This past week, I had the opportunity to take a look at the Politics, Society, and Law Scholars 2nd Year Advocacy Forum. The Forum is an opportunity for 2nd year PSL scholars to present an in-depth look into an issue facing our society. These presentations provide these scholars with hands-on knowledge and experience in researching real-world solutions to real-world problems.
Furthermore, the forum offers these students a platform to issue a call to action for an issue or subject that is important to them and the world around them. Though this platform may not be as grandiose as a national debate stage, the ability to be able to voice your own opinion on an issue is still a powerful thing, regardless of the size of the audience.
The 2nd year scholars all presented great work and diligence in their presentations. From including the essential details of the issues they were discussing, to proposing solutions in a professional and mannered fashion, these presentations were extremely well put together.
One take away I found in this experience was that an issue does not have to be a hot-button, polarizing problem facing our world to be worthy of a call to action. Many of the issues I learned about were not the usual ones often portrayed in today’s media. Nevertheless, the issues were important and had impacts on the world around us, and it was quite frankly invaluably refreshing to learn about them.