Motives and Social Change

       After reading up on social change, one idea lingered with me. The idea that serving others is often referred to as being “selfless,” but in actuality, even when we are helping others, it fulfills a personal need: mattering to others or supporting a cause that has meaning to us. There was also the notion of finding yourself through connecting with others. In reflecting on these two ideas, I started to realize that a lot of the service or volunteering I do is not selfless. I often volunteer at the Ohio State School for the Blind, and it turns out that this fulfills many self needs. This work is supporting education; Delta Gamma’s philanthropy is Service for Sight; and my mom is a teacher at OSSB. These truths are telling to the point that perhaps some of the motive behind my choice of volunteering at OSSB includes supporting a cause that has benefited me (education) and that it fulfills the need to matter to others (i.e. my fellow sorority sisters and my mother). Having said all of this, I do not think that having underlying motives is a negative thing, because nobody supports a cause or movement without some type of reason.  Overall however, my main joy in helping at the school comes from contributing to the students learning and their enjoyment during education.

            In regards to the social change element, I have come to realize that my previous ways of thinking were inaccurate. Many times, I, along with others, seem to think we can create social change by rectifying temporary situations. However, social change seems to be more rooted in creating sustainable change. My first realization with this idea was during discussions at the Novak Institute for Hazing Prevention. During these conversations, it became clear that giving out sanctions of social probations or other such punishments was a temporary fix for the hazing problems. Although these are important, there needs to be more done in order to create permanent change. In order to fully deal with the issues of hazing, the school or investigative party needs to talk to the people involved and do research to understand why the “hazers” engaged in the activities they did. It is not until we understand the root causes of behaviors that we can make more meaningful and overarching changes to hopefully permanently alter behaviors and attitudes.