By Cameron Kerkau, Staff Reporter.
Do you feel that the world is perfect exactly how it is, or do you think it can improve? Maybe there is a particular topic that you feel needs addressing. You aren’t the only one. Let your voice be heard during Change Your World Week which takes place Nov. 9-12. Students and staff aim to raise awareness about the issues that they are passionate about.
“The idea is to build this culture of civic engagement on campus where students get this sense that Delta College is a place that empowers them to effect positive change on the things that they care about,” says Lisa Lawrason, a Delta political science professor.
A new feature to Change Your World Week this year are the Positive Change Agent Demonstrations. With these demonstrations, you will meet people that are actively using whatever is at their disposal to make a change. People such as Delta student Steven Martin. Martin plays Magic the Gathering competitively and always donates half of his winnings to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“My dad had cancer when I was a freshman in highschool,” says Martin. “I saw what he was going through, and I realized that there were kids going through the same thing.”
The intent of the Positive Change Agent Demonstrations are to inspire students to help a cause in ways they didn’t know were possible
This purpose ties into the broader goal of democracy commitment at Delta. In 2011, Delta College President Jean Goodnowsigned the college onto a nationwide initiative of community colleges that have dedicated themselves to preparing students for active citizenship.
“The idea is that… we educate for democracy’s sake,” says Lawrason.
A number of other programs will also take place throughout the week. Among these are awareness campaigns that will take place Monday, Nov. 9 through Thursday, Nov. 12 in the West main hallway. Students set up these campaigns to raise awareness about an issue they care about and to provide for those people.
“There are a variety of creative ways that people will be invited to take action throughout the week,” says Lawrason.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11, a Student Speaker’s Corner will be held outside of the students lounge in the E wing. There, students are invited to get up on stage, grab a microphone and speak on any issue that they are passionate about. According to Lawrason, this is your chance to use your voice for anything that you deem worthy enough to discuss.
Finally there will be a Human Library on Tuesday, Nov 10. that will occur between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Founders Hall. This “library” will give students the chance to check out a person resulting in a fifteen minute conversation with them as a “reader”. This is meant to help educate students about people that come from a different background.
“The feedback that we got from it from the last time we did it In September was really positive,” says Lawrason, “It was really eye-opening for students.”
