Problem Walk

Yesterday, in my placement at Winooski High School, we did an interesting activity that I had never experienced before. The students in the Community Based Problem Solving class were brought on a walk around Winooski, given a post it note and a pen, and told to write down any problems that they saw. The idea was to get students thinking about ways to improve their community, as the next step in the class is to move on from making change within the school, to making change in the community. What better way to realize what can be changed, than to get out into the thick of it, and see what is needed to be done?
The students' ideas ranged from reducing the amount of litter found in the area, to making some of the buildings more beautiful, to increasing parking spaces for the school, to improving sidewalk coverage in the area, and much more. The students, having been members of the community for quite some time, definitely were able to find a lot that they could improve. At the end of the walk, each student said one thing that they noticed, perhaps to jog ideas for other students in the future.
This walk got me thinking, not in the way of searching for problems and intending to fix them, but helping me to realize that this is definitely something I am interested in. That is, giving young adults the tools that they need to help make a change in their own lives and in their community, and whatever kind of work that entails both on my end and theirs. I would love for it to have some sort of conservation focus, as I do care a great deal about ecosystems and the like, but really anything relating to improving the world is something I would like to be involved in. I'm not sure where I could accomplish this, but I know this is something that needs to be involved in whatever I end up doing with my life, whether career based or on the side.