Post #8
Throughout this past semester our class has had the privilege to hear many speakers come in and talk about informative and interesting topics happening in today’s world. There were several that stood out to me, including Dr. Jung Ha-Brookshire’s and Sherry Mariea’s talks.
I may be a little biased with Dr. Ha-Brookshire since she is one of my own professors for my Textile and Apparel Management major, but I still learned a lot from her lecture. I have taken a few of her classes where she has taught and provided the class with more information on how sourcing, manufacturing, and sustainability works within the fashion industry. Each of those lectures have been interesting since she has also been able to experience some of those topics first hand.
Currently, she has been working with some people within the fashion industry in El Salvador to improve manufacturing that is closer to the United States. She has mentioned her work in El Salvador in our other TAM classes, but being able to learn about this trip through her recent lecture in this class was beneficial. Not only was it beneficial for me to hear about how the trip went, but I think she did a great job explaining to my other classmates how this can have such a great impact in the United States. She was able to get good points across to those who may not see how the fashion industry individually affects them and it often surprises many people. Learning to be more sustainable, while also providing jobs to those in El Salvador was also interesting.
As for Sherry Mariea’s lecture, I thought her’s was very inspiring. She provided the class with lots of information on women’s rights and equality. Some of the ideas and thoughts she shared were from many of her own experiences with women’s rights and the stereotypes she has witnessed herself. There were many little things that can occur every day that may go unnoticed or not approached and those were the most interesting to learn about from her. I have heard talk about the growing issue with women’s rights, but personally, I never really felt that it was as big of an issue. Now after listening to her talk on it, I feel more aware and knowledgeable on the topic.
Outside of these class lectures, I was able to do a lot of my own research and learn more about issues in the country of Brazil. Brazil being one of the largest countries in the world, is well known for many things. I was able to learn more about some of the larger issues that they face and what is being done to improve on them. Some issues I really got into include, climate change, human trafficking, pollution, border control, and so on.
After reading more about each of these, I was able to connect them all back to in-class lectures in some way or another. All of them were able to relate back to the popular topic on human rights. Human rights were often talked about in almost every lecture, so being more aware on how individuals’ rights are affected in various ways was important to learn.
As I was learning more about these topics, I also enjoyed getting to hear all the ways people can get involved to take action. Whether it be to reduce your carbon or water footprint or to participate in some organization’s aid, it is so important to help in any way possible. That was the biggest thing I took away from all of this. I plan to apply what I have learned from my research on Brazil and from lectures to my every day life in any way that I can. I think it is very crucial to continue to make positive impacts, in order to improve the livelihood of our future on this Earth.
