Aarc Reflection

486 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Communication skills

From October of 2013 to March of 2014, as a sophomore in high school, I had the opportunity to participate in the ruling body of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s (ARC), program of the Model Atlanta Regional Commission (MARC). In the MARC program, 50 students –including myself- from all the districts in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area came together under the guidance of the ARC to learn about public policy and city planning in the ever developing urban metropolis. The students were voted into different committees to consult and resolve some of Atlanta’s growing problems. The provided the opportunity of talking to young adults of different backgrounds and identities and collaborate to create a resolution to one of Atlanta’s different problems. The resolutions revolved around improving our community and helping those currently not accommodated with current resources. …show more content…

The program taught me not only how to be a leader in synthesizing different ideas, but also the principles behind effective and productive teamwork. I had a large number of responsibilities as the committee head, from drafting the resolutions to leading the team towards productivity and innovative ideas. As the Committee Head, I conferred with many different people to create effective resolutions for a wide number of people living in Atlanta, especially to improve upon the city in many facets; environmental, physical, communal, and even personal. The resolutions shifted between better traffic education, to the expansion of MARTA, to the increased accommodation of disabled people, to artwork displays in the

Show More
Related

  • The Character of the City Boston in J Anthony Lukas' Common Ground and Richard Broadman's Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston

    1628 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this course we have learned that a city's character is "a legacy for seeing, interpreting, exploiting, and transforming its social, cultural and political opportunities as a physical community." How is it possible for a city like Boston to have character? Well, the institutional and cultural continuity along with the resistance and reconstruction of culture has allowed the character of Boston to be defined simply by the underlying idea of conflict. Through J Anthony Lukas' Common Ground and Richard Broadman's Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston, we can see that the catalyst for this sense of conflict has been social dissentions between classes and races. These dissentions are clearly detailed through both the Urban Renewal plans of Mission Hill in the 1960s and 1970s and the school busing case of 1974.When looking at the character of Boston one must understand the amount of controversy our city has encountered as well as the way they have identified and resolved these crisis's. Through this deduction along with my own personal experience of living in Boston a step towards finding a distinct character of Boston may be possible.

    Read More

  • The City of Columbus to Save Its Youth

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ieve life goals. The community should encourage continued community service from college students that receive scholarships and or some type of financial aid to volunteer, with the existing programs. This could increase the amount of people available to these after school and summer programs, while saving the city some money. This could prove to be a major step in continuing to improve the city and make it a desired place to live and prosper.

    Read More

  • HBCUs: Relevance in 21st Century

    2163 Words  | 5 Pages

    "Building Partnerships to Revitalize America's Neighborhoods." HBCU Central (Winter 2002): 1-6. Winter 2002. Web. 2 May 2012.

    Read More

  • Young Marines Program

    383 Words  | 1 Pages

    What our inner city youths need is to see first hand how their decisions can

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay About Gentrification

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gentrification is described as the renovation of certain neighborhoods in order to accommodate to young workers and the middle-class. For an area to be considered gentrified, a neighborhood must meet a certain median home value and hold a percentage of adults earning Bachelor’s degree. Philadelphia’s gentrification rate is among the top in the nation; different neighborhoods have pushed for gentrification and have seen immense changes as a result. However, deciding on whether or not gentrification is a beneficial process can become complicated. Various groups of people believe that cities should implementing policy on advancing gentrification, and others believe that this process shouldn’t executed. Both sides are impacted by the decision to progress gentrification; it is unclear of the true implications of completely renovating impoverished urban areas; gentrification surely doesn’t solve all of a community’s issues. I personally believe that gentrification is not necessarily a good or bad process; gentrification should occur as a natural progression of innovative economies and novel lifestyles collide within certain areas. Policy involving gentrification should not support the removal of people out of their neighborhood for the sake of advancement.

    Read More

  • Essay On Gentrification

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of the many problems affecting urban communities, both locally and abroad, there is one issue in particular, that has been victimizing the impoverished within urban communities for nearly a century; that would be the problem of gentrification. Gentrification is a word used to describe the process by which urban communities are coerced into adopting improvements respective to housing, businesses, and general presentation. Usually hidden behind less abrasive, or less stigmatized terms such as; “urban renewal” or “community revitalization” what the process of gentrification attempts to do, is remove all undesirable elements from a particular community or neighborhood, in favor of commercial and residential enhancements designed to improve both the function and aesthetic appeal of that particular community. The purpose of this paper is to make the reader aware about the significance of process of gentrification and its underlying impact over the community and the community participation.

    Read More

  • Camden County

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    This article is about the city of Camden and how they went from being a thriving city to a city that is now in economic crisis. The city has a population of 70,390 and is the poorest city in the nation (16). Camden has an unemployment rate of 30-40% and has an average household income of 24,600 (16). In the past Camden was an industrial giant with several large companies like Campbell’s soup and RCA having factories there, which employed 36,000 people (17). Closing of the factories is one of the main reasons for Camden Counties' high unemployment rate. Over the past few years Camden has been forced to make “$28 million in draconian budget cuts, with officials talking about cutting 25 percent from every department, including layoffs of nearly half the police force” (16). With the lack of funds the counties education system is beginning to suffer with them having to cut the library rate by 2/3, now they have a“70 percent high school dropout rate, with only 13 percent of students managing to pass the state’s proficiency exams in math” (16).With all of the empty factories, empty houses, and vacant lots Camden is beginning to become a very unappealing and unhappy place to live.

    Read More

  • Summary Of There Goes The Hood By Lance Freeman

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    Lance Freeman tackles the issue of gentrification from the perspectives of residents in the gentrified neighborhood. He criticizes the literature for overlooking the experiences of the victims of gentrification. The author argues that people’s conceptions on the issue are somewhat misinformed in that most people consider it as completely deplorable, whereas in reality, it benefits the community by promoting businesses, different types of stores, and cleaner streets. These benefits are even acknowledged by many residents in the gentrified neighborhood. However, the author admits that gentrification indeed does harm. Although gentrification does not equate to displacement per se, it serves to benefit primarily homeowners and harm the poor. Additionally,

    Read More

  • Gentrification In New York City

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gentrification is the keystone for the progression of the basic standards of living in urban environments. A prerequisite for the advancement of urban areas is an improvement of housing, dining, and general social services. One of the most revered and illustrious examples of gentrification in an urban setting is New York City. New York City’s gentrification projects are seen as a model for gentrification for not only America, but also the rest of the world. Gentrification in an urban setting is much more complex and has deeper ramifications than seen at face value. With changes in housing, modifications to the quality of life in the surrounding area must be considered as well. Constant lifestyle changes in a community can push out life-time

    Read More

  • Washington Dc Pros And Cons

    2145 Words  | 5 Pages

    In his inaugural address, Mayor Williams “ran down a laundry list of ‘basics’ that city government needed to provide” which included filling potholes, collecting garbage, improving 911 response times, and improving the wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles . Williams knew that his list of improvements should be a reconciliation of what the public values and what protects and enhances the public sphere. By publicly acknowledging these issues at the start of his administration, he was signaling to the public that he was committed to creating these valued basic services for every

    Read More

  • Career Critique: Comparing Urban Planners and Biomedical Engineers

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    Urban planning is an interesting job that is necessary for the function of almost all modern communities. Urban planners work most often for local governments and plan out new developments and means of transportation, devise the most economically profitable and environmentally friendly layouts for buildings and towns, and even plotting out how to make the surrounding environment more aesthetically pleasing (“Urban and Regional Planners.”). Potential candidates for this occupation are almost always required to have skills in areas such as active listening, speaking, reading comprehension, critical thinking, and decision making (“Explore Careers :: Urban and Regional Planners.). It is growing at about an average pace, with a ten percent growth predicted between 2012 and 2022, from the current 38,700 jobs to 42,700. The pay is fairly high, with a national median pay of $65,230. Urban planners usually work normal work hours as well as extra time for meeting with colleagues and teammates. The vast majority of them work in local government, and they work in offices for the planning portion and travel to work sites to see the outcome and evaluate possible decisions. Urban planning is separated in...

    Read More

  • Annie Murphy Paul's Article Why Parenting Is More Important Than Schools?

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people believe that urban schools are failing to educate all of the students they serve, but in reality, they are only failing a portion of them. Reports and observations give off the perception that these schools students achieve less, retain less material and the student’s success after the schooling process is over, is low. Some of the students are failing because they are lacking things like school readiness, a basic understanding of the English language or simply because they are not engaged. Schools need to find a way to incorporate each student in their own education and not forget about those who are struggling. Academic success hinges on many different factors that the families, students and schools are all responsible for helping.

    Read More

  • Civic Revolutionaries

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the major themes throughout this book is the need for more collaboration, coalitions, and alliances at the regional level dealing with major political, economic, social, and environmental problems our metropolitan regions face. One example the book provides for increasing collaboration between regional actors is to create a dialogue to establish “mutual understanding through a process that suspends judgment, reveals assumptions on both sides, and includes diverse perspectives..” A dialogue replaces the inefficient process of debate with a collaborative one that builds trusts and helps to reconcile difference between seemingly competing interests. In San Diego for example, in the 1980’s civic leaders had UCSD set up an organization to spell out all the regions problems and bring the community together to help work at solving the region’s challenges. The San Diego dialogue was noted for helping to build connections that broke down borders between different groups and the shift in focus from individual grievances to community solutions.

    Read More

  • Descriptive Essay: City Council Meeting

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    As I ended my workday, I immediately headed to City Hall in downtown Rockville. I have never attended a city council meeting or any other community style gathering. I prepared myself for a new experience and it was an interesting one. I’m glad this assignment was presented because otherwise it might have been a while before I comprehended the intricacies of city government in action. October 19th meeting No, 36-15 would become my first turnout to any kind of local, state, or federal meeting. I maintained very little interest in witnessing the procedures which contributed to my lack understanding.

    Read More

  • Implementing a Wellness Program

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    program, as well as what the committees’ challenges will be, in order to lay out the

    Read More

More about Aarc Reflection

Open Document