For my final trimester at GCE, I designed my own elective. My independent study looked at gang violence across America and how Gandhi’s four pillars of nonviolence can provide for understanding the systems in place and needs the communities have. Below is a breakdown of the four pillars and the four themes of gang life  that I connect them to respectively.

Gandhi’s Four Pillars of Nonviolence:

  1. Sarvodaya – an uprising to benefit everyone and everything, focusing efforts first on those most in need
  2. Swadeshi – local economy, create thriving, sustainable local system with balanced use of globalization powers
  3. Swaraj – local government, give the most power to lower levels of government that are most in touch with what their people are in need of
  4. Satyagraha – the act of selfless resistance, suffering all taken upon the self

Four Topics of Gangs:

  1. General Structure
  2. Drugs and Economy
  3. Law Enforcement Relationship and Political Legitimacy
  4. Application

For each of these units I will be creating a part of a paper to help me better prepare for college. The first unit, I write a proposal for the course and the paper. The second unit challenges me to make an outline of the paper. The third unit requires an annotated bibliography. Finally, the fourth unit results in a ten to fifteen page paper.

I am really excited for this course and to see where it takes me!