Embedded Files
Capstone Initiative
Capstone Initiative
Our Group
Our Group
group’s focus:
group’s focus:
poverty.
Why are you passionate about that topic area?
Why are you passionate about that topic area?
My family has not only dealt with poverty but also brought in people dealing with houselessness.
Who is in your group with you?
Who is in your group with you?
My Group
Emily Christian:
2019 McGill Fellow
Business Management Major
Sociology Minor ‘22.5
Admissions Ambassador - Team Lead
Carnegie Hall Resident Assistant
Student Conduct Board Member
Academic Mentor, MC Peer Mentor
Katie Leming:
2019 McGill Fellow
History Major, Sociology and
Writing Communication Minors ‘23
Assistant Editor, Highland Echo
Academic Mentor, MC Writing Center
Hayley Harmon
2019 McGill Fellow
Biology & Environmental Studies Majors ‘23
Environmental Science & Sustainability Studies Minors
Women’s Basketball
Environmental Action Team
Academic Mentor
Anna Kate Bechman:
2019 McGill Fellow
Biology B.A. Major,
Psychology Minor ‘23
MC Women’s Soccer Team
Academic Mentor
Admissions Ambassador
Mykal Manfred
2019 McGill Fellow
Business Management Major,
Political Science Major ‘23
ALANA Scholar
MC Men’s Soccer Team
Academic Mentor
What have you learned about others from working together?
What have you learned about others from working together?
We had to learn a lot about conflict management and schedule resolution. With 6 high achieving students, and 4 out of 6 of the group being student-athletes, it was definitely a competing group to try to be a part of but we made it work in the end
Mykal Manfred
Mykal Manfred
Sophomore
Anna Kate Bechman
Anna Kate Bechman
Sophomore
Jon Chris Meystrik
Jon Chris Meystrik
Sophomore
Emily Christian
Emily Christian
Sophomore
Hayley Harmon
Hayley Harmon
Sophomore
Katie Leming
Katie Leming
Sophomore
Our Initiative
Our Initiative
The Plan
The Plan
This initiative is aimed at deconstructing the misconceptions of houselessness for students at Maryville College. We chose this initiative as a branch of the broader topic of poverty that our group was interested in. Our group found that houselessness was a major part of the subject of poverty, and it kept coming up in our discussion about the project. Houselessness repeatedly was identified as an unfortunate link between many marginalized groups that are more commonly affected by poverty, including disabled individuals, racial minorities, and those who struggle with mental health. Along with our personal connections to houselessness, our findings called for us to go deeper into this issue with our initiative.
While identifying houselessness as our focus, we found that many people had common misconceptions or stereotypes about houselessness. Thus, we decided to develop our initiative as a workshop for Maryville College students and community members to learn more about the realities of houselessness, aiming to create more awareness and long-term support for people facing this issue. The workshop will be held twice during spring 2021 via Zoom. The workshop will aim to educate participants, facilitate discussion about houselessness, and encourage action to further educate and work towards the betterment of the structures that create houselessness in the Maryville community and beyond.
Why This issue?
Why This issue?
We chose this project because in our discussion, houselessness came up as an aspect of poverty that is often overlooked and misconstrued. In many situations, it is the extreme end of poverty -- someone is evicted from their home or foreclosed upon because they can’t pay the bills. Many of the “historical movements'' concerning poverty included houselessness as a dimension of economic crisis -- for example, in the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Recession following the 2008 economic crash, many American families lost their homes. We also felt that it is an issue pertinent to the local area, as it is a significant problem in Knoxville and Blount County. There are several local charities that aim to reduce houselessness.
My Role
My Role
I had several connections to organizations within the community and was able to learn a lot from people who had first hand experience in houslessness. I would say as far as division of work, the three of us during the actual initiative split up the work very evenly and as far as the work leading up the 6 of us did well at completing everything together. I usually got conversations moving during our time meeting as a group as well as coming up with creative ways to approach our issues.
Reflection
Reflection
After semester's worth of studying the human experience through workshops and meetings as a cohort, this opportunity to look deeper into a serious prevalent issue, such as houselessness, and take into account all of the different elements of the human experience was very fruitful.
I really enjoyed the opportunity to become an expert on something. Especially something like this and have to opportunity to share my knowledge and give people the opportunity to reach out and learn more.
Looking forward, I hope we are able to share our knowledge and help others open the door to becoming educated on houslessness...
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