Stanford University Urban Studies &
Urban Summer Fellowship
Student perspectives of community-engaged learning and research across the United States
Just as Chilean slang is finally making its way into my Spanish it is almost time for me to go. It will be a bittersweet transition, but one I will take a lot from. My time with ALDEA has been very much unique and has really helped me rethink ways one can get involved with the things they care about. It is a small and interdisciplinary collective with strong viewpoint but a flexible trajectory. They take advantage of what they come across and do what they can to keep growing and contributing. I also have come to appreciate how they reflect on the ethics and efficacy of their work situating themselves within the larger non-profit network. It is a special way to work that inspires me to not be confined by formalities and be creative with how I approach my career. To think of general goals and be creative with how I reach them, rather than just find an organizational latter to climb.
Being a small group with a lot of motivation, I found myself taking a big part in different projects of different sorts and scales. I was able to work on proposals, executions, and reflections - a very fortunate variety considering my short time in the fellowship. I worked in three cities - Santiago, Valparaíso, and Constitución, giving me a better understanding of urban issues on varied stages. The topics themselves were broad - from designing educational interventions in a cemetery to conducting youth activism workshops to designing and building a public space with a community of neighbors - I got to learn a lot about unique scenarios where urbanism, architecture, and education come into play. Many of these projects come from personal backgrounds of the distinct actors in ALDEA (an old friend, an old hometown, a previous partner) which really shows what you can do by accessing your own rich personal context for opportunities to get involved. Another valuable aspect of my fellowship was being in Santiago itself. It is very much a different scene than the US or Mexico, my countries of origin, which means there is a lot to learn from and reflect on. Chile's history, like of any place's, is a conflicted one especially in the context of Latin America. One can definitely feel the legacy of the rightist Pinochet dictatorship (which with US support in many ways "Americanized" the economy) as well as tensions from a historical (and within its youth very much ongoing) Latin American leftism. Like in the US there is no free education or healthcare, but social housing programs are far more developed than America's. Urban segregation, like is typical of Latin American megacities, is very much in place. The reality of very "gringo" upper neighborhoods is a world of its own compared to its middle class center or low income peripheries. Many of these tensions show a complication of the meaning of progress, where modernization is not always correlated with betterment. I also reflect on the legacy of American social, economic, and urban policy trends as they become associated with wealth abroad (whether it be Chile or Mexico). I come back to the US more critical of the space it takes up in the world, the influence it leaves, and the myth of its exceptionalism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThis blog is authored by Stanford University students engaged in summer fellowships through the Cardinal Quarter and the Program on Urban Studies. All writings and thoughts belong to the Fellows and do not represent the opinion of the sponsoring programs. Archives
September 2018
Categories |