Micah Adams

Honors 100

Partner: Belinda So

11/15/15
Experiential Learning Interview

Belinda is interested in the current major issue of the growing wage gap in
America, as well as socio-economic inequality in general. This is an enormous
challenge in our world today and needs people focused and educated on the issue
to try and help. Since poverty is such a universal problem, the door is open for
Belinda to find many ways to learn experientially about it. One such example
would be doing service or volunteering for those in need. This could be anything
from volunteering at a soup kitchen to travelling to other countries to help supply
food, water, shelter, medical supplies, or other supplies that might be inaccessible
to those in the greatest poverty. Not only would this kind of experiential learning
actively help others, but the immersion into the life of someone in deep poverty
helps to teach a valuable lessons about privilege (and taking it for granted), and
how to help those in need. There are many UW programs available for this kind
of experience, including the global impact internships available through UW
Tacoma1. Tangentially related to a service or an international aid trip, another
experiential learning opportunity could be to raise awareness as an activist for
the cause. This might be considered leadership to help step-up and make others
aware of such a monumental problem. There are many active organizations in
and around Seattle devoted to aiding and raising awareness for those in poverty.
A perfect example is the Relational Poverty Network2, founded by the head of UW
Honors Vickie Lawson, whose mission is to: expand thinking about causes of
poverty; bring a multifaceted/interdisciplinary approach to thinking about
poverty and make it an international collaboration; and to pass on this
information to help create the next generation of activists, scholars, teachers, and
policy makers, one of whom could be Belinda, for those in need. Finally, and
perhaps obviously, another way for Belinda to have an experiential learning
opportunity would be to research the issue. Although there has been a lot of
research on poverty, there can always be more. Everything from conducting
surveys for raw data, to doing work similar to LaShawnDa Pittmans and doing
research through the stories of the lives of impoverished people, would help
Belinda both learn and help the cause. The research opportunities in a world with
as many poor people as we have are nearly endless, and are numerous even in the
UW area and Seattle3. Being interested in such a pertinent topic in honors this
year, Belinda will likely have many opportunities for experiential learning
throughout her time at the UW and beyond; as long as there is poverty and
inequality, there will always be a place for people like Belinda to do their work.

1 https://studyabroad.washington.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10839
2 http://depts.washington.edu/relpov/mission/
3 http://depts.washington.edu/wcpc/node/18