Why I Do What I Do

We had a meeting today at KF of international scholars, community organizers, and ordinary citizens from over 30 different countries. It was part of our Multinational Workshop week. There were roughly 75 people in attendance. The topic of discussion was "Why Do You Do What You Do?" or as I like to affectionately call it "WDYDWYD." People told stories of great injustices in their countries -- being denied jobs because of their race or gender, watching someone die in the community, being denied basic human rights, and losing the right to vote. They then connected these traumatic experiences to their life's work, thus the the "WDYDWYD." This was used as a springboard to talk about how to improve our communities and our collective well-being.

I had the opportunity to share my story as well. I talked about an experience I had my first year of graduate school. I facilitated a six-week leadership program with about 20 undergraduate students that included a community service outing to a local food bank. After the day of service, I facilitated a discussion with the students to process their experience. I'll never forget the passionate reflection one of the young men offered. He said that his parents came to Miami University but didn't have the opportunity to do anything like work at a food bank, and how thankful he was to have worked at a food bank. He went on to say how good he felt about his two hours of volunteering, and how he hopes his son or daughter will come to Miami and volunteer at the food bank because it was so fulfilling! At the same time, I was reading the books Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, and When Hope & Fear Collide. They are books that talk about how the current generation of college students is the most hopeful and ambitious generation in many generations. I began to realize that if students are to change the world, I needed to work to encourage them, harness their ambition, and put their enthusiasm into a larger context of politics that would look to address society's biggest problems (in this case, why we are the richest nation in the world and have a need at all for food banks).

So, in short, that is WIDWID. WDYDWYD?