Global Citizens Initiative

Questioning Identity and Discrimination with GCI’s Newest Ambassadors

by Lynn Barendsen

In late July, I led a virtual Good Project session for 36 high school students from around the world, participants in the Global Citizens Initiative LEAD Challenge (link here). These students represented 30 different cultural heritages, spoke 28 languages, attended 30 schools, and hailed from 14 different countries. To say it was a diverse group is a bit of an understatement.

The LEAD Challenge Program focused on Leadership, Ethics, Advocacy and Design Thinking, and over the course of one week, students gathered virtually to learn skills and collaborate on an advocacy campaign for a nonprofit organization, APOPO (link here), which fights tuberculosis and works to uncover landmines. Attending sessions with Teaching Assistants, led by experts in a variety of fields, and working in small groups, they were asked to apply their learnings to a real world challenge. Following the program, students are then encouraged to bring what they’ve learned back to their home communities and work to solve local issues of their choosing.

This was the first year for this program, and GCI’s online debut, designed in part in an effort to continue its efforts to build community and global connection in spite of the challenges of the global pandemic. The Good Project team has attended the GCI Summit (an in-person opportunity) for numerous years, both in Cambridge and in Tokyo, so we are familiar with its mission and its methods.

During my short hour with this international group, I offered a brief history of The Good Project and the nature of our research, but we spent the bulk of our time engaged with an ethical dilemma about discrimination (link here). In this dilemma, Elena, a high school student, who immigrated with her family from Mexico at a young age, witnesses discrimination towards her father and others. She wonders if she should hide her ethnicity as she applies for internships in order to eliminate the possibility that she might receive similar treatment at the hands of hiring managers. Ultimately she decides to represent herself truthfully. In small breakout groups, students used a “See, Think, Wonder” thinking routine to further consider Elena’s situation (link here). The question “What do you see?” asked students to focus on and unpack the information and the facts of the story. “What do you think?” asked them to consider Elena’s decision and what they might have done if they faced similar challenges. Finally, “What do you wonder?” asked more far-reaching questions, including additional questions about the dilemma itself and about good work in general.

The breakout groups outlined the relevant information about Elena’s situation thoughtfully. Her choice was described as a decision between hiding her Hispanic heritage or being true to herself. Some pointed out that she assumed that she would be subject to discrimination because of her ethnicity, while others pointed to the existence of discrimination itself as fact. Calling out the inherent injustice of discrimination, one student pointed out that race and ethnicity are not equal to one’s abilities. 

Asked to consider what these facts made them think, students identified with Elena in multiple ways. They asserted that she is at an age where she will begin to question “everything,” and if she is finding herself ready to compromise her values, she should perhaps also ask herself why she is working in the first place, questioning “Is it for money, or for something else?” Some recognized that she and her family might be struggling financially, and if this were the case, some students suggested that hiding her identity might be the more prudent choice. Asserting that the inherent inequities in society made the situation difficult, one student wrote, “In my opinion either option is commendable because they both have their hardships.” Although most students were behind Elena’s decision to be true to herself, several explained that they would understand if she felt she needed to make a different choice.

Finally, asked to consider what Elena’s choice made them wonder, the breakout groups had a number of thought-provoking questions. Not surprisingly, with such an action-minded group, some turned to the possible solutions, wondering “what can companies do to eliminate discriminatory hiring practices” and what steps should be taken to “become inclusive enough so people will not be put in a situation like this?” Some responses asked straightforward, important questions, including “Why are managers still in charge if they are discriminatory?” and “What percentage of hiring managers are white?” Other students became more philosophical in their musings. For example, one participant explained that the word “good” is subjective, and wondered if there are “any universal moral values that hold true at all times?” Another probing question asked, “What makes certain societies give superiority to specific races/ethnicities?” Finally, one student asked, “To what extent can you break technical/legal rules for the sake of remaining on the moral high ground?”

Although our conversation together was brief, it was clear that the discussion prompted some important reflection. Participants recognized that experiences like Elena’s “have a larger impact on our personal view of ourselves and our families.” At the same time, they also questioned the nature of this impact, asking, “Should marginalized people be burdened with the task of being ‘brave’ and ensuring respect for their community? Is that a burden at all? What do we owe to each other and ourselves?”

Using this dilemma as the basis of our discussion, I also encouraged the students to consider larger questions about the nature of good work, its relevance in their daily lives, and how they might learn to reflect upon good work on a regular basis.

The challenges of online gatherings are by now way too familiar to educators, and in particular, the issues of community building across such a diverse group are especially complicated. Our brief hour only scratched the surface, but during that time the group was engaged and shared a passion about the topics we discussed. I look forward to hearing about what comes next for this idealistic and talented group.

GCI Series: Shinn and Good Work

The Global Citizens Initiative hosts an annual Fellowship Summit to cultivate young “global citizens” to become “lifelong leaders of positive change.” In July of 2019, 28 high school students from 15 different countries gathered together for a 10-day experience in Tokyo, Japan. These students are each responsible for the design and development of a service learning project to be carried out over the course of a 10 month period. Their projects are “glocal” – addressing a global problem at a local level. In Tokyo, the students were supported by a group of Teaching Assistants, themselves all alumni of the GCI Fellowship Program. The Good Project has been in consultation with GCI since its formation, and we follow the work of its participants with interest. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with several GCI alums and ask them about their work, their thoughts about Good Work, and reflections about their experiences with GCI.


About Shinn Taniya

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My name is Shinn Taniya. I am a Japanese citizen, but you will usually find me in Southern California as I attend college there. As a junior, I am majoring in Computer Science, and I also hope to concentrate in Economics and Philosophy. I participated in the Global Citizens Youth Summit during the summer of 2016 and worked on a service project to raise awareness for LGBTQ+ teenagers in Japanese schools. I was also a TA for the summer 2019 session held in Japan. My passions range from music and sports to studying the ethics of technology.

What does it mean to do “good work” today?

To me, good work can be defined in multiple ways. One interpretation is the act of working on values and causes that one is passionate about. Hence, it is a way in which one can fulfill a purpose in life by earning achievements that are representative of their core beliefs.

Another way in which I understand this expression is the act of challenging the status quo. I am not stating that one should take on an anti-establishment persona. Instead, I am pointing out the importance of identifying and protesting against existing socio-political flaws.

Finally, I believe that good work can be interpreted as practicing self-care. Since almost all advocacy groups place the utmost importance on vulnerable communities, they often forget to maintain their personal health and wellness. Therefore, “good work” should not only be defined as bringing about change for others but also should include practicing self-improvement, as no “good work” can be done if the person attempting to achieve it is exhausted and insecure.

Tell us about your understanding of the community. What are the communities of which you feel a part of?

Since I had the privilege of being able to travel around the world, I have been able to immerse myself in a wide variety of communities. Through these experiences, I was able to master Japanese, Chinese, and English, which has enabled me to further comprehend the distinct attributes of each community.

However, this multi-cultural experience also complicated my sense of identity. Due to frequent transitions between significantly different environments, I do not identify with any particular community. Everywhere I go, I feel alienated to a certain extent due to this multicultural identity I have developed. For example, when I am in Japan, I am treated as Japanese-American due to my foreign mannerisms, and when I am in the United States, I am viewed as a Japanese international student. Since having a strong self-identity is essential in building one’s character, I am working hard to establish a deeper understanding of myself. Furthermore, I know that my struggle and circumstances share many similarities with others that embody this notion of a multicultural identity. Therefore, in any community, I try my best to make myself and those around me comfortable by encouraging the establishment of a just community sentiment.

Is there a particular role model who has helped inspire you to do “good work,” either real or fictional? What is it about this role model that has inspired you?

A role model who has inspired me to do “good work” is definitely my father. Although I see how this is a cliche answer, my father is the person who allowed me to explore all avenues of life and understand the moral values which define the person I am today. As an entrepreneur investor, my father has always reminded me that his work philosophy is to motivate himself and others to practice my above-defined notion of “good work”.

Tell us about your work. What projects are you currently involved with? How might what you are doing now relate to the work you began with GCI?

There are many different projects I am currently involved with. First of all, I am taking online courses to fulfill my requirements as a computer science major. This has taken up the majority of my time and has altered my sleep schedule greatly, as my classes go from 1 am-8 am in my time zone. Second, I currently have an internship as a bioinformatics programmer. My role is to extract/analyze genomic information to contribute to continuous improvements in the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, I engage in activism through my involvement with the advocacy group Japan in Solidarity. This student-led organization has the mission of educating the Japanese public about a wide variety of socio-politico-economic challenges. The three central topics for the past couple of months have been BLM, COVID-19, and LGBTQ+ discrimination.

A brief summary of my background includes: multiple internships with Human Rights Watch, a leader of my high school’s Human Rights Coalition, and organizing a project under GCI’s mentorship to tackle discrimination against LGBTQ+ teenagers in Japanese educational institutions. To provide a brief summary of my achievements in each, for Human Rights Watch, I worked as a journalist to write articles and attend conferences pertaining to topics such as: International Justice, North Korean and Syrian Refugees, LGBTQ+, Women’s

and Children’s Rights, Migrant’s Rights. For my high school, my co-leaders and I established a network between our high school and prominent human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Resources. Finally, for the GCI project, my greatest achievement was working with Human Rights Watch personnel to film a documentary that highlighted the immoral treatment of LGBTQ+ teenagers in the Japanese community. Consequently, I was able to assist and participate in the premiere of the film at the Human Rights Watch Annual Summit in 2016.

It is evident that my current advocacy work aligns with the ethical issues I tackled in the past.

How do you feel your current projects are connected or not to this view of “good work”?

From an ethical perspective, I believe that the work I am doing is definitely connected to my interpretation of “good work.” However, the overwhelming amount of work I have on a daily basis is definitely exhausting and has taken a toll on my health. Furthermore, adding on COVID-19 induced stress definitely does not help my situation. In order to focus on recovering, I have taken a few initiatives. First, I have been spending more time exercising which I believe helps improve my mood significantly. Second, I have been frequenting my close friends’ homes so that I can enjoy non-academic activities without placing myself and others at risk of COVID-19. Third, I picked up new outdoor hobbies such as hiking, biking, and tanning to decrease the time I spend in front of a computer. Finally, I started to turn down requests to complete what I perceive as less meaningful tasks so that I can focus on more significant matters.

How and where do you find meaning in your work?

I have been asked this question many times, but the meaning in my work has always been the ability to personally observe the “good work” I have done on individuals and communities. Nothing is as fruitful as successfully challenging values and conditions that contradict my moral code, as I feel rewarded for my hard work. An archetype of this would be the aforementioned instance where I was able to attend the Human Rights Watch Annual Summit to premiere the documentary I helped to realize. Since I assisted in all aspects, including introducing to the director the protagonist of the film, an elementary school friend of mine who is a victim of extreme bullying that targeted his sexuality, it felt as though the documentary represented the culmination of all of my efforts. I still remember feeling incredibly satisfied after prominent activists walked up to me after the premiere and congratulated our team for shedding light on this complicated issue. Hence, I find meaning in my work by observing the impact it has on individuals and communities.

GCI Series: Ukay and Good Work

The Global Citizens Initiative hosts an annual Fellowship Summit to cultivate young “global citizens” to become “lifelong leaders of positive change.” In July of 2019, 28 high school students from 15 different countries gathered together for a 10-day experience in Tokyo, Japan. These students are each responsible for the design and development of a service learning project to be carried out over the course of a 10 month period. Their projects are “glocal” – addressing a global problem at a local level. In Tokyo, the students were supported by a group of Teaching Assistants, themselves all alumni of the GCI Fellowship Program. The Good Project has been in consultation with GCI since its formation, and we follow the work of its participants with interest. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with several GCI alums and ask them about their work, their thoughts about Good Work, and reflections about their experiences with GCI.


About Onyinyechi Ukaire (Ukay)

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Ukay was born in Abuja, Nigeria, where he grew up until age seventeen, when he left for South Africa to complete high school. He then moved on to Tufts University, Medford, United States where he obtained his Bachelor’s in Biochemistry and Computer Science. Since graduating in May 2018, he has been working in Dr. Bruce Walker’s lab as a Bioinformatics Analyst, analyzing and visualizing sequencing data for different types of immune cells. In his free time, Ukay steps outs of his comfort zone to try something new. Recently, he tried making roasted halibut with lemons, olives and rosemary, as advertised in The New York Times. (It turned out about a quarter as good!)

What does it mean to do “good work” today?

I face a dilemma in understanding how to carry out “good work” every day. When deciding how to do good work, I might, for example, choose to help a friend achieve a goal by contributing a quota to their GoFundMe page, and the friend might feel helped; yet doing so each day would also mean that I would deplete limited resources. Of course, such an instance is just one scenario, as quandaries, I now realize, are present in many opportunities to do “good work”: affording routine food to the destitute might inadvertently insult their pride; saying “hello” to elderly neighbors might do little when those greeted expect a welcoming conversation; celebrating others might render “smiles” but can, possibly, do little to clean up pain that facile smiles belie.

Despite being ostensibly inevitable, these dilemmas have humbled me and, ultimately, taught me that to do “good work” is to deliver selfless services, however discomfiting they seem. What I think matters little. What really matters is that those I hope to help actually find my actions helpful. Doing good work, to me, means what I do is of adequate help, as perceived by intended (and hopefully unintended) recipients.

Tell us about your understanding of community. What are the communities of which you feel a part?

This question arouses identity conflicts within me. You learn from a young age that you are this or that, only to be told later — by uncritical societal eyes — that you are something else. For me, a perceived shift in identity started where I grew up in my home country, Nigeria, where I was time after time reminded that I am an Igbo tribesman who grew up in the north (where Igbo men rarely abide). That is, I wasn’t Igbo, at least not enough so, in spite of what my parents had taught me.

Funny enough, perceived shifts in identity continued outside Nigeria. When I moved to South Africa to complete high school, my identity “changed,” only this time I was called Nigerian. And later, in the United States (U.S.) and United Kingdom (U.K.), where I relocated to complete undergraduate studies, I was simply “Black,” if not “African,” or mistakenly “African-American.” Bear in mind these terms conjure notable yet divergent images in mind (Black, in a way, means my happiness could become fleeting when feelings of thrill are juxtaposed with unconscious reminders of unjust, racial discrimination; African confers knowing substantially about an immensely rich continent of which I know little), which made me feel like some super morphing organism whose identity is anything but fixed.

Interestingly, that notion made me impute some degree of naivety on those who were eager to trade one label for another. I am perceived as Igbo, Nigerian, African, or Black — and the list is likely incomplete. Whatever my observed identities from the point of view of another, there are landmark characteristics in communities to which I belong: they groomed me in significant ways, without them I’d not be the man I am today, and, fortunately, I call them family, not just community. To those to whom I’m beholden — my family (for affording me nostalgic memories and foundational principles of genuine love, care and comedy for painful issues); my high schools, Federal Government Academy in Nigeria and African Leadership Academy in South Africa; multiple families (for engaging my intellect, pushing me to grow, and challenging me to expect more from others); Tufts in the U.S., Oxford in the U.K., and indeed other institutions across Western Europe; the Global Citizens Initiative (GCI) who, on top of family, is synonymous to true friendship for they not only demand my learning but also invite my teachings; tutors I know in person and authors like Chimamanda Adichie, Chinua Achebe, Dale Carnegie, and Trevor Noah with whom I only interface through their various works; and many, many more — I’m immensely grateful. Once, my communities entailed blood ties and neighbors; now, they’re more numerous, less geographically bounded, and, surprisingly, unbridled in their positive effects on me.

The journey to finding rightful fits within my “communities” wasn’t without errors, yet they afforded unique opportunities to grow. Nigerian, as I’m often labeled, traditionally comes with a sprinkle of sexism, but I’ve grown to know the necessity of lifting women up as equal to men. Where I once subscribed zealously to advancing religious ideas into law, I now advocate for legislation that does not cripple another’s freedom.  

Is there a particular role model who has helped inspire you to do “good work”, either real or fictional? What is it about this role model that has inspired you?

I’ve had so many influences over my life that it’s best I limit my recollection to those significant ties that even a faulty memory cannot suppress. Many models stem from literary readings and group discourses (with faculty and peers) during the African Studies (AS) course at African Leadership Academy and during seminars led by facilitators like Dr. Eimer Page at GCI. I think of people like W.E.B. Du Bois, who took up the mantle to stand up for what he believed was the right thing to do, no matter the discomfiture. I think of people like Wangari Mathai, a Kenyan environmental activist and winner of the Nobel Prize, who consistently engaged with her community in social service. People like Ms. Friedman, my AS educator, who showed me why cynicism is important, what to filter as I read or listen or see, and how to do so. Those sets of people have taught and continually teach me how to serve others. In addition, however, my deepest inspirations to do “good work” predate the aforementioned readings and discussions and are based on spiritual tenets I first began to conceive at churches. It’s mandatory to tithe (Deuteronomy 14:22-23, 1 Corinthians 16:2), or, less dogmatically, you can do good work on your terms (2 Corinthians 9:7). Taken together, the Bible opines giving as God’s work and cardinal to unlocking prosperity for all. Although these biblical teachings talk about tithing and giving, I tend to apply their teaching more broadly and creatively, incorporating acts like offering time, thoughtful remarks, physical help, and whatever snags my attention.

It might seem surprising that my role models are distant. You’d expect that my immediate family or close friends continually inspire me to do “good work,” and in many ways, that view is not incorrect. Yet I find my tribal adage, Ora na-azu nwa — it takes a village to raise a child — to be a more inclusive capture of these influences, rightly described as eclectic. 

Tell us about your work. What projects are you currently involved with? How might what you are doing now relate to the work you began with GCI?

I currently work as a bioinformatics analyst for Dr. Bruce Walker’s lab at Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. What got me to Ragon? Having lived in South Africa, I was conversant and deeply aware of HIV prevalence in the community; for some women their schooling was interrupted, and their futures hampered by the diagnosis. I was even more troubled when the World Health Organization published a summary which explicates how the African region is disproportionately affected, with 1 in 25 people infected and with two-thirds of worldwide infections (https://www.who.int/gho/hiv/en/). Around the same time, I was learning that health is inextricably linked to economics, as is demonstrated by the current coronavirus pandemic, and to development, since healthy citizens can more actively contribute to society than unhealthy ones. Bear in mind that at the time, I was learning biochemistry and computer science at Tufts University and thought my experiences thus far could somehow contribute to a solution. My interests landed me a spot at Ragon, where I have been contributing towards HIV immunology and vaccine research.

More directly, I support an orphanage at my hometown in Suleja, Nigeria, called God’s Love Trust Orphanage Home (https://aoafoundations.com/aoaf-visits-gods-love-trust-orphanage-home-suleja/). Although the two projects articulated are not directly linked to GCI, they are, in fact, borne out of the humanitarian need to subdue human suffering or enhance pleasures — a conscious effort GCI helped to nourish. I anticipate that the current projects will continue, and new ones will form, and in all, they’ll assist to making lives somewhat easier and happier.

How do you feel your current projects are connected or not to this view of “good work”?

It would be a dream for a therapeutic vaccine for HIV to be completed soon. If that happened, then a large number of downstream problems would be tackled. For instance, infected women will no longer face stigma associated with carrying rattling pills around; normally, people’s behavior debase around women who are considered infected. Likewise, uninfected women will no longer worry about carrying prophylactic pills which can also attract unwanted stigma. As with any speculative effects, the sanguine outlook can be viewed as reaching too far, yet that optimism is needed to pull through in a case as acute as handling HIV infections, particularly in Africa. Whatever the gleaned benefits active help offers, in immune therapies or in raising health awareness, tying those merits to doing “good work” hinges on the appraisal of recipients. Therefore, it is required to understand what those who receive help actually think about the help. Such a metric is better demonstrated with the orphanage I support, as they are wont to give invaluable verbal remarks, sometimes captured by videos.

How and where do you find meaning in your work?

I’ve always been fond of social entrepreneurship and helping my local communities in whatever way I can. In my high school thesis defense, I argued, “Social entrepreneurship is gold, but capital entrepreneurship is the gateway to social entrepreneurship.” Here I was tempering my desire to positively impact my community with the practicality of doing so, especially under situations where resources are circumscribed. Applying the same philosophy to my current work, I knew contributing to health care should be a core focus for many, if not most, social endeavors. (I reasoned that without healthy workers, a lot of benefits like meaningful prosperity and happy living might not ensue.) While health care is important, the more I learned about it, the more I was humbled by the magnitude of the undertaking. So, I decided to focus my efforts on certain types of problems within healthcare.

 What I providently settled for was HIV vaccine research, which in 2018, when I graduated, was one of the most pressing issues in my time. Indeed, it remains so, except now I’m also increasingly thinking about coronavirus vaccines, on which I was able to deliver a presentation in the past week.

Tell us about your biggest challenges, and how you work to tackle them.

Finding like minds who are passionate about solving seemingly intractable problems like creating a vaccine for a rapidly mutating HIV that evades the immune system is exacting, especially from a standpoint of evaluating vaccine designs. People with interests within this field, coupled with skills and fueled by desire to translate scientific solution into imminent, practical human therapies, are quite hard to find. That could help to explain why finding the right collaborations within the field is difficult. Nevertheless, I’ve been able to find a niche at Ragon Institute and, fortuitously, have been able to find similar minds by networking with scientists and students through seminars within and outside the institute.

Have you ever faced a dilemma where you weren’t sure what the “right” course of action was? How did you handle this situation?

Certainly. And too often. One significant moment was when I decided to not pursue medicine as a career: in some ways, I was terrified of the decision, as I didn’t know what exactly would be the “right” decision. I ended up following my gut just to make sure that I sought to do what I thought was right. Another notable instance was my choice of whether or not to actively contribute to educating friends about racial issues. Although those willing to learn should work out the right approach to doing so, it can often feel nettlesome when the topic to be learned is as elusive as racism itself — it is difficult to understand what does not occur naturally and, in some ways, is counter-intuitive. This quandary is best illustrated in what I may safely deem the awakening racial consciousness in the United States. I, alongside many others, have known for a while that white cops lynch black bodies. That there will come a time of reckoning for justice to be demanded comes to us with little surprise. The gruesome murders of George Floyd, an unarmed black man allegedly guilty of employing a phony twenty dollar bill, by kneeling on his neck to choke him for eight minutes and forty-eight seconds, and Breonna Taylor, a black woman asleep in her own home, by shooting her with more bullets than needed to kill her, were the culmination of insidious and decades-long racial discrimination. During the weeks that followed those two deaths, I read a wealth of e-mails and texts aimed at addressing systemic racism and racial issues: my workplace sought help to draft a diversity and inclusion statement, and many acquaintances reached out for the first time in many months, even years, to check on how I was doing, and specifically ask how they could help. Given the circumstance, I misconstrued their inquiry to mean that they offered to help me. Upon clarification, it became clear that what they wanted was to learn how to help. What was particularly exciting to see was that many were receptive to discussing a tricky subject, perhaps heretofore not conversant with police brutality—more than enough mainstream black music artists have a song which broaches the topic, and popular films like The Hate U Give do justice to at once informing and entertaining the sympathetic and the curious. To some, it was their first time ever dealing with such a situation, and they were happy to simply hear from me that joining a peaceful protest was an honest attempt to stand in solidarity. Where I’d have once responded with nothing more than a friendly pointer to other resources, in that moment I found it worthwhile to educate others, even though it felt arduous, risked arousing resentment, or was seemingly futile. Trying felt “right.”

GCI Series: Michi and Good Work

The Global Citizens Initiative hosts an annual Fellowship Summit to cultivate young “global citizens” to become “lifelong leaders of positive change.” In July of 2019, 28 high school students from 15 different countries gathered together for a 10-day experience in Tokyo, Japan. These students are each responsible for the design and development of a service learning project to be carried out over the course of a 10 month period. Their projects are “glocal” – addressing a global problem at a local level. In Tokyo, the students were supported by a group of Teaching Assistants, themselves all alumni of the GCI Fellowship Program. The Good Project has been in consultation with GCI since its formation, and we follow the work of its participants with interest. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with several GCI alums and ask them about their work, their thoughts about Good Work, and reflections about their experiences with GCI.


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About Michi Zaya Tumur 

Michi Zaya Tumur is from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.  Currently living in New York City,  Michi is working on a dual-degree program at The New School's College of Performing Arts, pursuing a BFA in Dramatic Arts and an MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship. She strongly believes in the power of creative education, so her objective as a teaching artist has been to use interdisciplinary theater and arts to create thought-provoking work that connects human beings. This is especially important to Michi when it comes to telling the stories of those whose voices are not often heard. Through her work, she hopes to build understanding among communities by encouraging audiences to experience empathy and new perspectives. She also has interests in debate, public speaking, and dance.

 What does it mean to do “good work” today?

Many people forget the value of self-care and the importance of intersectionality. I think “good work” today finds a balance between those things. It can be work that enriches the self in order to better serve your community and other communities. It can be work that thinks outside-the-box and reaches causes that are rarely, if ever, given attention. To me, the bottom line is that your heart is in the right place and wants to see a difference that benefits the world.

That being said, I don’t think it needs to be a massive, world-changing task. Recycling your bottles is good work. Participating in an internationally recognized initiative to protect the environment is good work. Some of the best “good work” I’ve seen has started small. Ridiculously small. The beautiful thing about that is that it makes it easy for anyone to do.

In the theatre community, we have a lot of LGBTQ+ artists working hard to gain recognition in an industry that, like many industries, is still run primarily by old white men. I once sat in a production meeting and witnessed a wonderful production manager quickly check-in that she was using the correct gender pronouns for a cis white female playwright who was not in the room but was being brought up in conversation. The tiny action could have been missed by anyone who was paying loose attention. However, seeing this consideration be put in so simply and casually was so impactful to me that it became a practice I now regularly use in conversations and in my rehearsal rooms as a director or stage manager. This small step has made the productions I’ve worked on incredibly warm, welcoming environments for all, regardless of gender identities beyond the binary being present or not.

Tell us about your understanding of the community.  What are the communities of which you feel a part?

To me, communities have two major identifiers:

1. People in a shared space/interest group/relationship.

2. They support one another, in different ways and in different measures.

The community I feel a strongest connection to will always be artists. After that, it would be my family (both by blood and by choice). Artists who come from diverse and unique backgrounds are always the ones I can resonate with the most. In my first year of college, one of my design professors had said to me “the more personal you get, the more relatable your work will be”. I’ve found this true over and over again. Despite being a theatre artist, I’ve found a wonderful community among dancers, illustrators, and even culinary artists.

The art community is intersectional as well. I love working with other artists of color in the U.S., artists from international backgrounds, queer artists, Mongolian artists, teaching artists, interdisciplinary theatre artists, the list goes on- all of whom I can identify with.  Everyone has a story that you will either find yourself in, or you will discover more about yourself. I’ve had the pleasure of being surprised by relating to work I’d never imagined I would. In the rehearsal process for theatre, the preliminary stages are called “table-work”, which is my favorite part of the process due to the amazing things you can learn about your collaborators. One night, a table-read rehearsal of half the play led to a conversation with a fellow actor that lasted all night discussing our experiences and values. I learned there can be similarities in growing up in an Asian household to growing up in a strict and sheltering Catholic household. I also learned there are some differences I’ll never fully understand, but can appreciate deeply.

Is there a particular role model who has helped inspire you to do “good work”, either real or fictional? What is it about this role model that has inspired you?

Mine is definitely fictional, and this may sound ridiculous, but it’s myself. Not in a conceited way, however. I don’t see my current self as my role model, but I see the version of myself that I would like to be as a role model. I imagine someone who is taking initiative, reaching all the goals I want to reach, doing the things for communities I would like to do, and I paint a picture in my mind of that person as me. Then, I try my best to become that person.

Of course, I gain a lot of inspiration from my parents, my peers, and my mentors from all parts of life, but I think everything they have instilled in me becomes combined with the imaginary me who has done everything I’d like to do. I find that as much as others can voice their belief in me or support me, I need to believe in myself as well. Being my own little cheerleader helps, because even if a part of me is terrified that I cannot accomplish something, the imaginary me already has accomplished it.  So, why can’t that be the real me?

Tell us about your work.  What projects are you currently involved with? How might what you are doing now relate to the work you began with GCI?

When I was a Fellow with GCI in 2016, my concern was improving creative education in Mongolia. My project eventually evolved into creating a space for performing arts for students, faculty, and staff at my K-12 school. Now, my school has a bi-annual talent show called “Hobby’s Got Talent”, in which anyone can participate and showcase their talents. The year I graduated, I got to see unforgettable performances.  My physics teacher performed opera, and an impressive rock band was formed by fourth-grade students. It was wonderful to see people in my community truly express themselves and show each other their passions. I remember seeing one of my classmates tearfully prepare for her performance - it was an opportunity that she’d never had before, and I could tell it was incredibly meaningful for her to be able to sing for our whole school in our final year before graduation.

Currently, I have been doing more writing. In particular, I would like to write stories and plays about Asian teenage boys. I never see Asian teenage boys on stage or on screen, and I only know one male East Asian actor in my entire college program. Yet, I grew up around so many Asian teenage boys who all are full of life and have experienced the things that make us hurt, smile, cry, laugh, and fall in love. I think they deserve to share that with others, so I'm writing about them.

I like to think that I’ve continued to work on giving people who aren’t heard very often a chance to tell their stories and show us who they are, beyond the surface.

How do you feel your current projects are connected or not to this view of “good work”?

I grew up wanting to be an artist without any means to express myself. I had no actual theatre experience prior to college, beyond acting in fifteen minute plays in a gym that could hardly fit a comfortable audience of fifty people. I never saw characters who looked like me, or stories that truly reflected my own. I spent my childhood wanting and worrying about whether or not I’d ever get to do what I love. Luckily, I managed to get here. Now, my work is driven towards making sure other young artists, who have the same fears as myself, have a space to feel like they do have a chance. I want others to feel hope. Being able to do that for others does everything for me.

 How and where do you find meaning in your work?

One of my acting professors once said, “If you feel frustrated afterwards, you held back. If you feel good afterwards, you were truthful.” This was life-changing for me. I think to find meaning in my work, I need to be truthful and I need to delve into the work without holding back. The more I can be honest, vulnerable, and effective with my work, the more I feel I’ve gained something from it while putting out all that I could have for the world. Even if my professor was referring to acting, this was an important lesson in everything I do. Keeping this in mind makes the work I do feel tenfold more impactful and gratifying. While I cannot do much to control the outcomes or impact of my work, I can find meaning in the work’s journey.

Tell us about your biggest challenges, and how you work to tackle them.

I struggle in finding balance between myself and my work. I’ve had many times where I will deny myself basic needs such as sleep or a healthy diet in the name of “working hard”. Every time this has happened, I’ve re-learned the lesson of how working “hard” non-stop only leads to debilitating yourself to the point where you cannot work at all. In my third year of college, I had a schedule I’d purposefully packed so densely that I hadn’t had time to sleep enough or spend any time on myself. Eventually, between taking on nearly 60 hours a week solely dedicated to working on projects, school, my job, and an internship, along with barely getting enough sleep or eating enough whole meals, my health could not take it anymore and I ended up in the emergency room with severe chest-pains and exhaustion from stress. Even while my friend was trying to take me to the hospital, I was in denial of my own (very visible) pain and told her I couldn’t go because I had class in an hour.

Since then, I’ve worked hard to balance my work and my personal life. I now prioritize sleep and my diet, and I have learned to take a step back from the work to really examine how I am doing. If I am not running at my best capacity, I cannot dedicate my best to the work. In a way, I had to teach myself that, as important the work can be, I am important too.

Have you ever faced a dilemma where you weren’t sure what the “right” course of action was? How did you handle this situation?

When this kind of dilemma arises, it is easy to feel so anxious about making a decision that you’d rather give the responsibility to someone else. When you have partners or collaborators to turn to, it’s helpful to hear their insights. Of course, it eventually may come down to your call. I find what works best for me is to really examine my options and their impacts, and then find what solutions I may have if problems arise post-decision. In other cases, what works best for me is to try and find a new solution altogether. Sometimes, the weight of a dilemma will get you so caught up and overwhelmed that you don’t notice what else is available or possible.

That usually requires me to step away momentarily from the problem and think about what I have going on beyond the context of the dilemma. What else is there to do? What else needs attention? What have I done before? What haven’t I done before? Eventually, I do have to come to a decision and resolve to deal with whatever may follow. It isn’t always easy, but it is important to remind myself that I am working towards something important, so it must be done.

 

A recent personal dilemma was deciding whether or not to leave New York when COVID-19 started spreading in the city. I was terrified to go to my relatives in another state in case I’d get someone sick, I was unsure if I’d be able to return home to Mongolia due to border closures, and I was concerned about being completely alone in New York right after getting laid off from my job and as lockdown was approaching. I was calling my mother, my brother, my aunt and friends every single day trying to figure out what to do. I was desperate for guidance, but was met again and again with the conclusion that I was the one who had to make the decision.

 

In the span of three days my plans changed from staying, to leaving via car, to flying to my relatives in Colorado. In the end, what swayed my decision was learning that there was a place I could self-isolate after arriving in CO, eliminating my concern about spreading sickness. I know many others haven’t had the same options or privileges, which makes me feel even more strongly about the importance of keeping one another safe during these times.

GCI Series: Jessica and Good Work

The Global Citizens Initiative hosts an annual Fellowship Summit to cultivate young “global citizens” to become “lifelong leaders of positive change.” In July of 2019, 28 high school students from 15 different countries gathered together for a 10-day experience in Tokyo, Japan. These students are each responsible for the design and development of a service learning project to be carried out over the course of a 10 month period. Their projects are “glocal” – addressing a global problem at a local level. In Tokyo, the students were supported by a group of Teaching Assistants, themselves all alumni of the GCI Fellowship Program. The Good Project has been in consultation with GCI since its formation, and we follow the work of its participants with interest. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with several GCI alums and ask them about their work, their thoughts about Good Work, and reflections about their experiences with GCI.


About Jessica Bannerman Arnold

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Jessica is a recent graduate from the University of Cambridge where she specialized in Politics and Social Anthropology. During this time, Jessica was on the Central Committee for a number of charities in the city, predominantly around homelessness. Currently, Jessica is studying at BPP Law School in London to gain her professional legal qualification; here, she is a part of a number of pro bono projects, mostly working in legal advice clinics. Outside of academia, Jessica is a yoga teacher, a keen long-distance runner and spends her spare time either cooking or reading.

What does it mean to do “good work” today? 

The interesting thing about this question is that it presupposes that what it means to do ‘good work’ today may be different from what it means to do ‘good work’ yesterday, or tomorrow.

Indeed, from personal experience I have found that what I understand to be ‘good work’ has changed over time. When I was introduced to the concept as defined by the Three E’s: Excellence, Ethics and Engagement, I took the intersection of these three core attributes to solely account for work with the exclusive pursuit of the greater good. In short, I was focused on what was ethical. However, today, I see ‘good work’ as being far broader. My understanding changes as my perception of the definition of each term changes, and as I witness more work undertaken by others and question whether or not it is ‘good work’, and why.

In tandem with this personal timeline also runs a collective narrative. What is ‘good work’ today may be different from yesterday and tomorrow because of the cultural moment we find ourselves in and new information that we receive. The increased data and technology that for instance has proven the existence and devastating impact of climate change means that to do ‘good work’ today is different from years gone by, as we must factor in this knowledge and act in accordance with it.

Taking together my personal conception and the collective moment, my opinion is that to do ‘good work’ today is to work with intention and integrity at every stage towards a goal. To me, the engagement, ethics and excellence need not be the goal itself, though it may be, but must be able to be seen at every point of the journey. A good example in this current moment is the Black Lives Matter movement, where there is a great deal of virtue signaling through online platforms, especially by large multinational corporations that have not backed up their statements with action. Though their statements and their goals may be seen as engaged, ethical and excellent, there needs to be more.

This has been highlighted for me as I have completed my yoga teacher training and started teaching. What I considered to be ‘good work’ as a yoga student was much easier to define: being present. In comparison, being a student and a teacher has challenged this. As a teacher I now feel that ‘good work’ in yoga is much more about connection, more about what happens off the mat, and necessitates consideration about the yogic tradition and philosophy.

I have found that this is mirrored in my legal career.  As a student, I have thought that doing ‘good work’ is about respecting the process of learning the law, to equip me to be the best and most effective lawyer I can be. Yet when stepping into the law clinic, I again find that a great deal of being a lawyer is about communication and acting with compassion and understanding beyond the black letters of the law. I expect the importance of communication  will only increase when I am in practice.

Tell us about your understanding of community.  What are the communities of which you feel a part?

I find the idea of community very interesting. On one hand, community creates opportunities for the forming of bonds and collective identities that allow us to support and uplift one another. On the other hand, community can be divisive, in that to have an identity for a group necessitates an “other “group to define in contrast.

The idea of things being ‘socially constructed’ has almost become a cliché, but to me community is socially constructed whether you consider that to be for better or worse.

In my mind, it is for better as I believe that community at its best can be a safe space for individuals to act as support networks, create change and create a feeling of purpose and something bigger than oneself. An interesting sociological take on this has been presented by Durkheim who terms this feeling “collective effervescence.” It is best to explain this with an example, the most cited of which tends to be a crowd at a football match who in singing the club anthem, feels connected and part of something greater than themselves. This is the formation of community that gives each individual purpose, connection and the ability to both support and be supported. 

In experiencing similar moments through singing a school hymn, being matriculated at my college at University, or watching the fireworks where I live for example, I have been made to feel part of my school, University and local community.

Nevertheless, it is the action that comes from these collective feelings that has truly made me feel part of communities. It seems to me that I feel most part of a community when removed from it through proximity. This means that I feel part of the GCI community when an ambassador and I connect when we happen to be in the same place, I meet someone from the same place as me in another country, or attend a class of a yoga teacher I trained with.

This perhaps shows that the unity/division dichotomy I started with may not be such a problematic divide. The fact that I feel part of my University, GCI and sports team’s community most when I am faced with people that are not in that community may show the strength of connection, as long as we are inclusive within these communities.

Is there a particular role model who has helped inspire you to do “good work”, either real or fictional? What is it about this role model that has inspired you?

Seeing my peers pursue studies at the same time as creating incredible networking groups or charities has really inspired me to do ‘good work’. I will spotlight just two of these incredible individuals.

At University, I was involved with May Week Alternative, a student run charity aiming to make giving about celebration. The initiative has gone from strength to strength thanks to the work of the astoundingly dedicated team that were balancing their Cambridge degrees at the same time. The founder himself was a student, and seeing his vision to make a sustainable change through a cultural shift has been a huge source of information.

During this time, I also met a young woman who, on commencing law school after graduation, started a networking platform for women of colour in, or aspiring to be in, the legal industry. Seeing this incredible woman found this movement with consistency, commitment and openness has been an inspiring example of ‘good work’ that I have been lucky enough to witness.

Both of these individuals have worked laboriously for the success of their groups, inspiring me to consider the longevity of each piece of ‘good work’ I set out to do, and how it fits into the wider narrative. 

Tell us about your work.  What projects are you currently involved with? How might what you are doing now relate to the work you began with GCI?

I am currently at law school having recently graduated, and I am also teaching yoga. Whilst I’m doing this, I have been involved with pro bono work with the law school that is hugely rewarding and I sit on the Ambassadors Advisory Council for GCI.

It is important to me to work with local groups in the community, so I have done work around loneliness where I currently live, and around homelessness where I went to University.

What I am doing now relates to the work I began with GCI through a focus on local solutions. It was here that I was introduced to the notion of ‘glocal’ where global issues are addressed through local solutions. On leaving the GCI Summit in 2015 and returning to the UK, I created a project to increase access to political education for children where I live on the basis of research I had done into voting patterns. This ‘glocal’ approach really drives what I do, and is a very important consideration for me when applying to international law firms to start my career.

How do you feel your current projects are connected or not to this view of “good work”? 

There’s a really interesting interview on the Good Project website by John Bliss about teaching ‘good work’ in the law that has made me think about doing ‘good work’ during my legal studies. Combining my studies with pro bono work, I feel that I have been able to connect my work with what I feel to be ‘good work,’ by working with intention. Consistently reminding myself of the Three E’s and using this to navigate the decisions I have to make helps with this, and helps me feel connected to the view of ‘good work’.

I also feel naturally connected to ‘good work’ when working with the Ambassador Advisory Council with GCI as I am surrounded by really inspiring people on the team, discussing the inspiring fellows, and work following these principles.

Yet in sharp contrast to this is my yoga teaching which I feel is a much stickier area for me. Sometimes I feel that the work I am doing is ‘good work’, but I struggle with some of the cultural hangovers of the colonial period in yoga and my role in teaching this as a white woman. It’s a difficult balance, and I have not got the answers for this, which means that I do not always feel that I am doing ‘good work’ despite my best efforts.

How and where do you find meaning in your work? 

Presenting myself with a constant reminder of intention is important for me to find meaning in my work. Reminding myself of what my intention is, and how in this moment I am doing that, helps me with this. It can be difficult when for example in my legal studies I am presented with compulsory modules that seem unconnected from my aims, however by considering what the module is trying to teach me both directly through content and indirectly through transferable skills, can help me remember why I am pursuing a legal career and find meaning in what I am doing.

Something that my yoga practice has taught me is the power of now, and value of presence. This helps me, not least by giving me an opportunity to consider things much bigger than myself.

Tell us about your biggest challenges, and how you work to tackle them.

During my GCSE years and into my A Level years, I started to have daily seizures. The cause could not be discovered despite years of testing.  This caused me to take my own steps towards a healthier outlook, both mentally and physically, that has really changed things for me. I’ve managed to increase the gap between my episodes up to a year, and feel very positive about it, but it has taken dedication, resilience and self-awareness. This year, an accident led me to consider these three things again, and how I might take them forward to work through less personal and more professional challenges.

Looking for employment currently is a good example of this category of challenge that I am currently facing as my time at law school draws to a close in a global pandemic. The dedication to continue to apply, the resilience in getting up from every rejection, and the self-awareness to realise what I have to do to improve is how I am working to overcome this challenge, and hopefully those I will face in the workplace.

Have you ever faced a dilemma where you weren’t sure what the “right” course of action was? How did you handle this situation?

I have found yoga to be a massive help to me both physically, to complement the running I enjoy, and most importantly, mentally. Because of this, I decided to become a teacher to develop my practice and share the practice with others.

What I did not expect from the teacher training was such a deep dive into the philosophy and ethics of yoga. Acknowledgement of the history from Ancient India to Colonisation has made me deeply question my part in the yogic tradition. Not paying lip service to the trauma of this time, the rich story of yoga, and yoga as a symbol of cultural identity when India was being torn apart at the hands of Colonialists, does the philosophical school of yoga such a disservice. One would not attend mass at a Church, prayers at a Mosque, Holi at a Hindu temple at the same readiness that one steps onto the yoga mat, shuffles a Spotify ‘Yoga Zen’ playlist, and puts their body into shapes, especially without noticing the flaws and cultural context of the texts. To be confronted with this reality is challenging,  and I found it hard to know if, on finishing my training, I should teach.

Having conversations with as varied a group as possible has really helped me, as well as acknowledging that the conversation is ongoing, most recently as highlighted through the BLM movement. For now, I continue to teach, attempting to acknowledge the history through my practice, by using the Sanskrit, continuing to educate myself by reading the texts, and making sure the voices I hear in the yoga community are as diverse as possible.

I’m not sure than this situation has been ‘handled’ but is very much part of a longer conversation that I am having with myself and others, trying to stay open to the idea that my opinions will be challenged and may change.