University of South Florida Homeless Community in Tampa Essay

General CEA guidelines/overview:

Choose a local Tampa Bay community and one of its issues to explore with the motivation to engage with these in a positive civic way. Issues include: housing, food insecurity/food deserts, education, health, gender equality, access to work and resources, language, inclusivity and diversity, poverty, reduced inequality, immigration, criminal justice/policing, sustainable cities and communities, and historical monuments/memory.

This assignment can be approached in different ways. Sample ideas include:

• Focusing on an important issue or challenge within a particular community, explaining how the issue affects the community, making contact and interacting positively with members or organizations of that community.
• Researching the issue locally through newspapers and related resources; conducting interviews with different community stakeholders; and volunteering time to work with organizations related to the issue.
• Researching the issue nationally or globally through book, journal article, and other library resources; conducting interviews with experts on the topic; and making connections between the local and the national/global
• Exploring possible solutions or new developments while interacting with members of the community.

Specific essay guidelines:

The essay should have 3 parts: 1) a focused description and exploration of the community issue and the student’s mode of engagement; 2) the exploration and interpretation of the community issue in a literary text; 3) a synthesis of thoughts and findings from 1) and 2). 

Your assignment should articulate your values and your understanding of their origins, as well as the values discovered in the community and in accompanying cultural texts. Use your writing to show how you 1) understand value systems critically and comparatively, acknowledging competing value systems; 2) discover ethical relationships in themselves and others; 3) and make syntheses and/or break down overly simplistic constructs of race and ethnicity. For a 3000-level course, students’ writing will be evaluated in terms of focus, detail, coherence, higher levels of thought, such as syntheses, problem solving, and ethics, and empathy.