For my senior project, I am most excited by the idea of connecting my passion for sailing with a more equitable lens by teaching those who are often excluded from the predominantly white industry.
My essential driving question so far is as follows:
How can I pursue my passion for sailing, while giving back to my community and uplift underprivileged communities that are often excluded from the industry?
Growing up sailing on the water has been a great escape for me as well as an opportunity for me to learn about topics disconnected from sailing through the sport; however, I also know that the access to the sport and benefits of sailing is often a privileged game, where underprivileged communities lack access and resources to pursue opportunities that I have been afforded.
I would say this project is feasible due to the fact that a program like this already exists at a sailing school where my dad and I sail. The program is called Sailing Academy whose mission is to provide youth development, academic enrichment, and leadership education through sailing and boatbuilding to 200 underprivileged students in NYC. Students earn academic credit in physical education, math, and science as they learn to sail, navigate, construct small wooden boats, and study the marine environment.
The curriculum is based on the methodology of experiential, student-centered, discovery learning; math, science, and leadership are taught through concrete, hands-on situations in small groups led by positive, responsible educators.
I look forward to continuing pursuing and refining this idea as time continues.
Have you checked to see whether this program would be open to taking you on as an assistant or intern? How can you pursue this idea if that’s not an option, either because they don’t accept assistants or because of Covid precautions? Right now it’s not clear what your part in this project will be, although this post indicates you likely want to work with your own sailing school. Revising your essential question might be a good starting point for your revisions — right now, this seems like a question you have already answered (you can give back by becoming affiliated with a program serving underprivileged students), but there are questions that allow for more exploration and are less focused on you. What is the value of sailing for those who would not normally be able to access it as a sport? Why is sailing a class-affected sport? What historical situations or systems led to the current situation where sailing = privilege, and is it accurate that sailing = privilege in general, or is that something affected by geography (for example, what about those with limited financial means in places where water access is more everpresent?) This is a good seed of a project but you need to do a bit more tinkering with the idea before you pitch.