Steven Lamm
Dr. Patton
SLC 101 (001)
24 October 2019
Self Reflection #3 – Climbing the Ladder
Poverty is an issue that has gotten too big and too ignored. This world is full of money, but most of it is just in a few hands. Since the 2008 recession, I have always been surrounded by a struggling class system, struggling to find a job and pay off debt. My dad lost his job in 2008 and could not find a job for a long time. Thankful to our capitalistic economy, my dad had to create a startup company to find a way to keep a cash flow to pay the bills. The startup did the best it could but was only able to pay some bills while we had stacking high debt. My dad has worked with many different companies as a Civil Engineer and has finally been able to settle down with a company that works best for him and our family. My mom is a teacher and has worked at many different schools, trying to find the best place to settle down with a good community to work with. She has taught AIG (Academically Intellectually Gifted) for elementary students, taught 1st Grade – 4th Grade, and been a substitute teacher for the Wake County Public School System. The income that my parents brought in helped slowly pay off some debt but to this day we are still finishing up paying all of it off. There was not hardly any vacation through the teenage years and the parents were gone most of the time to work. I stepped up and took care of the yard work and housework because my parents would be out of energy by the time they would be home late at night. I found a successful start-up company Lime scooters, (another reason for me to be thankful for our economic system in promoting innovation and startups to create opportunity). I worked hard during my senior year of high school, all through the summer, and in my college experience today. I worked in the nighttime hours from 8pm-7am 5+ days a week during the summer. Because of this opportunity, I have been able to help my family and myself tremendously with an extra $10K in my back pocket. When I started looking into college and filling out the FAFSA, we did not receive any money based off our income. The problem was that our income was too high for a lot of Financial Help but they did not know where that income was going. The issue of paying off debt casted a big shadow over our family but in a way I am grateful for it. I found outlets such as playing sports through the school year and/or summer to keep me busy and mind off things or I worked to also keep me busy and help provide for my family. Poverty is a real issue in the world and there are many different shapes/forms of it. Thankfully we did not go bankrupt and have to go somewhere else but my goal and connection with this real world issue and my service proposal is to help young kids in schools that live in a low-income community to find outlets of activities when their parents are struggling financially. Young kids are too young for work, but sports are an outlet I see for a lot of kids and that can tremendously change a kids life.
The issue of poverty can form in different shapes and a person’s happiness can form in different shapes as well. From my results of the Ethical Philosophy Selector results, my top result was Aristotle in which he believes that: People can have variations on the best way to live their life. Whether that outlet is sports or art, people are drawn to something that interests them and takes their mind to a far place away from their struggles. My objective in the project proposal is to connect kids with their outlet, possibly if it is sports. The Virtue Approach is one that closely relates to me and my objective in my project proposal. Finding an outlet such as playing a sport creates a community that makes everyone a better person. Courage, compassion, self-control and prudence are all virtues that can improve when playing on a team with one objective to win. For me to help my family pay off debt and to understand the issues of poverty has taught me a lot and helped in grow in the Virtue Approach.
My top five strengths were Individualization, Relator, Analytical, Competition, and Achiever. I have two strengths in Relationship Building, one in Executing, one in Influencing, and one in Strategic Thinking. All of these domains defined what I did to help learn and grow in myself and to understand these real world issues. Using all of these strengths help me understand individuals on a personal level and understand what their perspective is about an issue. According to my Ethical Selector results, I believe there is always a reason for why we think what we think and do what we do. There is also an understanding of Reward and Expert power when you can find an outlet such as sports and can learn more about yourself. The objective in sports is to win but to also improve as an individual. Through practice, you get better and as you get older you can teach other younger kids who were in your shoes a long time ago.
All of this information can help me change a kid’s life. If I understand them at a personal level and can help them find an outlet to better their life that they may not have control over, then I have done a good deed and possibly change that kid’s life. My proposal to help young kids that live a low-income home and try an outlet such as sports is something I see possible with my strengths and personality. This Relational Leadership promotes the idea of social responsibility to build community and make this world a better place in any way we can! I just want to help kids to climb out of their financial hole and to help better their life and grow in themselves to help serve others when they are older.