Lily Bowles, a 4th year Political and Social Thought major, has had a busy past 3 years at the university. Now in her 4th year, Lily lives on the lawn and dedicates her time towards improving the university community at large through her work with Flash! Seminars and other various projects.
What are Flash! Seminars and why are you passionate about them? Flash Seminars are small one time classes on various topics taught by professors in different disciplines. The purpose of Flash Seminars is to create a non-traditional learning space where students, faculty, staff, and community members can come together to explore an idea or unique topic. You can find out about upcoming Flash Seminars, and similar events, by emailing engage@virginia.edu to subscribe to the weekly newsletter EngageUVA.
What do you like to do in your free time? Being with friends, exploring Charlottesville, running, yoga, traveling… having new experiences!
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Who knows! Hopefully continuing to help build the infrastructure for impact investing and helping social enterprises thrive.
Any immediate plans for after college? So many exciting possibilities to consider – ask me in a few months!
What do you hope for the future of public service and its role in academics at the university?
Right now is a very exciting time for public service at the University because of the launch of the Learning in Action site (http://www.virginia.edu/publicservice/).
It was designed to help students seeking unique academic and extracurricular activities related to public service to opportunities that fit their passions, interests, and aspirations.
It is an incredibly valuable resource that I wish was around, especially my 1st and 2nd year, when I was still trying to figure out how I wanted to spend my time at the University. I really hope people take advantage of this site and use it as a tool for getting more involved in public service at the University.
From an academic standpoint, I hope that more courses related to public service are offered to strengthen the connection between the lessons learned in the classroom with students’ service in the real world.