Driving Question: How do local people feel about tourism and environmental regulations in Puerto Galera?
Project Description: A couple of months ago, our family went on a trip to an island in the Philippines called Puerto Galera, so my sister and I decided to film a short documentary. It’s our little passion project to spread awareness on unsustainable tourism in the Philippines. We wanted it to highlight the unique perspectives of four local residents we got the opportunity to spend time with. Hopefully, it gives justice to an island that we and our entire family love.
What were your goals for this project? We wanted our documentary to inspire a call to action on unsustainable tourism. The effects of unsustainable tourism can cause an entire island to shut down, resulting in thousands of people losing their livelihoods. By interviewing the residents of Puerto Galera, we want to show our audience the people that are directly affected by this issue, which will hopefully create a sense of urgency to protect our environment.
What were your takeaways from the project? Working on the project reminded me of how unbelievable our world could be. I was reminded of how important it was to make sure that we sustain the beauty of our environment, especially in a small country like the Philippines. This project was a big wake up call for me and I hope that it can be the same to our audience.
Driving Question: How can I acquire deep knowledge on Buddhist philosophies and their perspectives on the self and the world by working with monks and creating an original short film?
Project Description: My film introduces the Korean tradition of Zen Buddhism and its view on how to live a good life.
What were your goals for this project? My goal was to gain deep level of understanding on Buddhism, living it, and sharing it with others. I achieved all of these as I spent significant amount of time studying the text of Buddhism, living as Buddhist at a temple, and filming what I have learned to share with the world.
What were your learning takeaways? I’ve learned that suffering comes from trying to perceive impermanent thing as permanent and unchangeable. This includes my sense of self, my life, values, things I cherish at the moment… etc These are not something solid. They are very much fluid, temporary concepts and consists of myriads of components which forms and alters them. Accepting that, and staying thoroughly present, instead of trying so hard to extend the lifespan of these fleeting concepts, will lead to a more fulfilling life.
What are you most proud of? Experiencing even for a short amount of time, the freedom of not needing anything. Happiness to just be.
Driving Question: How can we take lessons from the sports industry to better improve the health of a specific group in need?
Project Description: My goal for this module and term was to understand the effects of exercise in mental health and experience them myself. I also wanted to bring awareness to some “taboo” topics and defeat the stigma around them: gender violence (focusing on sexual violence), mental health, and pole dancing. I asked myself, “How can I apply what I learn about elite athletes to the females in my community who have experienced assault or harassment and could use exercise to improve their mental health, self-confidence and wellbeing?”
To answer this I made a website that is easy to navigate, gives a “safe vibe” and shares reliable information and resources.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium? I learned a lot about myself, the culture I grew up in, and the global perspective of it. From how to do such an incredible sport like pole fitness and gain confidence and strength from it, building a community in the studio I learned at, and learning from strangers who then became friends.
I learned to take a deeper look into where these issues root from, why shame is related to them, and how I can make a difference in my community.
I learned the power and strength I have when I trust myself and how to transmit that to others. All the issues this summative addressed are quite complex and I learned how to balance them, support my claims, and share why I am passionate about such issues and this sport and project.
It also changed the way I see fitness. I now see it as more of a balance between mental and physical health and exercise (mindfulness and physically).
Driving Question: How can I use a video format to effectively communicate the many facets of the LGBTQ+ community to someone who knows nothing about it?
Project Description: This project is a 5-part video series explaining the LGBTQ+ community for a beginner audience. The intention of these videos is to be a resource for anybody who would like some more information on the community. You can find all five videos below.
May 20, 2020 by Traditional Chinese Medicine Students
Driving Question: How can we improve our health using Chinese concepts?
Project Overview: In the this module, we investigated how traditional Chinese medicine concepts can use artificial intelligence to improve our health. Through our two months in Shanghai, we learned about the core concepts behind traditional Chinese medicine, and in many instances we explored their uses ourselves.
With this background knowledge, we applied it to the creation of a software similar to a chatbot. The chatbot is used to diagnose and treat people using traditional Chinese medicine techniques and practices. NaiBot hopes to make eastern medicine accessible for newer generations as well as western audiences. We hope you take some time to see how the chatbot works and try it for yourself!
Driving Question: What is a meaningful community project that I can provide to meet the needs of my local community?
Project Description: In collaboration with a Belgian, a Kosovar and a Macedonian NGO, my friends and I turned an abandoned building into a socio-cultural space. We transformed a potential threat for a neighborhood and a city at large into an opportunity for personal and community development. This project aims to reinforce existing local initiatives of young people and to guide that sense of initiative into concrete results.
The building was transformed in a matter of two weeks, and although there are still quite a few basic necessities missing, we’ve been able to start projects, keep it open during warm days, and organize events. The center is located in the suburbs of Tirana, which is not ideal as it is far away from the center, however it really provides insight into the aim of this space as it directly faces the reality of a marginalized community.
Uzina is a socio-cultural space with the aim of empowering the local community to transform ideas into action. We hope to bring about a Decentralized Renaissance in art, the politics of life, and culture. The goal of Uzina is to cultivate and encourage empathy, compassion, altruism and prosocial engagement. We continuously work (and play) to promote love for people, nature, culture and learning.
What were your goals for this project? We wanted to bring to life an old industrial building and build a connection amongst different organizations/groups of people who share a common goal.
By bringing together a diverse group of young people from different countries, and by working together to build this new space, we wanted to create an educational and social dynamic. Through collaborative project management, the participants gained and shared skills, deepened their understanding of other cultures, and felt part of a bigger whole. By practicing collective group processes, participants had the opportunity to express themselves, and to experiment with ways of decision-making and executing them in joint cooperation.
What are you most proud of? I am proud to have persisted through unimaginable challenges while managing to adapt the project to different circumstances without changing the primary purpose.
The project was initially going to take place as a community program in a socio-cultural center, but then there was a risk of the social-center being shut down. I decided to transform the program into an after-school module that would take place in a classroom setting. COVID-19 occurred, which meant the module couldn’t be implemented during that timespan. And that led to the creation of a creativity module handbook, which can be used to design and facilitate an after-school creativity module for students 10-12 years old.
Driving Question: How can we create a board game that represents peoples personal experience with privilege?
Project Overview: Privilege Perusal fuses game design and social justice into what hopes to provide an education while being an enjoyable and engaging activity for people of all ages.
The premise of the game surrounds the idea of privilege. Players embody real life characters for the game which are created through interviews and investigations conducted. These players, which are chosen by a spinner at the beginning of the game, encounter scenarios throughout the game which will showcase different ending points that show the different privileges of people.
Through the project, we aimed to learn about privilege through firsthand experiences and hone our interview and communication skills. In addition, we wanted to use our creativity and art skills to make the game as beautiful as it can be.
