Brandon A.

Thompson
Dr. Eichenberger
Senior Integrative Seminar
Class Project Reflection
11/17/16

Violence Does Exist

I really thought that this project was one of those mushy gushy things that we were
made to do against our will for graduation. To my surprise there is a greater good that comes
out of raising awareness that I would normally avoid. Throughout the process I changed and
began to form excitement and interest in seeing the actual event become a success. Throwing
out a couple Ideas and making a sign had more of an impact then I could imagine. Reading and
watching different sources on gender violence and sexual violence sparked an inner disgust and
concern for the people who have to experience this. All together, Pope Francis, the 10 principals
of Catholic Social Teaching, and my article gave me a greater insight to the problems people
face on a daily basis. I felt that it was my Christian duty to take part and do what I could do to
see this project succeed.
Our project directly relates to the 10 principles of Catholic Social Teaching that we value
here at Seton Hill. Being able to make people aware of gender violence and the effect on the
victim would jeopardise most all of the building blocks of CST. Looking at the facts on gender
violence, that we made signs of for our project, the Principle of Human Dignity is directly
affected when a womans chance of getting raped is 1 out of 5. This not only goes against the
right to human dignity but perpetrator directly disrespects the victim. Respect is a moral value
that CST is centered and focused solely around. How is the victim going to be able to respect
men the same way as a woman who wasnt a victim of sexual or domestic violence? When a

man overpowers a woman and commits an act of violence or sexual assault, they are violating
the 9th principle which is Human equality. The perpetrator is taking the rights away from the
victim in a pursuit of power.
Pope Franciss Laudato Si and the Social and Cultural Problem of Overcoming Violence
against a Woman in Association with Historic-Literary Poetics, (which was the article I presented
to the class) directly relate to our class project. Specifically, Pope Francis addresses the social
medias effects on modern society. In class we explored music videos that objectified women.
The videos showed women being treated like objects and their only job was to please the male.
This is an example of what Pope francis was talking about. The media emphasizes the
inaccurate thought that women need to dress slutty and be skinny in order to be attractive.
Children in modern society are affected and an amount of stress and a level of bullying occurs
to most kids that do not fit the slutty, skinny, model of a woman media portrays. Men in these
video are pursuing ownership and power, and woman and children see this and it affects the
morals and values placed upon them. My article finishes with advocating how women are
supposed to be treated. The major task is to restore primary female mision, her social
protection, confidence in present and future, to bring the lost respect and obeisance, tactful
attitude toward a woman.
When I first thought about what we could do as a class for a project I thought about a
fashion show. It was something that I have seen done before by other students for other causes.
Last year I attended one and it seemed to be a success. They had music, entertainment, and
many models from different sports teams. There was one problem with the whole show. At the
end I lost sight of what the show was really about. It wasnt about the models, music or clothes,
it was about the message and the issue that they were advocating. To this day, I cannot
remember the reason they put on the show. Keeping this in mind, I wanted out show to be
directly influenced and centered around our topic and advocation of it. I was going to suggest a
fashion show but someone put the topic on the table before I could. When we voted I voted for

and in support of the show. I suggested that the show should take place in Canavan, but
someone suggested that we do it at a game held on campus. I loved this Idea and could see it
being a success. I also thought It was a good Idea for the models to hold the signs and for their
to be cookies to sell. When there was confusion on how much to sell them for, I called my
mother to seek her advice since she was in charge of concession sales at my high school.
She successfully helped us find a price, and in the end it worked out perfectly.
The actual making of the signs and creation of them was something I was directly
involved in. My partner was Amanda and throughout the class we shared similar ideas and
thoughts about topics presented. Naturally we worked well together creating our sign. When
making them, we paid close detail to how we created it. We thought it would be best to
emphasize words like rape, and 30%. These were the keywords that we wanted to grab the
attention of the viewers and draw them in. I was not a model, but from talking to the models,
they shared stories and comments in which our signs (and others) design proved successful.
During the creation of the signs I also gave supportive feedback to others while they were
making the signs. Everyone's efforts were noticed and I feel we all were moving in the same
direction towed accomplishing our goal.
Going into this project I was very sceptical and kind of concerned. In past group project
experiences, they usually don't go well. I was the one who ended up doing all the work and the
rest of my group slacked off. To my surprise, others stepped up to take the lead on the project. A
feeling of relief swept over me, knowing that I was not in charge of making the project work. I
wanted to participate and show my support to show that I really wanted it to succeed. I had no
Idea how it was going to turn out. Some thoughts were, what happens if the models dont show
up, and how will the audience view our project and what will they take away from it? To my
surprise everything worked out perfectly and we made over 100 dollars in sales. The cookes
really were a hit.

I can honestly say that I learned a lot while being a part of this project. There are two
aspects of it, working in a group and the knowledge gained from doing the homework and
research behind the project. The movies and articles that lead up to the project impacted myself
more than anything. I really never thought about the significance of gender and domestic
violence. I never experienced it personally and really never thought about all the people who
were suffering in the world today because of it. Every time I read an article or watched a video, I
was angered and disgusted. This is when I first understood the importance of our group project.
As a Christian it was the least I could do to really participate and make this happen, because
awareness needs to be raised so other people like myself can learn about what others have to
go through and see the statistics related. Our group worked successfully well together.
Everyone did their part and we all seemed to bond perfectly. Here I learned that in a group, if
everyone participates and makes an effort, a goal can be accomplished. I am proud of our class
and the awareness we raised.
This project has in total, taught me how important it was to awareness on topics such as
gender violence. The eye opening facts made a lasting impression on myself and they are
something I will take with me on my life and educational journey. As an educator, I think It is
important to be aware of topics such as this going into the classroom. Discrimination, violence,
and other topics such as this, bother me deeply and I would want to help any student or
acquaintance I could to better their life. Helping someone is something I take pride in and
helping to better their life is something I wish I could do for more people. Our project was a tiny
stepping stone as to what a small dedicated group can do. I wish to be able to raise more
awareness in the future to hopefully impact and help others.

Works Cited

Razzhivin, A. I., et al. "Social and Cultural Problem of Overcoming Violence against a Woman in Association
with Historico-Literary Poetics." Global Media Journal: American Edition (June 2, 2016): 1-7. Communication & Mass
Media Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 17, 2016).