Name: John Pothen
Major: Chemistry (Biochem minor)
Hometown: Yorktown, VA
Service Involvements:
My main involvement is in the Student Organization for Medical Outreach and Sustainability (SOMOS), and I’ve been involved with a few other programs and efforts run through OSVS like SHOW and Make a Difference Day.
Favorite Book:
Not counting the Bible, I would have to go with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a great book, not related to service, but sparks incredible intellectual discussion.
I want to echo what Sarah said though, Hope in Hell in an amazing book! Other good ones to check out on the health side of things would be Rx for Survival and The Invisible Cure. These are excellent books that challenged me and have shaped my thought process.
The Nature of Service:
I think everyone has succeeded in voicing particular aspects of service (minus Sarah who took the diverse nature of it head on; props!). So I’ll continue that trend and voice two thoughts I’ve had recently:
1) Service is meant to be all-pervasive.
I think it’s easy for us to think about service within environments that have a certain foreign feeling to them. We slip smoothly into “service-mode” when we’re abroad, downtown, in an elementary school, or in a place where we can see the needs of others more easily. Service within these environments is important; however, service is needed within our native environments as well.
I believe what happens is that we get comfortable. Familiarity can strip the emotional power of need or injustice (which makes me want to discuss the validity of the role of emotion as a motivation for service, but that’s another point entirely) and blind us to what we should do (namely, take advantage of opportunities to serve others whenever possible). My unhappiness with this has led me to a simple conclusion: the attitude of service is most purely manifested in the choice to be a servant daily, regardless of environment.
2) Aid vs. Justice
A discussion we’ve had within the SOMOS team recently has been regarding the jargon we use. At the heart of this discussion has been the desire to remove a sense of hierarchy from thoughts. It’s easy to see our service organization a modern Prometheus that brings the light of solutions to a people in need of aid. Within this thought can lie the notion that we are in some way better than the people we try to serve, but the truth is we’re not.
A subtle way in which this arrogance can rear it’s head is when we describe what we are doing as aid. Let me be clear, there is nothing within the word itself but as people who are less than perfect (speaking for myself at least) it’s easy to let that promote the unwanted sense of superiority. Therefore it may be beneficial to describe our actions as attempts to fight injustices induced by an external force (often a system that promotes the wealth of a few through the poverty of many). This leads to me a refined statement when discussing service: it is most purely manifested in the choice to be a servant, in humility, daily, regardless of environment.
These are thoughts I’d had. I’d love it if someone disagreed with me on something I presented. I love discussion and the subsequent refinement it can bring.
I grew up in Yorktown, VA and got some really special opportunities to serve in inner city Newport News throughout middle and high school. I saw a lot there that I’m just beginning to process and understand. There was a culture present that actively promoted poverty and, at times, loss of life. In fact, a boy I tutored once was killed in a drive-by shooting (it was a case of mistaken identity).
Experiences like that have given me a desire to serve others and to fight injustice wherever possible. And I’m looking forward to a great year with you guys as we try to figure out how to do that effectively and put our thoughts into action!
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