Reflecting on service and social justice is vital to having meaningful experiences and achieving lasting impact. Whether as an individual or a group, taking the time to reflect before, during and after your actions helps contextualize what you’ve seen and done, internalize the way you felt in those moments, and sparks new ideas that may make a difference in future actions.
While important, reflection does not need to be complicated. The toolkit below has options for individuals and groups, for 15 seconds, 2 hours, or for an entire semester. Feel free to adapt these tools for your specific needs.
Lydia Burleson served as the Communications and Alumni Engagement Associate for Dwight Hall at Yale, Center for Public Service and Social Justice from June 2021-June 2022. A first-generation low-income student from rural Texas, Lydia graduated from Yale cum laude in 2021 with a degree in English and a nonfiction creative writing concentration. During her college years, Lydia increased awareness of marginalized voices with the public writing she did for The Yale Daily News and the Yale Admissions office. Her Dwight Hall experiences included free college advising with student-led member groups REACH and Matriculate. Dwight Hall empowered Lydia to uplift other disadvantaged students and to increase access to education for people who might not have otherwise received these resources. She is currently completing an English PhD at Stanford University with a Knight-Hennessy Fellowship.
