I want to inspire and create positive social change, because I know that there is ample opportunity for an improvement in society if we actually commit to it.
If you asked me ten years ago if I was interested in sociology, the answer would have been an emphatic “no.” Now, it’s all I think about.
I came into D’Youville unsure of what career path I wanted to take. My freshmen year was a struggle, trying to figure out what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be. It wasn’t until my junior year that I knew sociology was where I belonged. It was Dr. Julia Hall’s sociology 101 class that really grasped my interests. There I learned concepts that made sense to me: the causes of poverty, bad politics, and why there is hardly any “real” positive social change taking place. I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world (dream big right), and for me to do so, I had to understand how and why the world operates the way it does. Sociology helped me direct my focus to a subject that would allow me to do so.
I am currently doing an internship with Dr. Randolph Hohle, where I am learning how to organize teams for research projects, properly search for information about topics, analyze and compare data, as well as transcribe interviews. In my classes this semester, I’m learning how to orchestrate peer and public focus groups for qualitative research, where to find scholarly resources, how to create interview protocol, and so much more interesting and necessary tools to successful data collection.
As vice president of D’Youville’s Sociology club, I work with friends and professors, including Dr. Marilyn Bell who has been a great influence to me in and out of the classroom, to organize and promote on and off campus events. The proceeds we raise go to charitable and non-profit organizations like the United Hands of Hope House, a shelter for domestic human trafficking victims. An added bonus to these events is creating awareness to social problems in Buffalo and surrounding communities.
This is my last year at D’Youville, and I plan to do a study abroad program next fall in either London, UK or Australia. After I graduate, I plan to pursue a PhD in sociology. I hope to get a great experience in some aspect of social work while I’m in graduate school. I want to inspire and create positive social change, because I know that there is ample opportunity for an improvement in society if we actually commit to it.
Damion Townsend-Baldwin
Undergraduate Student
Sociology
Expects to graduate in 2012