Don't Follow the Yellow Brick Road by Bryanna

Don't Follow the Yellow Brick Road by Bryanna - January 2022 Scholarship Essay

2021 was the year where I redefined what academic success means to me.

The journey to reaching it is no longer just the one yellow brick road, rather a series of intertwining, overlapping paths.

When my high school transitioned back to in-person programming, I opted to keep one of my five major classes online so that I could delve into a new, interesting topic that my school didn’t explore: the justice system.

As a future Sociology major, understanding how society works and it’s inequalities has always been interesting to me, though I’ve never been able to study the topic in a classroom environment.

Through the online class, “Criminal Justice Reform,” I have developed my definition of justice and my understanding of the system. Moreover, I have understood the ways in which approaching my study of society from different lenses can enrich my comprehension.

Global studies expanded my understanding of punitive versus rehabilitative systems, as I compared the prison system of the United States to that of Sweden. In seeing the rehabilitative practices implemented by Sweden, and their lower recidivism rate, I was better able to highlight the points within our own system that are punitive and most in need of reform.

Examining public policy helped me visualize how each individual political decision has influenced the mass incarceration seen in the United States today. Connecting this pattern to policies that are currently being proposed and voted on allowed me to form opinions on which would positively and negatively impact our prison system.

Delving into human psychology helped me identify some of the long-term impacts of the War on Drugs: how and why people’s internal and/or unaware biases perpetuate the cycle of injustice the war began and the disproportionate criminalization of certain groups for interacting with drugs.

This class helped me understand the way my study of Sociology can intersect with so many others. My education doesn’t start and end in college courses beginning with the label “SOC.”

This year, I’ve further developed my curiosity and inquisitiveness. In addition to asking about the injustices I see around me and their impacts, I’m also asking about what’s causing them and how those causes are evolving. How does access to technology perpetuate inequality? How can technological advancements both harm and help these issues?
The lessons I’ve taken away from this class are much more than just an understanding of our criminal justice system, but also what types of questions I should be asking to be successful academically not only in my college career, but as a lifetime learner.