Today, Team 17 learned that best-laid plans rarely interact well with real world issues. Or to put it in LFS terms, Community-Based Experiential Learning involves a lot of change as stakeholders and project team members collaborate. We took our preconceived notions and research questions, turned them upside down and inside-out, then built a new idea before realizing it was the same as our old idea and collapsing in a confused heap. I’m pretty sure Professor Jovel and Will would be proud of us.
The end result, though, is something we’re happy with. We’ve incorporated a stakeholder’s perspective into our research and waded through a sea of confusion to find something worth studying. As Derrick put it after the interview:
“I feel really good about this project. We’re promoting food security, but through community building and engagement instead of food access.”