The Loewenstern experience, and the pre- and post-trip trainings and classes that we Fellows took, constitute an active learning process. We learn by doing instead of by listening. This is especially important for discussion-based topics like identifying your personal values, weaknesses, strengths, goals and take-aways from the experience. Although reading and understanding about the opinions of well-known experts on international service and research ethics is important, discussing them with your peers help connect everyone’s ideas together to create a more well-rounded, open-minded perspective. Making the connection yourself with your peers rather than passively listening to writers/philosophers make it is more valuable because it is more likely to stay with you. My peers are my age and may have been exposed to similar ideas as me in school, but also they have very diverse backgrounds and experiences during their lives and during this past summer, we are able to connect on common ground from different viewpoints. I also feel that articulating an idea yourself not only helps practice how you express your ideas, but further deepens your connection to those ideas and helps you more firmly believe in them. This style also helps students develop leadership skills by developing their own ideas and consolidating others’ into their own. Students are able to adopt a collaborative mindset where they build off of each others’ ideas, and develop skills to integrate ideas together. And, it teach students to respect each other and keep an open mind—it teaches them about tolerance.
From this experience, I’ve learned that whenever I have any sort of memorable experience (with family, through an internship, at school, on vacation, etc), I should reflect, write and talk to other people about it to fully internalize and make use of the experience. Simply taking part in an opportunity isn’t enough and doesn’t automatically change your experience. Reflecting during and after the experience is in fact more important because you come away with a better idea of who you are as a person and how you stand in the world—and helps define what paths you take in the future. I should make use of the perspectives of people around me as well as other resources like media to more deeply reflect upon the issue and my role in it.
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