Marcus Huggins

LBST 2215-H72
Prof. Arnold
April 28, 2015
Final Reflection
If you walked by a street and you was walking on the concrete and you saw a
rose growing from the concrete, even if it had messed up petals and it was a little to the
side you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete. This quotes by
Tupac Shakur accurately describes my journey through this semester working on the
Washington Heights Oral History Project. I feel that, like a rose through concrete, I was
able to push through any obstacles this semester in order to grow as a person as well as a
member of the community. Although the end result may not have been perfect, I feel that
our hard work and dedication to this project and the beauty of its impact on society is still
something worth marveling over.

The beginning of the semester was like planting the seed; teaching us the
definition of citizenship and service and its purpose within a community. When asked to
write what I believe citizenship is, I initially believed that the responsibilities of being a
citizen only consisted of duties related to being respectable to others, paying taxes,
selective service (for males), obeying laws, jury duty, etc. After reading the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) description of the rights and
responsibilities of citizenship, I realized that, as a citizen within the United States, it is
our responsibility to be an active member of the community, which includes staying

informed and completing community service. Personally, I feel that most people,
including myself, would initially view these as rights rather than responsibilities.
However, although these responsibilities are often overlooked in society, I do feel that
they are very crucial aspects of being a citizen. By staying informed and participating in
the local community, people are able to stay active within their community as well as
providing aid whenever possible. This, in turn, would further help maintain common
problems within communities such as poverty and homelessness.

Like a majority of other students in school, reading is my kryptonite. However, I

enjoyed reading the assigned essays and texts focused on citizenship. The readings
allowed me to compare and contrast various opinions of citizenship in order to develop
my own understanding of the concept. Before reading the two essays by Charles Murray
and Barbara Ehrenreich, I defined poverty as someone who has little to no money and
cant afford to buy the basic necessities required to live. However, after reading Murrays
essay, I realized that money is not an important condition to consider when talking about
poverty. In fact, poverty is more based on whether or not you are living at a subsistence
or sub-subsistence level. This, in turn, means having enough food to be adequately
nourished, plus the most basic shelter and clothing.

My favorite activity of the semester was the wheel of life exercise that we
completed in class. For this assignment, we were asked to rank the ten aspects of life
discussed in class. Reflecting on the ten aspects of life discussed in class, I ranked them
in order of importance (from most to least important): Family, Spirituality, Health,

Relationships, Personal Growth, Education, Work, Money, Citizenship, and Play. What I
liked most about this exercise is that I was able to sit and think about what I value as a
person. Also, I found it very interesting to hear other classmates lists and what is
important to them. In some cases, there were similar lists to mineslightly varying
however, there were also lists that were completely different than mine. It was very
insightful comparing and contrasting the reasons I ranked their importance versus other
students in the class. I feel that this knowledge will allow me to keep in mind that
everyone has different values and aspects that must be considered when interacting with
other citizens. What I really found interesting is how these values have reflected on my
thought process and actions on a daily basis in addition to the type of community service
I participate in. Due to my focus on relationships and family, the types of community
service I have done in the past have been geared toward direct contact with the people in
need. For example, I remember volunteering with Crisis Assistance Ministry where we
prepared meals, made beds, and socialized with the homeless. Personally, I feel more
accomplished when I can actually see the difference my service provides.

After completing the readings and assignments and learning the general
information of what it means to be a citizen, we were finally allowed to sprout from the
crack of the concrete and begin working on the project. For the Washington Heights Oral
History Project, we were split into four groups with tasks that had to be completed by the
end of the semester. The groups that were created were the interview group, documentary
group, website group, and the final event group. With my experience in video editing and
creation, I chose to be a part of the documentary group. In all honesty, I chose this group

in hopes of it being easier than the tasks of the other groups. Sadly, this was the not how
it turned out, however, I do not regret my decision to be a part of this group.

The documentary group members included Cody Ledbetter, Hunter Starr, as well
as myself. Our group would meet at various times throughout the semester in order to
slowly peace together the final documentary. We began initially by creating a general
outline for what we would include in the documentary. Then, we created a detailed
outline for the documentary, which allowed us to begin working on a script for the
documentary. Cody and Hunter completed most of the script, while I began making the
introduction of the documentary. After meeting as a group to finalize the script and
recording the voice-over, I compiled all of the pictures, videos, quotes, and interviews
into the final documentary. Although I initially joined the group thinking it would be
easy, Im glad I did choose this group due to the fact that I had a lot of fun working on the
documentary. Overall, I enjoyed working with them and I am satisfied with our final
result.
Looking back over the semester Ive learned what it means to be a citizen within
the community and the rights and responsibilities that are required. Ive also learned a lot
about myself in addition to figuring out what I value most as a person. Through our hard
work this semester, we were able to shine with our documentary through the final event
hosted by the event group. Although we may have had a couple of messed up petals here
and there, the final result of this semester was definitely something worth marveling over.
Thank you for an amazing semester and I look forward to another year within the honors
program!