Traditional education teaches students to memorize and repeat; it inculcates pupils the knowledge education believes they need. YYGS was different—it was everything. Through the seminars, simulations, and breakout discussions, students were not only able to practice their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, but most importantly, they were able to do so in a safe and supportive environment.
With new confidence, I decided to take a step further and pursue my own interests. One YYGS seminar, “Beards, Bobs, and Afros: Hair and Power in American History,” was perhaps one of the most influential and the impetus that prompted me to enroll in a national dissertation competition this September. The seminar discusses the ways African Americans utilized hair as symbols of empowerment during the era of oppression.
These discussions allowed me to draw a connection between such topics and the symbol of hair in Zora Neale Hurston’s acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Similar to societal defiance through hair discussed in the seminar, the idea of hair presented in the novel is associated with the idea of unconventional identity in which individualism is expressed through strength, gender fluidity, and freedom as well as independence. Ideas contributed during the seminar in addition to the instructor’s further explications allowed me to gain a better understanding of this field of study during my research process.