Reflections on Our Fall 2021 Semester

As the Fall 2021 Semester comes to a close, our Associate Program Director and Senior Instructor, Ashley van Edema, reflects on her experience with our latest cohort and the story of a unique semester.

Storytelling is a big part of what we do at College for Social Innovation. Stories help us to remember, build connections and inspire people to act. This is my fourth semester teaching our Social Innovator’s Toolbox (SITB) course, and as I prepare to close this chapter and begin the next I’m feeling lucky to have experienced these 15 weeks.

I woke up on our first day of this semester’s launch week with the level of excitement of a kid on Christmas morning. After 18 months of Zoom and gloom, I was going to see our new cohort in person. Decked out in my go-to black dress (it has pockets!) and platform sandals I’d dusted off for the occasion, I was ready to take on whatever came my way. 

This is actually the story of how on day one of the semester, standing in front of 52 new faces, I lost my balance, crumbled onto the floor like a baby giraffe’s first time using its legs and narrowly escaped death (by embarrassment). 

 I’d just finished dazzling the crowd with my knowledge of the experiential learning cycle and was turning it over to our Chief Program Officer, Edith Buhs, to explain our next activity. I took a step back, and my heels I’d been so excited to wear betrayed me. The series of events that followed is hazy, likely blurred by my fear of someone capturing my collapse and turning me into a meme.

I leaned up against the wall, no longer trusting my legs to do their job, and replayed the last few minutes in my head. Did that really just happen? I’d just fallen on my tush in front of dozens of college students and both my pride and bottom were bruised. As I bit the inside of my cheek and tried not cry– reminder, first day, dress, floor, devastation– I locked eyes with someone in the crowd who smiled and silently mouthed “it’s okay”. 

 A small act of kindness had brought me back from the brink. 

One of the things I admire most about this cohort is their capacity for empathy and ability to lift our community up. Many of them have spent this semester working in communities that are suffering and they will tell you that coming face-to-face with failing systems is frustrating. There have been many weeks where it has been hard to stand up in front of a group of humans that are seeing the world at its worst, and ask them to stay optimistic. Creating and contributing to change that is meaningful to those closest to the pain is hard. Really hard. 

And, it’s possible.

My favorite part of stories is rarely the ending. It’s somewhere in the middle when the narrator has some deep realization that changes their perspective and forces them to reevaluate their ways of thinking. (Legally Blonde fans, picture that moment where Elle Woods, clad in a bunny suit, sets off to show everyone “how valuable Elle Woods can be”.) It’s the “no, not this” moment- I am having one of those moments.

I used to tell our students to have hope– now I see that they are hope. Tired of the same old story, this next generation of problem solvers is changing the narrative and saying, “These problems are not too big to solve, they are too big not to”. 

My hope for you is that whatever your next chapter brings, you find yourself in a place where you can try, and if you fall, you are surrounded by people who feel like a soft spot to land.

Ashley van Edema