Insight Project Spring 2019 Publication
Novus Think Tank
Narrative Insights Committee
Spring 2019 Publication
The Insight Project
in·sight | recognition of the self within the other |
Novus Think Tank’s Narrative Insight Project starts focused, interactive conversations about the issues that matter. We focus on the human element: by exploring the narratives of individuals affected by social challenges, we put a name and a face to otherwise abstract, impersonal concepts. Drawing from the experiences of a diverse set of students, professors, and experts in industry, we facilitate out-group empathy by promoting a culture of curiosity, authenticity, and mindful listening. As a result, we reframe anger into understanding, loneliness into belonging, and hopelessness into inspiration.
Our Interviews
This semester, we conducted interviews with three undergraduates to explore the theme of Isolation, Appearance, & Fitting In, in advance of our event which went by the same title. Our goal was to use these students’ experiences as a lens to examine how, when, and where we each fit in at USC. We asked questions like: Is fitting in a product of the people we spend time with? Of our mindset? Does fitting in depend on our appearance? Is it coded--racially, financially, sexually, politically? Does technology help us fit in more, or does it isolate us?
These interviews, and the conversations they prompted, are the first step in answering the questions above. To learn from and feel compassion for the individuals we interviewed is to enter into and engage with the dialogue that will create meaningful culture change at USC and beyond.
Val:
Val is a junior studying Business Administration and is passionate about sustainability and education. She loves playing chess and enjoying nature.
A: Growing up, I counted once, and almost 70% of my high school was Mormon, including teachers--there was very little representation, even in the educators. And another thing that was very important in my high school was athletics: it was not about learning as much as about who was the very best at athletics. Fitting in, in high school, was about being good at sports. And so I found myself in a place where I wanted to be good at sports, because that’s what got you along there.
And then, coming to USC: there are a lot of different people at USC, but even still, what I’ve felt most is that having money--socioeconomic status--that’s the biggest thing that I felt, and to this day I feel, that I didn’t fit in because I don’t come from a super wealthy or even middle class background. Growing up, I think I lived in the 2nd poorest county in all of Colorado, so everyone was kind of broke; but USC was like a whole new level of what it means to have money. Before college, I couldn’t even imagine that kind of wealth.
Q: Does fitting in mean giving a piece of yourself up?
A: It depends--what are you trying to fit into? If you’re trying to fit into overall society, then yeah, you’re probably going to have to give up a piece of yourself. But if you are fitting in with people who are already like you, or who want you to live your truth, who want you to be authentically you, I don’t think that you need to. But it is definitely hard to find a community that promotes that to an extreme sense. And if you want to fit in to a very specific, very big kind of crowd, there are pieces of you that you not so much have to shed, but kind of mute.
Q: Is there anything else you want to share?
A: Everyone feels lonely sometimes. Not everyone has somebody who is a go-to, who you can tell anything. My experience has been that I have an opportunity to have that with some people, but sometimes it’s really scary, to really put yourself out there. So sometimes, when you really are feeling alone, you kind of have to look back at yourself and think: what part of this is not because other people don’t understand me, but because I haven’t given them a chance to?
Nicholas: 
Nicholas is a freshman studying Chemistry and Spanish. He loves language and culture and is always looking for new knowledge and experiences. Q: When you feel like you don’t fit into pieces of your identity, or like those pieces don’t fit together, how do you cope with that?
A: When it comes to bringing peace to those matters, I don’t think I’ve actually achieved that yet. When people see me, they make assumptions. Everyone makes assumptions, whether you want to recognize it or not. I’m very tall in comparison to the population around me. I’m overtly feminine, which for someone who is 6’7” and has a relatively big build is kind of counterintuitive, and I’ve had people say that to me--“how do you express yourself in such a feminine manner when that doesn’t go along with your body, with the lines of traditional masculinity?” And apart from that, there’s the qualms of having an athletic build--“why don’t I play a sport?” Coming to terms with all that has been difficult. It’s hard to realize that even though you may be able to capitalize on a portion of yourself, in terms of your professional life or your academics, it’s not something you have to do. There is a difference between what you enjoy doing, who you like to be, who you are, and what the world wants you to be.
Q: How do you view fitting in? Is it a product of mindset, or of community? Both?
A: You have to be comfortable with yourself before you’re comfortable among others. I learned that the hard way. Growing up and questioning my identity and my beliefs, especially coming from a socially conservative family, was something that took me a long time to process, because I would go to school and listen to what my teachers were saying and listen to different political movements and social beliefs, and then I would come home and hear complete opposition to those things. It was very difficult to find my own voice in terms of saying, “this is what I believe in and if you don’t like it, that’s OK. But that’s my way of interpreting things, and it’s not everyone else’s way, nor can it be.” Generally, in all these new environments and situations that I’ve had to bring myself into, in terms of moving across the country and meeting all these new people, I’ve realized that you have to have a certain strength in being alone and realizing that, “OK, well maybe today I didn’t meet anyone new, maybe today I didn’t make any friends, but I’m here, I’m comfortable with myself, and these things will happen--I have to insert hope, plant a seed of hope inside of myself.” And when I have that mindset, I’ve seen that I have a better chance of a positive outcome. Another part of that, in terms of fitting in: the whole notion of fitting in is based on other people; so even detaching from the whole notion of fitting in, I feel, is a big part of that.
Q: Is there anything else you want to share?
A: I’d like to reiterate that in life, there are a lot of ups and downs. That’s a very clichéd way to start this out, but you will always meet people who are in different phases of acceptance and love, and that is from an internal perspective and an external perspective. It really is difficult to do, I will not sugarcoat it. Just finding acceptance once, or loving yourself once, isn’t enough: it’s something that’s continual, it’s something that changes, and it’s important to re-evaluate those things and re-evaluate who you are, who you think you are, on a regular basis.
Aslan:
Aslan studies Film and Television Production and is passionate about veganism.
Q: Has the process of being able to be isolated been significant for you? Of being able to spend time with yourself?
A: Yeah. When I moved to Switzerland at the age of 9, I knew about 6 words in English - “hello,” “yes,” “no,” “please,” “thank you”, and “toilet”. And I survived solidly for a month or two. Obviously, I had thoughts and I couldn’t convey them. I was lonely and out of place not by my own intention. So, I dealt with it and learned how to be by myself. To read, watch something, write, hang out by myself. That’s valuable. That’s something that people never do, don’t do often. You see kids and their parents are always overwhelming them with toys and with distractions, never leaving them alone. Just by themself. Let them be a kid. I had the gift of that growing up. The first school in Switzerland that I went to was just this wooden chalet on top of a mountain and it took 2 hours to get to by bus. And it was literally this timeless, isolated, little house, almost like a Hitchcock-style location. It was just incredible, the perfect place to be. And then I interacted with people from all over the world, saw how they formed identity, how they formed their own character, and that was valuable, when you see people from different cultures do that.
Q: Do you ever feel like fitting in means giving up a part of yourself?
A: No. Because I don’t consider the self to be composed of parts. I think it’s something that’s always changing. Giving up a part of yourself happens when you try to create an identity rather than come to terms with it. So no, I don’t think that you need to give up a part of yourself to be a part of a group or to fit in.
So if I got this correctly, you’re saying that identity is something that’s fluid and that you wouldn’t define as such.
A: It’s something that’s fluid and you always strive towards reevaluating, understanding and being aware of it, rather than something that you conjure and build. I don’t think it’s responsible to set an identity for yourself and stick to it. That’s when people and their actions become superficial and ingenuine.
This semester, the Insight Project hosted 2 events. Both events focused on combating the epidemic of loneliness in American higher education through structured, meaningful conversations about belonging, relationships, and living purposefully. We reached 100+ students and faculty and have plans to continue a similar event series in Fall 2019.
Some questions:
Q: Has the process of being able to be isolated been significant for you? Of being able to spend time with yourself?
A: Yeah. When I moved to Switzerland at the age of 9, I knew about 6 words in English - “hello,” “yes,” “no,” “please,” “thank you”, and “toilet”. And I survived solidly for a month or two. Obviously, I had thoughts and I couldn’t convey them. I was lonely and out of place not by my own intention. So, I dealt with it and learned how to be by myself. To read, watch something, write, hang out by myself. That’s valuable. That’s something that people never do, don’t do often. You see kids and their parents are always overwhelming them with toys and with distractions, never leaving them alone. Just by themself. Let them be a kid. I had the gift of that growing up. The first school in Switzerland that I went to was just this wooden chalet on top of a mountain and it took 2 hours to get to by bus. And it was literally this timeless, isolated, little house, almost like a Hitchcock-style location. It was just incredible, the perfect place to be. And then I interacted with people from all over the world, saw how they formed identity, how they formed their own character, and that was valuable, when you see people from different cultures do that.
Q: Do you ever feel like fitting in means giving up a part of yourself?
A: No. Because I don’t consider the self to be composed of parts. I think it’s something that’s always changing. Giving up a part of yourself happens when you try to create an identity rather than come to terms with it. So no, I don’t think that you need to give up a part of yourself to be a part of a group or to fit in.
So if I got this correctly, you’re saying that identity is something that’s fluid and that you wouldn’t define as such.
A: It’s something that’s fluid and you always strive towards reevaluating, understanding and being aware of it, rather than something that you conjure and build. I don’t think it’s responsible to set an identity for yourself and stick to it. That’s when people and their actions become superficial and ingenuine.
Our Events
This semester, the Insight Project hosted 2 events. Both events focused on combating the epidemic of loneliness in American higher education through structured, meaningful conversations about belonging, relationships, and living purposefully. We reached 100+ students and faculty and have plans to continue a similar event series in Fall 2019.
We want to thank the following co-hosts for their help in planning and publicizing this semester’s Insight events:
USC Office of Religious Life
USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study
USC Secular Student Fellowship
USC Performance Science Club
Campfires at USC
USC Queer and Ally Student Assembly
Mindful USC
Isolation, Appearance, & Fitting In
Some questions:
- How would you describe loneliness? Is it something you struggle with? What do you do to make yourself feel less alone?
- Does technology make you feel more or less alone?
- Why do you think loneliness has become an increasingly large issue, especially among college students?
- Does fitting in mean giving a piece of yourself up?
- Where and/or with whom do you feel like you belong? Why?
- When it comes to fitting in and building relationships, how honest do we need to be with ourselves and others?
- What are we not saying because it’s easier not to say?
Belonging & Purpose
Some questions:
- In what ways do you feel you’ve changed during your time at USC? Has this given you more or less of a sense of direction?
- What would you study if you could redo college?
- Do you feel that you live very intentionally/mindfully, or do you often feel lost, uncertain, or adrift?
- As an institution, does USC have an identity? If so, what is it? Do you feel a sense of belonging with this identity?
- In what ways does USC foster a culture of comparison and competition? How does this influence our sense of belonging and purpose?
- Social media is a powerful tool for creating interconnectedness but is also a means of encouraging unhealthy comparison. Does it do more good than harm, or more harm than good?
- Similarly, does competition--for money, respect, prestige, etc--create more or less belonging and purpose?
- How can finding belonging and living purposefully itself become a game of competition and comparison? To what extent does this happen at USC?
- How are the ideas of belonging and purpose coded--racially, financially, politically, etc., at USC and beyond? To what extent is living purposefully a privilege?
About Us
Isaac Gilles is a creative problem-solver interested in public policy, philosophy, neuroscience, education, nonprofit management and community-building as they relate to the art and science of human flourishing. At USC, he studies Philosophy, Politics, & Law, with minors in Spanish and Economics. In his free time, he nurtures a healthy love of art in all forms, plays tennis, searches for the perfect vegan pizza, manages to consistently visit Catalina Island, and enjoys introducing people who inspire him to one another.
Radhika Ananth is a freshman studying psychology at USC. She’s minoring in applied analytics and business and is an aspiring therapist. In her free time, she enjoys working out, listening to music and hanging out with inspiring friends. She aspires to learn as much about the world as possible, such that she’s able to make a difference to as many people as she can! :)
Tadiwanashe (Taddy) Nhete is a sophomore studying computer engineering and computer science at USC. She’s minoring in classics with an emphasis on ancient languages. She is an aspiring robotics engineer, attorney, Supreme Court Justice, artist … basically, she wants to be a true Renaissance woman. In her free time she likes drawing portraits of beautiful faces, reading, and spending time with interesting people. Her favourite book is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
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