Fawn Hoffman

My name is Fawn and I am in my YLab year at One Stone. The why statement I created to guide my work during this final year is: Embracing diversity with an acceptance for change to better understand and empathize with all perspectives and values. The artifact I have chosen to represent my personal growth and reflect on how I have engaged in doing good throughout this semester connects very closely to my why statement. To me, doing Good means using one’s passions and life experiences to help others. In order to do good in a meaningful way, you need to know yourself first. Through my brain immersion, I engaged in the process of learning about oneself and what's important in one's life by creating something to represent my own brain. We created an artifact displaying our mind and how it works; for mine, I created a mosaic of a tree as a symbol of an ever-expanding growth and included how my passions and perspectives have shifted over time in a more literal meaning through words on the other side. On the back of my mosaic, I was inspired to use the natural formation of the tree’s rings as it grows to represent how my perspectives and interests have shifted and expanded as I better understand the world around me (starting from when I was still a little kid to where I am now). Through learning about myself, I think I can be better prepared to help others in ways that matter to me and are meaningful. As I evaluated what matters most to me and who I am as a person, I was able to find different issues in our world that resonate with me more than others, which provide ways for me to do Good in areas that are significant to me. I think this artifact can inspire others to do Good as they see how I display Good in my life. Everyone does Good in different ways and I think it’s important for everyone to remember that. Rather than trying to serve others in the same way you see someone else doing it, it’s important to be self-evaluative to find what matters most to you in order to have the most meaningful impact. I hope that others can be inspired to find ways to do Good based on their individual interests and personality as they explore new experiences and find ways to grow. This artifact of self-reflection also helped me reflect on my passion and purpose as I was able to see how my interests have changed over time. It was helpful to see how they have shifted, but also to identify patterns to determine what is still the most important for me to pursue. I was able to see how I’d always been interested in animals through 4-H, how that had made me interested in veterinary medicine, how that interest led me to explore biology, how I’d become interested in human medicine, and then how I’d become fascinated with neuroscience. It was a journey that helped me see how things that seemed very different actually formed who I am and my interests today.