Zaynab Eubanks

I took a wellbeing survey to provide data for a research effort on campus.

I spent my morning and some of my afternoon (10am to 2pm) helping workers at the Salvation Army organize their inventory on the floor. It started with color-coding and organizing shirts by sleeve-length, which is the new way that their store was going to start separating some of their clothes. After that, I put away several racks of clothes in their designated areas for the rest of the time I was there. I worked with one young woman, Star, and she was very grateful for my help.

I took a survey sent out by a Path student, Kayli Heigelmann, about internet use and ADHD for an honors thesis. The survey had interesting questions that made me think about how much I'm on my phone and what I'm doing during that time.

I volunteered for the Walk for Alzheimer's event in Rogers. Although it was nice to see so many people show up to walk the route, it was a bit chaotic on the organizers' side. Some of the volunteers (myself included) didn't know what was going on sometimes or where we were expected to go. I had signed up for parking duty, which involved showing people (event-goers or not) where to park. When I arrived, the spots for volunteers on parking duty hadn't been marked on the map, so my location for the event was impromptu and it left me unprepared. But once the walk started, police showed up and directed traffic, so I'm not sure how much help I was by then. Either way, it was a nice day and the event seemed to have gone well.

I took a survey for a Path student, Madison Price, about food insecurity for an honors thesis. Although I wasn't experiencing food insecurity, I understood that my experience was still valuable in order to try and solve the problem of food insecurity on campus. I also learned about some resources on campus if I ever were to fall into that situation.

I registered to vote the day I turned 18. I had told my US history teacher that I would register with her because she kept registration forms in her classroom for students and highly encouraged us to do so when we could. After school, I came to her classroom and filled out the document like I said I would. It only took around 30 minutes and she offered to send it to the post office for me afterwards. I felt accomplished and was proud of myself for taking the initiative of registering on my own. Nobody told me that I had to, had any plans to make me, or take me wherever I needed to go to do so. I remember my grandpa asking me if I registered to vote soon after I turned 18 and it felt good saying, "Yes, I did", knowing that he was most likely expecting me to say I didn't. It felt nice for him to be proud of me as well. I expected the process to be more complicated, to cost money, or to be more of a hassle in general. The fact that it wasn't made me feel more obligated to take voting seriously. Learning about voting rates in class didn't exactly affect how I viewed it for myself at first, especially for my age group, but again, realizing how easy it is to register and then vote when an election comes up almost made me surprised at how many people don't. With this new responsibility, I hope to utilize my vote to see the changes I want to in the government. I understand how important it is to not just criticize your representatives and hold them accountable for their actions, but to also make a statement with my vote and who I choose to represent what I believe in.