This spring break I will be traveling to Mexico with the Marist Global outreach team. Eight of us will be working in a community, adhering to their most current needs. The mission we were presented with was to incorporate enviornmental education with new forms of media. Upon our assignment we had a meeting to begin brainstorming about how would implement these ideas. A collective decison was made to have a constant theme, and surround our lesson plans around this central focus. As we were discussing the goals of our project, to educate the community about media as well as living in their enviornment, it became very clear to me what our theme should be. I introduced the idea we worked with this semester in class. Our theme is titled “Re-focus your lens.” This theme reflects the importance of seeing, not only through the cameras we will be bringing down there and training them on, but in their everyday struggles within their community. This class provided me with the insight to not only understand this concept, but to apply it to my own endeavors. Since one of our trips goals is to teach the members of the town how to use a camera, they too will be enlightened about having an individual perspective, and new ways of projecting it so that others may share in their experiences. I think that connecting the media sources with the enviornmental material, and forestry work will serve as a efficient and effective means of not only teaching these people new technologies, but leaving them with a new vehicle of outlet. My experience in this class has braodened my knowledge and forced me to become more aware of all that surrounds me, I only hope that I can others to acheive the same epiphany. The population we will be living among and working with ranges from infants to elderly so it will be interesting to develop innovative ways of tailoring our methods to all those wishing to participate.
