This past semester, CARP USA took on five interns as a way to expand the CARP Curriculum as well as provide hands-on experience for our students and alumni. We had three Curriculum development interns and two graphic design interns working with our staff and our educators to create new content and update the previous presentations. We asked them to share a bit about their experience.
I’m Marcus O. Fuller, Jr. from CARP Las Vegas, and I’m an intern for the CARP Curriculum development team. I graduated from University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in 2018 with a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a Minor in History.
Since graduating, I’ve been helping CARP Las Vegas develop its multimedia capabilities. I primarily work with the CARP Las Vegas Band, the HyoJeong Dance crew, and the Media-tors, our media team. My goal is to spread the culture of heart through every field, but especially the arts, media, and education. I applied for the internship because education has always been important to me.
The Curriculum intensive in January was wonderful, and many people felt empowered. But, personally, I felt that there was still so much more to be learned and shared. I had already started creating something similar when I found out about the opportunity to help develop new presentations.
I went in thinking that I had a lot to contribute, but, through the process, I’ve also realized that I’ve learned quite a lot from the team as well. What’s most exciting about working with a team to develop the curriculum is that everyone shares different perspectives, which has helped me to open my mind to different theories and views.
Having different backgrounds also helped us to create the most engaging presentations to meet multiple kinds of audiences. Most people are seeking for truth and goodness but just have a different way of either understanding what it is or how to reach it. That’s why the CARP Curriculum is so important: it is so needed, especially during this time of polarization, confusion, and echo chambers.
The biggest fight in America right now is the same fight humanity has always struggled with: listening and understanding someone else. Even if we all want the same things, we don’t necessarily know the path to get there. The curriculum provides an informational, facts based approach to various social ills we face, based on universal principles everyone can agree with, thus, encouraging discussion and dialogue instead of arguing and dialectics.
So many students are bombarded by the media to cherish diversity of appearance but to shun diversity of opinion. Students are told all life boils down to is power relationships and exploitation, leaving no room for individual responsibility and freedom.
When there is talk of freedom, it is “live your truth” regardless of others; yet, by definition, truth can never be subjective to be dictated by each individual. Too often, students just accept these concepts and internalize them without further thought. The curriculum challenges us to listen more critically to the voices we hear everyday and to evaluate if they are actually good for us as individuals, as families, and as one world family.
My favorite part of the Curriculum is that the topics are so expansive that the Curriculum will grow, expand, and encompass many experiences of life naturally.
My name is Jermaine Bishop, Jr. I am a senior at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) majoring in Biology. I also served as the CARP LA President for the past year.
I applied for the CARP Curriculum development internship because I believe in the power of an informed youth. The Curriculum is a vessel that provides a mostly non-prejudiced perspective of historical thought trends and their current implications. This gives us a greater understanding of how and why we can make better choices to principle-based society.
Through this internship, I learned about the importance of paradigms and worldviews. We often consider ourselves as objective, but, in all honesty, we see the world through our respective lenses that can reflect our own perspective of the world rather than the objective reality. There is an objective reality, but it isn't always intuitively understood. It is something we should, with an open mind and with desperation, continuously seek to reveal through careful inspection of scientific and religious studies.
I feel quite hopeful about the Curriculum hitting the campuses, invoking a spirit of synergistic collaboration in an effort to elevate the whole rather than the individualistic perspectives of how to fashion an ideal society. Through careful examination of historical trends of successes and failures alike, it becomes evident that an interdependent approach where we strive for mutualistic prosperity is the only assured way toward true progress.
I do hope that the experience I had in this internship can be felt locally. The powerpoints and lecture notes alone don’t fully cover the in-depth discussions and process of discovery that we went through to produce these. In any case, I’m excited to see where this goes.
My name is Mako Mori. I am a senior attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) majoring in Political Science. This past year, I also served as the leader of the UCLA CARP chapter [part of the CARP LA hub].
I applied for the CARP Curriculum development internship after hearing a CARP curriculum talk earlier this year and thought “where has this been all my life?” Especially on a college campus, it’s a time when students are exposed to radical ideas that appeal to humanistic standards but deviate from principled perspectives. I personally struggled finding a principled stance on hot topics relevant in our times now. The CARP Curriculum trains students to take a principled stance on these pressing issues.
I believe my biggest takeaway was understanding how crucial this work (developing curriculum talks) is, in a time where values are lost and confused. I wish I had this education in high school.
College is often a time and place where students explore and develop their values. Many students are lost, confused, and desire clarity. The Curriculum provides a refreshing sense of direction, grounded in morals which are not common anymore. The Curriculum allows the space and dialogue for people to find their true path.
I am very grateful to our educators, Christine Froehlich and Dr. Robert Beebe, for their guidance and investment in developing the Curriculum.
My name is Motoe Hiraki. I am a sophomore at Pasadena City College (PCC) majoring in Biochemistry. I also served as the Vice-President for CARP PCC [part of the CARP LA hub] this last semester.
I applied for the graphic design internship because I wanted to contribute to the CARP Curriculum and chose graphic design because I wanted to develop my skills in graphic design and further my interest in it.
Through this internship, I learned many design tips, and the biggest thing was the importance of delivering the message and content that the curriculum developers have developed in the most effective way through images. Choosing the right picture and color, creating diagrams to illustrate the point without creating any confusion for the reader/listener is very important, but it can only be done correctly if the designer knows the content well for him or herself.
I am hoping that the Curriculum can help bring awareness of these important issues to college campuses, and the students who receive the content can feel hope about their future and can determine to become better people by applying these principles to their lives.
My name is Ikusei Nagai, and I go to school at El Camino College (ECC). I just completed my first year of school and planning on majoring in business. I also served as part of the CARP ECC [part of the CARP LA hub] board this past year.
During the school year, I was recommended by Jinil [CARP USA Program Coordinator] to join the CARP internship for Graphic Design and wasn't so sure, at first, what to expect. When we had our first meeting as the Graphic Design Team, we had a run through of what we would be achieving through the internship.
From the get-go, I had a strong determination to learn from this experience. A major part of the experience was learning the basic flow of designing CARP Curriculum slides. Working with Taka [CARP USA Administrator] and Motoe has helped me to have an understanding of what it takes to just making a couple of slides.
We learned what it takes to appeal to the audience and to thoroughly check through each slide for minor details. I learned that it is important when creating an official slide to cite sources and the organization; I also learned editing techniques that made a huge difference in developing a curriculum slide.
I think the CARP Curriculum can positively impact campuses through helping CARP members to understand the content and the principles behind it. It also enables students to teach the Curriculum themselves. In my own experience learning and teaching the Curriculum, I have been able to understand the heart and motivation that lies behind the content more deeply.
If you have an experience with CARP you’d like to share, email jennifer@carplife.org!