Personalized Learning Projects

“Every man has two educations: that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.”
- Carter Godwin Woodson

That is by far one of the most influential quotes that I recant to myself almost daily.

One of the most vital elements of Urban Planning is the community organizing component. In essence, the organizing is contingent upon utilizing observations of a specific issue and critical mass to create avenues of informational outreach and then analyzing feedback to either continue on or rework the strategy for a really long-lasting solution. In other words, sustainable planning.

When I had first decided to become a student of this discipline, I read over the possible job descriptions and salaries. Community organizing was at the top of the list with a low salary than I would have liked to see.

“Me. Do community organizing?” I thought to myself. “That will never happen.”

Sure enough, as opportunities of employment and general internship experiences became limited for me, I came to the conclusion that I would have to seek out opportunities on my own. Or even just create them. So I did both.

Before I realized what was happening, I found myself not only using, but doing terms like ‘grassroot organizing’ and ‘community development’ in no time.

Additionally, relocating to Tampa, FL in the Fall of 2010 basically solidified the need for me to create avenues of learning for myself in any way I could. I visited the local library to read up on authors and theories and disciplines I could only brush over in my academic years. I wanted more depth and more time to study and understand thoroughly what it was I wanted to accomplish professionally.

But more than that, personally I wanted a dynamic experience that would inform my work in the near future. I wanted to surround myself with internal motivation and use outside influences like the city I lived in to encourage me to be more active. I wanted more than anything to learn firsthand from persons of influence and persons affected by those in positions of influence, to get my hands dirty with fieldwork, to collaborate with community members and leaders, to ask questions over again and rethink my way of learning, to analyze and research, and to find out the answers for myself by way of experience.

And so that is how Inspire Your Environment (IYE) came to be. It was a way for me to pinpoint a need in a particular community (the lack of eco-friendly outreach to communities that needed it most) and offering up what I had to contribute to that need (research, knowledge and planning).

The result? The result is that I have learned that it is a perpetual climb to new discoveries. It is an ongoing quest to find answers and solutions to old problems, new problems and strategize around what does not work and what could. It is has been a way for me to truly experience the type of education Carter G. Woodson spoke of: the education an individual gives himself/herself. It is experiential learning that will inform methodology for future projects and endeavors.

Of the myriad of lessons learned up until this point, one of the greatest is the most important: the human connection can never be replaced with an email. A smile can never be replaced with an emoticon through Facebook. A promise you give to one is your word and your bond. A face-to-face encounter is more influential than even a handwritten letter. It is asking questions and taking time to listen, listen, listen. Easier said than done. But problems can only be solved in real-time, in real world interaction and with real dedication.

Overall, the goal always remains to keep learning and give back the knowledge you have acquired along the way. That can always help even one person.

The Greener Side of Networking.

'Mangroves' in South Tampa. Source: Blue Lane Studios

There’s a bad side and a good side to today’s job market. The bad? Obviously the supply of jobs are increasingly disproportionate to the demand. The good? Actually the good is great. A slew of everyday people are meta morphing into creative and ecologically-conscious company leaders & entrepreneurs. The ‘new green professional’ is utilizing their personal talents + knowledge when it comes to creating new opportunities for themselves and others. In spite of the current crises this country is facing when it comes to employment, new green technology, innovations, and overall interest is spiking in this niche.

If you take more than a glance at the city of Tampa, you’ll almost miss a small, yet undeniably vibrant community that is working towards green initiatives in many professional outlets. So where do you find these people? Social networking events may be a useful way to seek out and build connections you search for.

I attended one ‘Green Drinks’ networking event, hosted by the U.S. Green Building Council, Florida Gulf Coast Chapter at the Mangroves restaurant in South Tampa. Attendees ranged from professionals working in a variety of sectors (government, education, publications, and health and beauty) to students, to the job-seeker.

Overall, it felt great to be in the midst of other people working towards sustainable goals, not only in their personal lives, but their professional careers as well. The workplace, be it a news magazine publication office or salon, or the classroom, all served as fair game for incorporating sustainable practices (i.e. recycling projects, green building plans) and provided opportunities for going green in Tampa.

Though I found the event useful, social networking events may not immediately come to mind as the most comfortable situation to put yourself in. I personally had to take a pre-crash course in networking guidelines I found by way of Penelope Trunk‘s hilarious and very insightful blog posts. But as uncomfortable as these events may be to some people, there are major benefits to attending them.

For one, when you are passionate about what the event is centered around, you are in your element. Green initiatives in city planning and urban design in Tampa is what I can connect with. These initiatives are desperately needed here and across the nation. There’s job creation and resourceful expansion in the DNA of these initiatives. The people at the event that night understood this, and so did I.

So networking events are honestly sometimes the best way to get in contact with like-minded people. The best thing about this event was based on the variety it encouraged. The meeting of the minds across disciplines, all housed under one theme (green) exemplified a very idealistic yet realistic shift.

Above all, if you aren’t a networking superstar, at least events such as these are a great way to gain experience in that realm. Of course everything takes a little practice.

Take me: I absolutely had my ‘awkward girl moment’ when I found myself in the middle of the room…by myself. Though it felt like a miniature eternity, I learned through the experience that you literally have to start somewhere.

Pretty soon, I found it easier as the night went along to approach people. Some tips that I read from the Penelope Trunk Blog came in pretty handy that night, plus other tidbits I learned on my own that I can touch on involved:

1. Asking questions. People like to talk about themselves. What’s more, job-secure people in this economy are the greatest examples of this. So listen, be interested, and ask more questions. If you aren’t totally relaxed when it comes to sharing information on your current professional situation, asking pointed questions allows you to learn a lot about the person standing in front of you.
2. Quality > quantity.  After I realized I was talking to only one person for the majority of the night, I started mentally reprimanding myself for not being more sociable. But then I remembered Penelope’s advice on how creating one meaningful relationship is much more purposeful than creating a dozen empty ones. Making endless rounds throughout the room and trying to introduce yourself to anyone and everyone can seem exhausting to even the most gregarious extrovert. Maybe you meet one person and talk with them the whole night. Though for the main objective of a networking event this might not be traditionally thought of as ideal, you can tailor the specifics of networking to what you feel is most profitable.
3. The descent. I found it easier to approach people in groups of two rather than larger groups of 3+. For purely physical reasons, positioning yourself shoulder to shoulder with two people can be easily accomplished rather than attempting to peer over shoulders of a closed group. Believe me, I did not try out the latter for the fact that I calculated that scenario in my head, and it wasn’t a particularly attractive visual.
4. Going by yourself is a good challenge. If I had to do it again, I would still go it alone. It appeared that besides myself and a student I hit it off with, everyone there knew at least one person.  And sometimes, it cannot be avoided to attend an event such as this with a colleague. But if you do decide to attend with a group or there will likely be plenty of people you know already, approach someone you don’t know. You have the upper-hand in that situation, so make it count. Conversely, if you attend alone, you’ve won half the battle.

A social drinks-themed networking event is not for everyone, so if a person feels that it’s not their scene, that’s okay too. The point is though, that there are definitely other events or related mediums that you may customize to fit your personal networking objectives. And especially when it comes to the green networking circles, coming in contact with others who share this interest is an opportunity to jump at. Career fairs, city planning meetings, even emailing specific company heads are all avenues I’ve utilized. What ways will you choose to meet others in the professional green arena? At the end of the day, all steps you decide to take are worth a shot.

Say you want to get involved in this green networking niche. If you’re not too familiar with events such as ‘Green Drinks’, there’s actually a website for that. Right here. If you want to create your own event, there’s a link for that too. Right here. 

For more information on how to take green initiatives in your business or workplace, check out this book I’m currently reading by Leigh Stringer, titled “The Green Workplace.”

The Green Workplace; Leigh Stringer

A Northern Exodus Headed South: Stage 1 – My Story.

I came into my job the other day and sat at a chair to put on my work shoes. That’s when I noticed the article in USA TODAY laying across a table. The title read “Black Populations fall in major cities.” I paused and stared at the bold heading that made the front page. As I immediately thought about the words and my own recent move, I suddenly felt a cautious reassurance that I wasn’t the only one who fit this description that made headlines: An African-American relocating from the Midwest to the Southern fringe of the United States.  Wanting to know more about this apparently obvious phenomenon, I browsed the story and reverberated on its main point: the migratory shift was a considerable transfer of African-Americans in recent times.

And I could relate to this.

See, about a few years prior, I had made up in my mind that before I turned a certain age, I would live out the next years of my life in a warmer state. Florida, to be exact. I had visited Florida at that time, and I fell head over heels –not in love- but rather a naïve sense of awe, with everything about it: the heat, the proximity to amazing Floridian cities (hello Miami and Panama City) and to other southern states, the natural environment that included beaches and just the overall, plain-ol’ vibe that the inhabitants contribute to this place. …And so about a few months back, I acted upon this decision. One-part calculated to two-parts spontaneity. It was my chance, and I grabbed at that chance before it could pass me by. Although I speak of a sense of spontaneity, there were many, what I feel, concrete factors that contributed to my move, and some were more pressing than others.

Being immersed in an area where I would be somewhat forced to learn another language, in this case Spanish, was and still is very important to me. Knowing a second language is a skill I value and can look forward to realizing in a community with a high concentration of native speakers. Considering marriage and the path I need to take to arrive there is also a great priority. I could not imagine this panning out in Minneapolis or St. Paul, not for me, not in the way I envisioned it. The opportunity to become an entrepreneur with other like-minded individuals who held the same worldview and cultural traits motivated me. To become a connected part of a network that included people that held the same professional vision and outlook on not only their association with ethnic communities but an interconnection to other areas of the globe, as I held was especially enticing. Living in the Midwest, I felt very much displaced from this. Applying and attending to graduate school prospects in the South was another opportunity I wanted to expand upon. Living here now has led me to some interesting conclusions about this possibility.

I’ve got to admit something. I’ve felt a growing chasm for a great while, in terms of being a part of a cultural (read: ethnic) community. I have been disconnected from my African-American family and roots. I’ve grown up in the Midwest all of my life, and I’ve felt something missing in regards to this category. I can trace this longing of mine even back to my earliest childhood memories. I would read books about girls my age who were from different parts of the world. I was always fascinated by culture, no matter what the type: English (Londoners), Mexican, Italian, Japanese, Caribbean, Native…and African-American. See, what fascinated me about my own culture was that the stories I read would describe an African American lifestyle I never experienced: the vocabulary, the cuisine, the music, the family members, the neighborhood, the community. I would sit and relish in the time spent reading books of young black girls who lived in New York and took ballet lessons, of a girl traveling to Louisiana for a family reunion, or simply of a family sitting down to a breakfast of grits, biscuits and bacon. I just did not experience this sense of authenticity at high levels in Minnesota when I was younger. Instead, I held on to this fantastical yet limited worldview of my own people that was provided by reading the pages of a fictional chapter book.

So this move to the South included a personal wish of mine to live in a place with a prominent African-American community that had deep roots in the history of the region. And the verdict? I feel its intensity here. In a different way than I expected, but I really feel it.

And now onto weather. This element is such a crucial & central element to my reason for migrating. If I moved anywhere else (Chicago, Harlem, D.C., Boston, New Jersey)…I would still imagine what could’ve been if I had transplanted myself into a region with a tropical climate. It really is as simple as that. And so far, so very, very good. Some may assume it is not a solid reason to migrate. But if birds can find a reason to do it, why not human beings as well? Plus, each time winter’s wind would blow in early November and the downpour of snow followed days later, the angel on my shoulder would whisper in my ear, “…why are you still living here?” It was a narrow escape really, as I have heard through news and friends that the still ongoing winter is one of the worst Minnesota has seen in several years.

With all of this said, I am one of the statistics in that article: moving away from the North and in a way, symbolically “returning” to the South. The real heritage embedded in a history of struggle, classism and racism is as real today as it was years ago. It just looks a little bit different, a little less overt, a little more figurative, and a lot less easy than it may appear.

At the core of my decision to move was the realization that I personally did not have to be entrapped in a particular North American geographical region because “that’s just the way it is.” On the contrary, there were plenty of alternatives. My higher education and broad worldview contributed to the sway I held over choosing where I could create a lifestyle and standard of living for myself. I now understood that my destiny was up to me. I had the freedom to choose where the next chapter of my professional and personal life would play out. The stereotypical urban neighborhoods where public housing abounded and historical African-American communities were established due to abandoning living in hostile Southern states would no longer be my only option. Ultimately, I was the deciding factor.

The beginning of a bold and contrasting, new journey.

A Northern Exodus Headed South: A New Peak of Black Consciousness or an Old Racialized Economic Divide? – The Intro

There’s a faint sound like rumbling thunder, coming from over the horizon. The muffled hum is getting stronger and stronger. Little by little I’m beginning to make out the voices and the words. The silhouettes against the purple sky are becoming more distinct with each passing moment. The valleys are being made plain as the mountains are sinking under the weight of the migrants. The shape of earth is shifting, the culture is changing, and the settlers are building fortresses. It’s the sign of the times. Like my ancestors would say, “A change is comin’.”

A wind is blowing according to recent research, studies and observations by demographers and news media. And this wind is pushing the North American Blacks back to the South from cities like Chicago, D.C. and Philadelphia. A notable return to the original regions where African Americans historically lived proves once again that history continues to repeat itself. A “Back to the Future” type of event is taking place in North American central cities and outer suburbs.

And I can feel this change. I can hear it, and I can see it with my own eyes. This is the perplexity of human civilization. It’s the nature of the beast: predictability and repetition. Like a song with a familiar refrain, there’s that same constancy to human migration.

There is utility in recognizing the ebb and flow of human migratory patterns, culture and economics like basic ingredients, are all added to the pot of human civilization one, by one and stirred to blend into a stew. The utility may lie in understanding our own personal connotations with race, with social circles, with culture and most importantly, our contributions to where we inhabit. We have influence where we live.

This examination of the current state of not just black movement, but white movement and Latino populations will be a series that will unfold in my own personal stages of reflecting, learning and then theorizing. A neat way to say I am compartmentalizing the dynamic process of this migratory shift.

Stage 1 – My Story: A reflection of my own thoughts on why I decided to trade the “home”, the life, the culture I knew since childhood in the Midwest in exchange for a new lifestyle in an unfamiliar setting in the South.

Stage 2 – I Just Want Numbers: Here is where I outline the key points of the information I have found. What is the general big picture: what are the economic and educational levels of the African Americans that are moving down South? Where are the Whites going? Where do the Latinos find themselves? Are African American men moving at the same rate and same number as African American women? Who is single and who is married? Are the reasons the same?

Stage 3 – What’s Going On?: Compare and Contrast: EUROPE: I don’t find it useful to look at the United States in a vacuum, independent from influence of other countries and nations. Isolation becomes dangerous. Separation creates anxiety. This stage is a comparison of a few of Europe’s immigrant concentrated suburbs and major cities held up against the racialization of North American cities.

Stage 4 – I Have a Question: Benefit of the doubt comes to an abrupt halt at this stage. Now begins the critical analysis of some of the “facts”. Let’s dig deeper. Let’s run our hands over each angle, look through new perspectives and throw out biases.

Stage 5 – Focusing on the Horizon: What Will the Future Hold? Conclusion of facts, insertion of personal assumptions & theories, and my final, candid thoughts on if, when and how the past informs the future.

[Walking] Space Invasions, with You

Night owls on slick Moscow streets.

    Photo courtesy of Mosdave.

 The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk. ~Mark Twain

“Can you, uh, scoot over, G? You’re pushing me off the sidewalk,” my friend said, staring at me with an unamused look on her face. I was walking on a paved path in one of the numerous city parks in Minnesota along one of the thousand lakes the State has to offer. Oops, I thought as I tried to veer my body to the right of the pathway. So much for walking in a straight line. Since we each had different paces, not only could we not keep up with one another, but we also couldn’t share the sidewalk space properly. Or, correction, I couldn’t.

 My walking behavior is not that unique, as we as human beings do not innately walk in straight lines. This then has an effect on the interpersonal distances we keep in step with as we walk together, in pairs or in groups. Have you ever wondered about why in pairs, people sometimes walk in sync with each footstep in perfect harmony? Or in groups of three or more, either one trails or one leads while steps are shuffled and more abrupt? Either someone is taking up more space than they need or rather, they are really using only the space given them.  Maybe you haven’t wondered this at all. So what would be the importance of wondering about these behavioral patterns, especially in a city setting?

 One reason to consider these behaviors is to become aware of the physical arrangements provided for personal space in a city setting. Boundaries delineated for personal space in shared environments are constructed for smooth-running channels for passage. This is designed to combat clogged arteries of traffic. In other words, the design of a good city should be structured around you and the way you walk, move and travel. The design must keep in mind the interpersonal distance you have with another pedestrian as well.

Two friends walking in unison in Nevada City.

Sidewalks and streets are not always conducive to the way we move, though. Think of a tight rope and how hard it is to balance, or walking along a plank over a deep canopy. Our movement is like water; it is not militant, it is dynamic. Add a few hundred more people to the equation, and it isn’t hard to understand that walking in groups or in large crowds can restrict our movement, our walking speed and our invasive behaviors. The structure of streets then must adapt to our human behavior, rather than confining our movement to superficial extremities.

In cities, people walk in groups more often. Whether you are with strangers or friends, if you live or work or socialize in the CBD, you walk in large groups in the city. You might step on someone’s foot or the back of their heel, you might walk slower or faster, and you might need to do the running man to catch the bus. Because of our personal connection to the city center, studying crowd dynamics and their ebb and flow is critical in designing the layout of the urban environment, according to Switzerland-based researcher Mehdi Moussaïd. How wide the sidewalks should be, the relative size of streets to those sidewalks, how to minimize congestion for efficient and time sensitive alternatives, evacuation designs in buildings, etc, are all strong points to be considered.

It seems obvious though, that the significance of walking has been downgraded due to its relationship with time. In a culture where time is inextricably linked with money, walking for sure has its setbacks. With new ways to travel, we figured cutting time in half was the point. But what has been overlooked is the human connection associated with walking and its purposefulness.

Instead of relying on walking as a means to an end, technological innovations have upgraded more people’s  accessibility to goods and services, personal learning, our occupations and even friendships. But the focus on walking is critical, the group dynamics especially interesting.

Mehdi Moussaïd, identifies the usefulness of studying social organization in his experimental study of behavioral mechanisms in human crowds. He sees the pivotal point of research in studying human crowd dynamics as trying to, “…understand how pedestrians move and interact with each other in order to predict the phenomena emerging at the scale of a crowd.”

Walking together and out of key on a New York evening.

In the report, data collected at an individual level is studied to predict behavior at a group level (the crowd dynamic). The driving forces (an individual’s personal walking behavior that includes speed) and repulsion forces (how pedestrians react to obstacles and other pedestrians) help to paint a conceptual picture of how spatial interactions are carried out.

From the generic construction of the experiment, it was revealed, “how pedestrians modify their behaviour during interactions”; avoidance of an ‘obstacle’ or a standing (aka immobile) person does not slow down the speed of a pedestrian; the pedestrian rather changes his direction, at the same speed. It was also found that walking speed is decreased when approaching another pedestrian head-on, averting movement to either the left or right of one another:

“we suggest that the left/right bias can be interpreted as a behavioural convention that emerges because the coordination during evading manoeuvres is enhanced when both pedestrians favour the same side (Bolay 1998; Helbing 1991). It is therefore advantageous for an individual to develop the same preference as the majority of people.”

Yet what the experiment did not specifically look at (and what would have been interesting to investigate) are groups of two or more pedestrians who are acquaintances, and the effect they would have on a crowd. Not only would a group level experiment of people who know each other change the dynamics of interpersonal distances, speeds and intrusion of space, it will also help to understand the benefits of walking with people we know in crowded areas.

For instance, this personal group dynamic could likely give much insight on personal safety. In the urban setting, walking in groups may be one of the keys to discouraging criminal behaviors. Especially when the urban environment is blanketed under a night sky, the group dynamic is essential. Could walking in small groups with friends curb crimes [i.e. robbery, assaults, abductions] vs. walking in large unfamiliar crowds ‘alone’? Does it matter if the group is gender specific? From my own experience, it seems that we feel entitled to more space when we are walking with others we know. So the standing individual singled out in the experiment may be the one to move when he encounters a group moving in his direction rather than when an individual enters his ‘bubble’; his space. It also seems from experience that not only does our entitlement to space increase, but our speed decreases.   (UPDATE: Darn! After looking over Moussaïd’s webpage, I found a research project that did study the behavior of social groups, aka, groups of people who do know one another, and their effect on crowd dynamics. I was looking all over for this! And I completely overlooked the article. Well, I have to see if my hypotheses were correct! (future post though.) This guy, Moussaïd, is two steps ahead of ya girl.) 

Japanese Schoolmates; Tokyo Dome City.

 Photo courtesy of Alfie Goodrich.

How about the group dynamic in terms of the marketplace? After all, when we do walk, we walk with a purpose: to purchase a good or use a service, to get to work or school and to meet up with people to go to another destination. When I walk 2 miles, I might get thirsty faster. So I stop by that new little deli with a friend and spend money on a decaffeinated iced tea (my preference) or for the more sophisticated masses, an iced latte. At the heart of it, walking in the city is interconnected with economics. Because chances are, if my friend stops for a drink, I will too.

Because these studies were conducted in Europe (mainly London), we must recognize that walking patterns and behavior have much to do with culture and geographic perspectives. The experiment did manage to briefly touch on this issue, stating how some behaviors may be a result of cultural bias. Questions like, is interpersonal distance interpreted the same the world over? Do men walk farther apart from each other in the U.S. but closer to each other in West Africa? Or is it the other way around?, are meaningful concerns when considering the design of a city’s pathways. It is best to understand not only the cultural intricacies of the area and how people in a particular region relate to one another but also to nature and the built environment as well.

Studying walking in the city has much to do with the human nature of exploration and appreciation as we travel on foot towards the destination. Bottom line, it is all about the human connection: connection to being aware of our immediate surroundings, connection to nature, connection to comprehending direction, connection to resources and connection to other travelers.  These elements are what walking really revolves around.

But why is this important you still ask? Because the focus is on enhancing our quality of living. Of course the element of time can deter people from choosing to walk more; the journey sometimes seems endless. Yet what makes the thought of walking a long (or even short) distance less daunting is that more times, it is done with another person. Instead of looking at walking as a task, it could be considered a beautiful benefit when sharing that space with someone we know.

“Walking together out of key on a New York evening”, photo courtesy of The Stella.

More information on Mehdi Moussaïd: http://mehdimoussaid.com/