I was raised to uphold modesty with conviction. Perhaps this originated in how my parents were raised, and how their parents were raised, and how all this has been passed down without much question. The framework of this stems from a religious faith that values selflessness above all else and the pursuit of treating others as you would prefer they treat you. I have broken this chain in the sense that I no longer practice the religious tradition of my family. However, this important lesson, along with the inherited modesty, still exists within me.
As I began to shape my professional career, before this latest round of schooling, I noticed how positions of leadership were offered to me. Whether it was a promotion to take on a managerial role in a design office, or a nomination to be the spokesperson for a small group to argue an issue, people asked that I step up where I was not necessarily already taking initiative. I have always loved the idea of being part of positive change-making, but being a change-agent, upon which a sharpened focus and a heavier burden is placed, has never has sat comfortably with me.
One of the key things I have learned thus far during my three terms in graduate school, and especially with my latest term as a member of CityStudio, is how cultural change does not arrive on its own. Rather, it is made. This simple idea has always rung true with me, but most recently has made it abundantly clear that if I wish to see change, I need to embody it. The days of performing quiet work behind the scenes will not be a luxury for me if I hope to contribute to addressing the big challenges facing our world today in any substantial way. While I know there still is room here for modesty in personality, ways of being involving words like keen, ardent, and eager now court my thoughts of making change. I know, now more clearly than ever, what it takes to be a change-agent.
This lesson for me was carried throughout my experience as a member of The Long Table Series group. From the inception of the group’s creation–helping to corral five people from three disparate groups into one with layered strength–to co-producing the production of the pilot event for The Long Table Series, I have continually found myself in the role of manager…of art director…of curator…and of positions that commanded a suppression of my past ways of being reserved. I must be careful to give recognition to each member of my group, as everyone played a pivotal role to the success of our project, but (I am proud to admit how) my specific contribution was one that involved a role embodied with leadership and vision.
Throughout the semester, with both as a member of the five-person group and with the entire CityStudio core, I practiced listening. From this grew my strength in dialogue. From this grew my ability to lead. Still, I recognize how I need to continually grow my ability to identify and embrace opportunities for leadership. More importantly, I am learning to identify which of such opportunities are more suited for me to take on.
Thanks to CityStudio and everyone who has contributed to its introduction to the world, I have reached a new level of awareness within myself. I am ready to be challenged more, and I am ready to continue to challenge others. Because the issues facing our world are complex, and many quite dire, we must continue identifying our strengths while challenging one another. For me this is what CityStudio was and is about. My fellow classmates and I collaborated around learning and growing together, while identifying and lending our strengths towards ideas to help make human existence sustainable. For our efforts, which were each filled with passion, conviction, and scholarship, I believe the entire first CityStudio cohort should be commended.
This week in CityStudio, we have been asked to consider the following two questions: 1. How does your work contribute to the Greenest City Goals?, and 2. How have you changed as a result of this course? At first glance, each of these two questions can appear commonplace and distant from the uniqueness of this course. As one who comes to the program with 10 years of studio design experience as an instructor as well as a practitioner, I have been thoroughly impressed with its uniqueness. Professional practice rarely sources its ideas directly from the classroom. Likewise, the classroom rarely has its ideas implemented in the world beyond the campus. CityStudio bridges these two worlds and this intersection. This is unique and has the potential to be quite powerful.
However, what is interesting about each of these questions is how CityStudio is not the topics in question. Rather, my work and my personal growth are. Upon greater reflection, the wording of these questions makes perfect sense. CityStudio is, after all, a classroom. It should be a vessel for learning and not the subject.
How, then, has my work contributed to the Greenest City Goals? The answer is that it began this summer when I accepted a position that placed me at the center of the Clean Water goal. Since this assignment, which afforded me a perspective from the minds and hearts of those working daily with issues related to potable water supply (consumption) and wastewater removal (cleanliness), the concerns of water has sat front and center in all of my work.
Just this week, during a conversation with a city staff member whose job relates to wastewater removal, I learned something interesting. For the event that my classmates and I are planning for December 10th, we aim to tell the full story of Vancouver's water. As part of this narrative, we are creating maps that illustrate the full cycle of water–its input and output. When I asked for maps illustrating this, I was told they did not exist. Vancouver supplies all of its inhabitants with potable water that is virtually free, and yet it has never marketed its product or attempted to explain its life.
With its Greenest City Goals, the City of Vancouver aims to spread sustainable knowledge. With this, it hopes to foster subsequent sustainable practice across all sectors, to help tackle each of the ten goals. I learned this week how the city has been virtually mute with regards to spreading sustainable knowledge about water consumption and cleanliness. (As my answer to the first question,) this niche is where I find myself. (As my answer to the second,) I accept the role of helping to fill this niche because I understand, more than I ever have, the role the story of water can play in achieving urban sustainability.
