October 2023

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.

-Henry Ford

Last Saturday, September 30th, was our last session of Activism@Work. We had 8 participants, 3 facilitators, and 1 moderator. It was a slow start with only 4 students in our first session. That is 4 out of the 15 students who initially signed up. Can I just say that “disheartening” does not even remotely begin to describe my first reaction to the news. I found out when I returned from a family trip which I had planned months ago. I was thinking, “All that hard work of community outreach and not even a 1/3 of the registrants showed up!” I was extremely discouraged and began to question myself and our program.

As you can imagine, my mind raced to all the negatives - what were we doing wrong or how could we have done differently? Should I have changed the time or should I have offered scholarships? Is our program unappealing or have I misread the needs of our community?

The questions, the doubts, the feelings of insecurity began to impact my sleep and affect my health. No matter what I did to calm my disappointment, I was faced with my feelings of inadequacy. It didn’t matter that it was our very first in-person gathering or that it was the beginning of the school year. I was and am still baffled as to how we can grow our audience and grow our funds to support the program.

Then in our last session, a number of students mentioned that they wished it was longer because they really wanted the opportunity to explore the topics more deeply. They also expressed gratitude for the program. So one can say it was a success for the few students who attended. But for me, the power of the program was a single mother’s plea to help her child become a facilitator in future trainings so her daughter can become a more confident leader. We want to be there for the students, for their parents and guardians, and for our communities.

Does this mean that we will continue with the program? I don’t know and I will not answer that question until I meet with my team and the board. I cannot and will not do the work alone. Activism@Work in the Fall was only possible because of our awesome team of organizers, facilitators, and program designers - Maria, Dafne, Ximena, Tsion, and Newal.  The board supported us with funding and our partner organizations help with outreach and sponsorship. The spirit of the pioneer can only take a person so far before the team would need to work together to make a vision possible. This is activism, not entrepreneurship - we need our community’s support to make our vision for our community a reality.  That is the practical truth. And I am grateful for this reality because who wants to stand on a mountaintop all alone.

Samantha Joo

Oct. 2, 2023