Today in class, our 2017 Periclean cohort successfully tied up a few loose ends, preparing for our final fundraisers (Cookies to Go-Go, and Meal Swipes) and trips to The Burlington Housing Authority, and solidifying a few ideas for our Spring Project.
We will be hosting our final Cookies to Go-Go event for this semester next Wednesday on November 9th. Be sure to order your cookies and support our Voices of Sustainability Conference! Similarly, our Meal Swipes fundraiser, taking place December 5th- 9th, will also be benefitting Voices of Sustainability.
While in class we also were able to confirm that we would have Pericleans at The Burlington Housing Authority for these last few weeks until the end of the semester. This was exciting for our cohort because it will mark a full semester of us positively contributing to our local community. In addition to continuing our relationship with The Burlington Housing Authority in the spring, we have been wanting to take on something else for our local spring project. So far our thoughts have been centered around hosting a festival of some kind at The Burlington Housing Authority. This festival could look something like a health and wellness fair for the children we have been working with this semester. As a cohort, we also tinkered with the idea of giving the students we have been working with this semester a project for them to complete and then teach their families about at the end of the semester through a presentation or poster fair. It is very important to us to have input from The Burlington Housing Authority before we move forward with any local project for the spring, so until we hear back from our contact we will continue to brainstorm new ideas for our spring project.
Towards the end of class we had a guest speaker, Dr. Cahill, come to our class to speak about the philosophy of ethics and how we can use the tools she provided us to help with our restorative plan for our Periclean cohort. Dr. Cahill spoke of a spectrum that could help us identify our individual and cohort feelings about our actions taken while pursuing the KIND Grant; one end of the spectrum signified feelings of wanting to “sweep it under the rug” and not recognize how big of a deal it was, while the other end of the spectrum signified feelings of wanting to punish ourselves for our actions repeatedly and having it create shameful and negative feelings towards ourself. After explaining the basics of the spectrum, Dr. Cahill opened her presentation up to us for questions and discussion.
In order to continue to thoughtfully move forward after this presentation, I think that each member of our cohort needs to really think about where we fall on that spectrum in regards to our actions with the KIND grant. In addition, I think that going forward we will all need to be cognizant of each other’s feelings and attempt to help each other with the healing and restorative process. I am hopeful that this will bring us closer as a cohort and will truly be a teachable and transformative moment for each of us.
Peace, Love, Periclean.
Shay & Periclean 2017
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