Community Profile

G. Kosey Griffith

Mat Wenzel

ENC2135

31 July 2019

Social Justice Warriors

I am a black male in a predominantly white institution. Due to this fact I saw great benefit to joining a group of open-minded individuals with their interests in social issues. I initially worried about the Caucasian people I would encounter at Florida State University not understanding the trials and tribulations I face because I'm black and I wanted to avoid this realization I was having before I started school at Florida State. Before I came, I assumed that the people who have a strong interest in social issues are more likely to be progressive. And my familiarity with progressives told me they tend to be more empathetic to people of color when it comes to discrimination and disrespect so I knew that a group of people with an interest in social causes would benefit me and allow me to be more comfortable at Florida State University. When I first toured Florida State of University the first thing I noticed was the lack of diversity on campus. I was boggled by this especially since the people who were guiding our tour made a point in telling us that Florida State was voted a diversity champion. I also noticed this at other institutions I toured such as University of Florida. When I stumbled upon this similarity in my top two schools, I decided it would most certainly be essential for me to join a group with open minded individuals such as student unions, clubs, or Living Learning Communities. I learned about the interactive style of the Living Learning Community at orientation by one of its former members Sarah Blackmon. She boasted how the programs allowed students to be social justice activists while also providing an accepting and understanding environment. On the spot through her explanation of what the social justice Living Learning Community was and how passionate and dedicated the instructors and student are I decided to join. 

My Community

The social justice Learning community is a place to openly and comfortably discuss societal issues (Center for Leadership and Social Change). The living Learning Community for social justice is in the building Wildwood South (Denise Mercier). In this Living Learning Community, we take one joint class with each other or a class all within are resident hall together (University Housing – Florida State). The classes taken when a part of this community is Leadership for Social Justice in the Fall of 2019 semester, Leadership through Intergroup dialogue in the second semester of spring 2020 and lastly Social Responsibility: Rhetorically speaking (Denise Mercier). The class Social Responsibility: Rhetorical Speaking has now assigned semester, but it is a required class to take when in this organization (Denise Mercier). This group of students refers to themselves as the SoJusters (Center for Leadership and Social Change).

 The people in this group are a select small group of no more than thirty members maximum (Danielle Bromfield). Shane Whittington is the program director for the social justice Living Learning Community along with Doctor Laura Osteen and Miguel Hernandez (Denise Mercier). There also in this organization is a direct Social Justice mentor who are former social justice Living Learning Community members (Denise Mercier). Danielle Bromfield is a direct mentor now for students in the community and she helped me find out more about the things that allow the SoJusters to relay their message to their peers within the group. SoJust mentors work with first year incoming students on a one-to one basis. These mentors will host meetings for you and your other SoJust members to help the transition onto the Florida State campus (Denise Mercier). 

Sojust mentor have taken part in “service projects, dinner discussions, socials, workshops, and trainings” (Denise Mercier). This community does not require a certain major as well a major in social justice, sociology or political science is not necessary to join (Center for Leadership and Social Change). This community is looking for those who engage in discussion it is not looking for those with hard and unwavering opinions it seeks out those who want to have a conversation first (Center for Leadership and Social Change). “As the year progresses” we will be tested on our understanding of the social issues we learn about through projects we will have to do (Center for Leadership and Social Change). Wildwood Hall South will be a very active space for SoJust students because of classes, discussions, and meetings being held there regularly (Danielle Bromfield). 

Students joining the Living Learning Community is expected to regularly attend events that the organization planned such as the retreats, the classes, the parties, and the meetings (Danielle Bromfield). The retreats are both before classes begin before the Fall and Spring semester (Denise Mercier). There is a welcome party that is mandatory attendance Friday, August thirtieth, 2019 (Denise Mercier). Then the Fall retreat takes place right after on Saturday August thirty-first (Denise Mercier). The Fall retreat is an interactive experience that will be off campus for one night (Danielle Bromfield). This venture with fellow Living Learning Community group members is supposed to take you out of your comfort zone and allow you to make more personal connections with one another (Danielle Bromfield). The experience helps students communicate a message because at these retreats you will sit down and discuss your thoughts to your peers in the wilderness (Danielle Bromfield). The social justice Living Learning Community also has a snapchat group chat that allows them to communicate messages with one another if its formal or informal (Danielle Bromfield). The snapchat group chat serves as a mostly informal way of communication where random conversations are held with one another. This is a platform where jokes are expected to be shared and real conversations having to do with social justice, personal problems, and other things such as issues or problem s are expected to be discussed (Danielle Bromfield).

The social justice Living Learning Community, “offer more than 30 programs for students, faculty and staff intended to foster opportunities and vision to create positive, sustainable change in their communities and the broader world” (Center for Leadership and Social Change). To get involved you can “participate in Social Justice Ally Training to learn about systematic power, privilege, and oppression” (Get Involved). The community has a program where you stay overnight at the “Rez to learn the basics of leadership theory during LOGIC” (Get involved). The social justice program helps you get involved through signing up for one of the “many weekly EngageTLH trips to serve with local nonprofits” (Get Involved). The social justice organization offers you all these opportunities to better educate yourself and aid those around you and through all these different tools and factors they use to successfully run this Living Learning Community are for students to use and create “positive and sustainable change” (Center for Leadership and Social Change).

Up Close and Personal 

In actual life this community you will notice is in a tall brown and red brick building. It is directly across from the leach gym center and very close to the football stadium on campus. It is the second building of two Wildwood buildings one known as Wildwood North or Wildwood Hall one and the second one is the one the SoJusters stay in known as Wildwood South or Wildwood Hall two. Both Wildwood buildings that sit next to each other are down Varsity Drive and Learning Way. The Hall sits close to the street on a main road so you can catch more cars going unsafe speeds at the entrance of the building. Both Wildwood buildings have a little meeting outside area in the center of them as well when u leave the buildings exits that don’t lead to the two main roads they are on. The social justice Living Learning Community location is special because we get a special view of the circus tent and the Doak Campbell Stadium (University Housing). The dorm I was assigned to is a single room and single bathroom in the Fall and Spring on the first floor. This building has one to five floors in Wildwood South (University Housing). It is a beautiful more newer building with what I heard from Denice M. and Danielle B. it also has a buzzing productive community living within the hall.

How social justice Living Learning Community Communicate

Three tools that the social justice Living Learning uses to communicate a message within the community is retreats, snapchat group chats and classes. These resources all keep us connected to one another. All these resources serve the purpose of providing clear messages to those a part of SoJust that will help students fully engulf themselves in the social justice Living Learning Community and take advantage of all the program has to provide.

The retreats are interactive isolating experiences. The retreat happens in the Fall of two thousand nineteen and the Spring of two thousand twenty. The students leave Wildwood Hall South which is the location on the Florida State University campus all the student in SoJust live and after the second day of meeting the other students in SoJust you will venture into the woods (Denise Mercier). You will go to the woods during the retreat and explain details about yourself and your beliefs with your peers in the community (Danielle Bromfield). This serves as a communication tool because it is a platform allowing students to communicate their specific message. The isolated venture off campus will force out messages and details. The retreat serves to strip you and expose you to new people and to force you to be vulnerable to a group of strangers you will have to learn to see as a family. The retreats fast timing and children being away from their parents and on their own for the first time all effect new college students to make them more willing to communicate with the other students due to the created atmosphere of complete vulnerability. The purpose of this is to manipulate a student's willingness to engage with their counterparts (Danielle Bromfield). By controlling a student's willingness to communicate through the way they planned the time of the retreat they get a more involved 

Snapchat group chats in SoJust are one of the ways that SoJust members communicate with each other in an informal fashion (Danielle Bromfield). Snapchat is an application you can download on your phone to communicate with others through images or through disappearing images. This is a platform they can more literally communicate through with text messages or images. With this form of technology, they share messages about their life, about stuff around them, or just random information. Since this chat is not formal the seriousness and lightness of the conversations range however it is consistent in being a platform where the approximate thirty SoJusters can share a message. The purpose of a snapchat group chat rather than SoJust’s other formal ways of communication is to provide a more comfortable place for students to talk freely. It allows students in SoJust to create a better more natural bond with one another.

Being a part of the social justice Living Learning Community requires the students to take three classes to be considered a SoJuster for the two semester they take part in the Living Learning Community program (Denise Mercier). Students will all be responsible in taking two leadership classes and one social responsibility class (Denise Mercier). These classes will teach students of SoJust about social causes and how to understand social issues (Center for Leadership and Social Change). We will even apart from class get the opportunity to implement what we learn about social justice in projects for class and outside in the real world (Center for Leadership and Social Change). Classes become a platform for communication as well. The instructor of SoJust in classes gets to communicate a message to the students about different social justice causes. Classes will be Shane Whittington’s platform to clearly and precisely communicate the messages need to become a SoJuster in the social justice Living Learning Community.

My one-on-one Interview

I spoke to Danielle Bromfield on Friday of the twenty sixth of July in the kitchen of Reynolds Hall. We both live within Reynolds Hall so it was very convenient to set up a meeting where all my questions about the Living Learning Community can be answered. When we met I greeted her and began to inform of the purpose of my interview having to do with SoJust. I asked Ms. Bromfield about how she feels the group best communicates by asking, “does the group communicate best within meetings that are scheduled, through speaking events, classes, or anything of that sort?” She agreed with those being reasonable means of communication within the group however she communicated to me the best form of communication they have are the group chats they have one being the snapchat group chat they currently speak through. She then mentioned that if anyone has a problem with one another or is not currently seeing eye to eye they could squash it within the snapchat group chat with one another. This is because it is the most chill and honest group chat between the group. I moved on to ask Danielle Bromfield next, “is there any reoccurring problems with people disagreeing with each other and having to squash it within the snapchat group chat?” She stated no it was just an example to show the more relaxed nature of the group chat with people in it being able to talk more freely and openly about what they feel and what they want to say to one another. 

I asked about any other platforms the organization has that delivers a message within this group and she told the classes could be another reasonable form of communication allowing for the students to learn how to be a part of a social justice movement. It helps them find their voices and learn how to properly use the social justice their passionate about to enact their message. It teaches about inclusion and teaches students how to abide by that while also allowing them to deliver a specific message. “Does being in the Living Learning Community cultivate a prominent black message for the black students within the community?” She then told me about how this group although inclusive has a very low amount of people because this group likes to make sure that the people joining are very passionate about social justice causes. Due to that there is not a large black population and it's hard for a specific strong black message to be apparent especially since so many social issues are addressed by the classes and the students. Danielle said the social justice Living Learning Community is mainly just a teaching vessel its primary role is to teach u how to handle different social justice causes and how to speak about the causes responsibly. However lately they have been doing things the last couple of years which have allowed them to be more active inside of other communities and causes instead of just learning with each other or in a classroom. 

I asked her about the activeness of the group and how do the members become connected with one another when they meet especially when they might share very different social views. She explained how such strong connections are created within the group chats they have and right when you first get here for the fall semester you have a party to get to know each other and then you go on a retreat out in the woods together. So, your first major experiences you have with the people in the college are in the social justice Living Learning Community. This will end up creating a positiive atmosphere with the students in this organization first and will quickly create instant bonds with the students who are also in SoJust. You will look towards the people in the Living Learning Community first as they are essentially the first friends you will make in college. Also, since kids are so vulnerable being away from their families for the first time, being away from home, and friends, they’ll be very quick to try to make close friends within this group of likeminded passionate people. 

Danielle Bromfield is black so after I asked her about how this groups shows advocacy for black people and struggles in America; she did tell me about how there's new hand on ways to get a part of helping people that the social justice Living Learning Community just recently started exploring. From this I assume there are options to help people of color around me that my organization gives you the opportunity to do. I would be able to step out of just learning and I could do what I joined the social justice organization to do. Help people like myself.

My Conclusion

The social justice Living Learning Communities goal is to teach students about social justice and provide them with opportunity to enact the messages they learn from within SoJust. This group creates mandatory classes such as Leadership for Social Justice, Leadership through Intergroup Dialogue, and Social Responsibility: Rhetorically Speaking to make sure you learn what is required to be a part of their Living Learning Community. The classes teach us about a broad range of social issues (Danielle Bromfield). The purpose of students learning this curriculum is so they can be aware of the social justice causes before they become a social justice warrior who speaks out on the causes. It is also a program that helps new coming students meet a likeminded body of individuals while new to campus.

The snapchat group messaging system shows an informal yet more personal communication between those in the social justice Living Learning Community. This group using these forms of communication shows the prevalence of a family dynamic between the students in the community. Through the aid of Danielle Bromfield and Denise Mercier I was able to understand the meaning of the social justice Living Learning Community in Florida State University. Living Learning Communities are seeking to educate its young warrior and these two individuals who I interview and emailed helped me dive in to my research. It is not looking for those with closed minds on the social issues. The Living Learning Community is seeking those who just have a hunger to help and are willing to learn how to do so with their peers in this interactive and progressive community.

Work cited

“Social Justice Living Learning Community.” Center for Leadership and Social Change, thecenter.fsu.edu/diversity/social-justice-living-learning-community.

Florida State University Housing Department. “University Housing.” University Housing - Florida State University, housing.fsu.edu/living-learning-communities.

“The Center for Leadership & Social Change.” Center for Leadership and Social Change, thecenter.fsu.edu/.

“Get Involved.” Center for Leadership and Social Change, thecenter.fsu.edu/get-involved.

Florida State University Housing Department. “University Housing.” University Housing - Florida State University, housing.fsu.edu/current-residents/residence-halls#/wildwood.