Hi friends,

This past week was full of so many adventures! From a midday San Francisco lunch trip to almost visiting Yosemite. As I’m finalizing my classes ahead for the quarter, I’m trying to balance enjoying my time on campus and in the Bay Area and my desire to get the most out of Stanford while I’m still here. This perceived dichotomy led to a wandering week, one where I sat in on several classes that sounded cool, dropped ones that turned out not to be as interesting, walked around campus, and said yes to a program retreat to Yosemite. As you may recall, visiting Yosemite is on my Northern California bucket list, and I thought this trip would be the perfect opportunity to cross it off. However, we did not even make it to Yosemite; we stayed in Groveland, California, about 20 miles away. Even though I had an incredible time with my peers (see photo below), I think I’ll still have to return, so stay tuned for that.

Book Talk📚

I’ve been making my way through Speed & Scale by John Doerr and New York 2140 by Kim Stanely Robinson for the last month. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both books, and I can’t wait to reflect on them when I finish. The books complement each other because S&S is about a plan to address our changing climate, and NY2140 is set in a future where we failed to make a difference (among other anecdotes). So if you’ve read either, definitely reach out to me, and let’s chat.

Intentional Content Consumption📰

One really cool article I read this week was the Ladder of Citizen Participation for my Civic Design class. Here is an excerpt from my reflection on it:

One of the frameworks we learned this week is the ladder of citizen participation. This simple abstraction provides an excellent framework for understanding the various types of citizen participation organizations employ. The central idea for this framework is that “citizen participation is citizen power” meaning that without authentic power (defined as money or decision-making), participation is more for show that for genuinely making a difference. The ladder broadly covers all forms of engagement from non-participation practices such as manipulation and therapy, to degrees of tokenism such as informing, consultation, and placation, to real citizen power in the form of delegated power and citizen control. For me this framework equips me with the ability to understand engagement practices with far more nuicances beyond them happening.

How have you experienced any of these forms of engagement in your work?

Vulnerability Corner 🏪

While this weekend brought lots of joy through my class trip, I also felt several mixed emotions. Saturday was my friend Will’s birthday, and Sunday was our mutual friend’s wedding. While I was so happy about my friend’s wedding, it felt strange to think that that was something Will wouldn’t get to experience. Before his passing, these two days would’ve been celebrated, but now I felt unsure of how to cherish him or his memories. This weekend and my choice to retreat from school reminded me that life is short so take whatever chance you have to enjoy it and the people around you.

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Best,
Awoe ✌🏾