SVUDL Summer Fellow Sofia Funk: A Chance To Focus On Exploration
SVUDL alum Sofia Funk is a SVUDL Fellow this summer, working remotely in Providence, Rhode Island as she continues to take classes at Brown University. She has a fair amount of autonomy to decide her path as she tackles tasks and projects for the SVUDL team. Her main projects involve debate curriculum development for Teacher Coaches, researching and compiling topic and teaching resources, and compiling the SVUDL tournament calendar for next year.
She meets with Dr. Burns once a week to share her progress on her projects and get feedback for the past week, as well as collaborate on specific tasks. Together, they set goals for what she should work on the following week. Dr. Burns was Sofia’s first high school debate coach and highly influential in her decision to keep debating, as well as her interest in critical debate, so it is a special match to team up together in this way.
Sofia is having a rich experience as a Fellow. “Summer is full of possibilities! There is so much that I want to get done during the school year that I put off for the summer because of exhaustion from a full course load, part-time work, and my other responsibilities during the fall and spring. I love that I can make my own schedule over the summer. This freedom and self-direction do a lot to motivate me to get things done,” shared Sofia.
Sofia also enjoys having time to set intentions for what she might like to do now and in the years to come. “Summer is also a chance to focus on exploration. I do not know what my plans after undergrad are and this is my last undergrad summer — meaning that this is my last summer to take advantage of all of the opportunities available to me as a student at Brown in the Providence area. My work with SVUDL, besides offering me the opportunity to support a community-oriented mission that I have a lot of faith in, allows me to explore the different aspects of nonprofit work that I might be interested in doing after graduation. I am highly motivated to take full advantage of this valuable experience, even though the allure of a lazy summer does occasionally call,” reflected Sofia.
Sofia also recognizes the balance necessary regardless of the season of the year. “But simultaneously, I want to maintain a good balance between work, courses, and the rest of my life over the summer. I’m pretty motivated to avoid the stress of procrastination so that I can fully relax in the time that I am not working or in class,” said Sofia.
Sofia finds that each day brings its own challenges, rewards and joy. She has found her way to a rhythm that carries her through the day, week and term as a Fellow.
“On an average day, I usually sit with my laptop in my apartment’s kitchen and work in blocks of time. I’ll take a break every two or so hours, but since all of my housemates are out of town at the moment, there aren’t too many distractions and I find it pretty easy to stay focused. I might have a meeting or two that day, which I will plan around. Usually, it’s pretty easy to motivate myself to get started if I have an upcoming meeting that day – it works like a deadline. I challenge myself to get as much as I can done before I have to take a break and log on,” shared Sofia.
Sofia notes that although she loves the autonomy of remote work and independence of self-motivation for projects, there is also the simultaneous challenge of staying on course. “I love the flexibility that self-directed remote work offers! But lately, I’ve been keeping very odd hours. That’s going to change, as my summer courses have started for the week. I’m taking a Studio Painting class and a remote Philosophy of Mind course. To ensure I can prioritize my work with SVUDL, put my all into my two courses, and maintain a healthy work-life balance, I’m going to need to start waking up and going to sleep earlier on a consistent schedule. Also, once my housemates are back in town, I will probably start “commuting” with my remote work setup to the university library, which is fortunately open over the summer,” said Sofia.
She is looking forward to working on many things as a Fellow. She is responsible for adjusting next year’s debate curriculum, for example. “I have had a lot of fun so far because I love debate! I think debate offers a unique opportunity for students to gain a critical perspective on the world around them. I think that this critical perspective, combined with all of the other benefits of debate (confidence, public speaking skills, and improved reasoning and argumentation, to name a few) helps students access a new sense of agency and power in their lives that they carry with them long after their time as debaters is over. Debate propelled me to university, and while I’m unsure of my path after graduation, I am confident in the values that guide me and confident in my vision for a better world — both highly influenced by my time with SVUDL and my exposure to critical debate,” shared Sofia.
She loves debate, and introducing new people to it. Being in charge of curriculum development is an opportunity to do that on a massive scale. “I’ve had a lot of fun collaborating with Dr. Burns to brainstorm ways to introduce critical debate alongside standard policy debate basics in the curriculum in the hopes that at least some students are inspired to explore further,” said Sofia.
