Cossy Hough's Speech On Making The Classroom Your Community

I attended the lecture series on March 7th 2023 at which Cossy Hough, a clinical associate professor and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs at the Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work spoke. Her speech was named “Making the classroom your community” and it focused on how work, study, and research done within the community focus on a mindfully tied outcome. Throughout the speech she gave many ideas on how to make the classroom a community such as collectivism, civic engagement, stepping out of a comfort zone and then described some benefits and challenges to such activities. This speech reminded me a lot of the American Dream reading. Throughout the reading Elias explores how immigrants often make baseball their community and use

By taking advantage of opportunities provided by the University, one can boost their experience and improve their resume which allows them to quickly find a job out of college and helps them stand out from other applicants. Such reflects on the ideals of “hard work” that come with the argument of the American Dream, those that put in the effort, get the best out of it. However, since we do not live in a perfect world, it is easier said than done. Therefore, the speech was meant to encourage students to step out of their comfort zone and explore things such as thinking critically about oneself and participating in internships, volunteering while staying involved within the community. Such reflects the ideals of the American Dream and how effort allows for a boost to a resume and therefore higher chance to a better life in the United States. As one that comes from Italy as a first-generation immigrant, chasing that dream has always been a family motto and has helped me and my brothers get to where we are today. Therefore the speech reflected the ideas that build the “American

Baseball reflects some of these ideals of being involved in a community and politically. There have been many times in history where Presidents have been a political symbol in baseball for example during the World War when John F. Kennedy gave baseball “The Green Light Letter” and when Lyndon B. Johnson reinforced the ideas of baseball as a part of creating people that have “good citizenship” and overall promoting the ideals of manhood. Therefore baseball reflects a lot of politics in it as do many other things in life. As professor Cossy Hough emphasizes, it is important to get involved civically and find ways to do it in a way you like it. For decades, especially when baseball was deemed as the “national pastime” many got involved civically at baseball games: discussing recent bills, interacting with Presidents and fighting for rights such as the civil rights movement. The main example of such is Jackie Robinson but there have been many other instances where baseball has been something bigger than just a game rather the building of a community and the encouragement of civic engagement and political changes. Another prime example of this would be when Curt Flood did not play in the 1969 season as he did not believe in being traded. Although he ended up losing the Supreme Court Case, it exemplified how many baseball players and fans have used the