day 1 --- immersion into service-learning

The primary reason for taking this course is to prepare for employment in social justice organizing. Networking, writing, critical thinking, grant writing... There are all essential quiliaities to this work. While I do not expect to know everything about writing in community service work by the end of this course, I do expect to have a better idea of the expectations of community organizations, preferred methods and styles of writing, and a more thorough understanding of how these organizations work. Perhaps just as importantly, I hope that this course will help me generate a narrative about why I want to do this work, and how past experiances have led me to this point. Such a narrative and understanding of myself will be essential for obtaining employment in this field in the first place.

originally written 4 january 2007