This summer session, I am asking students to consider a local issue that is important. In the early writing process, student scholars shared their ideas about those things that impact them directly. Below are a few of the topics they addressed:
- The separation and impact on families due to immigration regulations and deportations
- How increasing commercialization and building affects area environments and home spaces
- Lack of safety in neighborhoods due to inadequate lighting
- Housing and work instability
- Sidewalk and road issues - inaccessibility or unsafe areas due to lack of sidewalks, and terrible road conditions that lead to car trouble and concerns
- The push in communities to obtain a college degree because it the answer for all financial woes, though this is not the best path for all individuals
- Instability or trouble in family or home spaces
- The need for neighborhood connections, consideration, and/or pride - neighbors are not communicating, bonding, or caring for their spaces
- The increase in crime due to many of the above issues
We often get caught up in discussing or worrying about 'big' issues in national conversations without considering how those 'big' issues, and even those things that somehow seem 'small,' have an enormous impact on our local environments and day-to-day lives.
Many students that attend our college come from the Aldine, Spring, and Humble areas of Houston and are keenly aware that their neighborhoods, and definitely city and state governments, need to do more for them.
