to do with it? and the heterosexuality quiz

As per our discussion in class, here is the Katherin Fenton story:

 The Washington Free Beacon
Huffington Post
Washington Post
Feministing


What do you think caused your heterosexuality? 

 
 
When and how did you decide you were a heterosexual?
 
Is it possible that your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of? 

 
Is it possible that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex? 

 
 
If you have never slept with a person of the same sex, is it possible that all you need is a good Gay lover? 


 
Do your parents know that you are straight?
 
 Do your friends and/or roommate(s) know? How did they react?



Why do you insist on flaunting your heterosexuality? Can't you just be who you are and keep it quiet?
 
Why do heterosexuals place so much emphasis on sex? 


 
Why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyle? 

 
 A disproportionate majority of child molesters are heterosexual. Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual teachers? 

 
 
Just what do men and women do in bed together? How can they truly know how to please each other, being so anatomically different? 

 
 
With all the societal support marriage receives, the divorce
rate is spiraling. Why are there so few stable relationships among heterosexuals? 

 
Statistics show that lesbians have the lowest incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. Is it really safe for a woman to maintain a heterosexual lifestyle and run the risk of disease and pregnancy? 

 
 
 How can you become a whole person if you limit yourself to compulsive, exclusive heterosexuality? 

 
 
Considering the menace of overpopulation, how would the human race survive if everyone were heterosexual? 

 
 
Could you trust a heterosexual therapist to be objective? Don’t you feel s/he might be inclined to influence you in the direction of her/his own leanings? There seem to be very few happy heterosexuals. Techniques have been developed that might enable you to change if you really want to. Have you considered trying aversion therapy? 


 
 
Would you want you child to be heterosexual, knowing the problems that s/he would face?

Sexuality Readings

First, read about the beginning of the SlutWalk Movement:
Why and How

 and then,
follow the link and read the response here:
af3irm Responds to Slut Walk

Next, read the Black Women's Blueprint:
An Open Letter