Civic Democracy
This food truck journey would not have been possible without the support of our inspiring faculty advisor, Dennis Donovan. I took Dennis’s class, Organizing for the Public Good, in Spring 2017. This course focuses on Public Achievement which was created by Dennis and his friend Harry Boyte. Through Public Achievement, students are taught how to become agents of change in their own communities by developing the confidence and knowledge to put these skills into practice. Long story short, this class changed my life for the better.
An important component of the Public Achievement framework is the one-to-one meeting. This is a 40-50 minute informational interview where one person is asking questions for 20% of the time while the other is answering for the remaining 80%. One-to-ones quickly became my favorite part of the class because it gave me an excuse to ask personal questions to people I had just met. The point of this interview is to discover the person’s passion. After finding what someone truly cares about, you use this to develop self-interest. You find commonalities and make connections. How can you work together to create something worthwhile? To make change?
At the beginning of this trip, I didn’t know how Public Achievement would play into this experience. However, after the first day, I saw it. Each food truck vendor we visited with was like having a mini one-to-one with the people behind the windows. Every time we talked to someone, we were able to quickly unveil their passions. When you ask the right questions and show interest in the answers, they become “gushers” as Dennis would call them. We learned so much in so little time. We talked to vendors of all kinds ranging from uninterested college students who wanted nothing to do with us to a man who was living his American Dream by opening his own food truck on the streets of Portland.
We didn’t only use this method of talking with food truck entrepreneurs, we did it with everyone. Our go-to conversation topic turned into “What are you passionate about?”
We made friends in Venice Beach with two guys from Australia. By the end of the night Contessa and I knew more about these guys than I know about some of my closest friends.
There’s something about meaningful conversations that fulfill a part of your soul you didn’t know was there.
In LA, we were lucky enough to visit Homeboy Industries, an organization that focuses on providing hope, training and support to formerly involved gang members and incarcerated men and women.
There we met Miguel, a formerly incarcerated gang member who was able to turn his life around because of Homeboy. He was kind enough to give us a tour of the facility and share his story.
He’s a transformed man who spends his time guiding younger people away from the gang lifestyle he and so many others are born into. This visit was one of the most impactful and perspective-changing experiences I’ve had.
While in Portland, Oregon we spent a day exploring Alberta Street, the restaurant and shopping district of the city. Each shop was locally owned.
We talked to so many entrepreneurs along the way, learning their stories and how they overcame obstacles along the way. I was infatuated by the persistence they all displayed and how they’d do anything to make their dreams come true.
There is something magical about finding what you love and stopping at nothing to achieve it.
Making connections is pointless if you don’t use them to your advantage to benefit yourself and others.
Fast forward to today when I connected one of my best friends in Minneapolis with an amazing woman we met in San Diego. My friend is studying Advertising at the U and is looking to talk with someone who has a business background from a country outside the US.
Katja, who we met on our trip, is from Germany where she studied International Business and Marketing.
Katja recently moved to Australia to work for a Marketing firm. This is one of the many connections we’ve made since returning from our trip.
We made a quick stop in Golden, Colorado to visit a friend I met earlier in the year because of Public Achievement.
Our time in Colorado was full of mountain climbs, delicious food and an absurd amount of Rummy 500 games. Those few days were most importantly filled with conversations about things that get us excited and frustrated.
Different from a lot of conversations I have about parts of the world that aren’t the way I want them, these were focused on how to make change.
In the end, we used our Public Achievement skills to make this an even more worthwhile experience. I’m forever grateful to Dennis for his guidance and to all the people who contributed to our soul-filling adventure.
~Christine