When planning their Global Citizenship capstone project, Sydney O’Tapi, ’18, and Angie Rizzo, ’19, wanted their idea to stand out. They decided to host a political talk show, with the ultimate goal of engaging members from the Lehigh and local communities.
Their series, “Finding Our Common Thread: Tackling Political Apathy,” includes three on-camera political discussions in PBS39 Studios. The first discussion on April 4 focused on economic globalization and industry. Three expert panelists shared their perspectives on the subjects.
This capstone is partly an extension of “Party Responsibly,” a former Global Citizenship project that intended to engage and inform voters in the Lehigh and Bethlehem communities during election season. Because there isn’t a presidential election in the near future, O’Tapi and Rizzo decided to instead provide a platform for political dialogue.
Although the first discussion’s audience was smaller than than O’Tapi and Rizzo had hoped, they said it went well because the the discussion ran smoothly with the help of the panelists they invited. The series’ panelists are a combination of experts from Lehigh and community organizers who have an expertise in the topic at hand.
Sarah Stanlick, the project adviser and director of the Center for Community Engagement, agreed the first discussion was a success.
“I think the process went really well — we had some deep discussion,” Stanlick said. “It was nice to be able to connect with people across borders.”
Rizzo said Stanlick can be credited for their partnership with PBS. She had a previous connection with the national television program distributor and said they could be a potential partner for the students. Rizzo said PBS expressed interest in hosting and filming the series, and the students jumped on the opportunity.
Tracy Yatsko is the PBS39 Studios reporter who facilitates the discussions alongside O’Tapi and Rizzo and helps them write the script prior to airing.
“The PBS crew is so amazing, they’re really supportive of you and help you through everything,” O’Tapi said. “They’re a great team and everyone on the team was so excited for the project.”
Rizzo said when she and O’Tapi came up with discussion topics, they were deciding between 10 options. They wanted to choose issues that are relevant both nationally and locally in the Lehigh Valley.
“Having this ability to talk across different political lenses or different social, economic and racial backgrounds, I think it’s a really nice opportunity to sit down and talk deeply in ways we don’t normally get to,” Stanlick said.
The next discussion on April 18 will focus on the refugee crisis and migration, and the final discussion on April 25 will cover LGBTQ rights and gender equity.
The first discussion aired on April 11, which allowed Rizzo and O’Tapi to see what they can improve on for the next two discussions.
“It felt like a really calm, intimate community conversation and we had people really relevant to the topic that were there,” O’Tapi said. “The vibe was really good, it was in the studio so there were bright lights everywhere.”
The discussions take place in a studio that can hold 60 people, and O’Tapi said they take 30 from Lehigh and 30 from the surrounding communities. Though they didn’t have a full house the first time, O’Tapi is confident they will get more people to come for the next two discussions because they plan on marketing more on campus and throughout the neighboring communities.
The studio caters food for the audience members as they discuss the topics at hand and present questions to the panelists.
Rizzo said the partnership with PBS was intimidating at first, but once they met in person, it was a relief to work with professionals who really push them toward success.
“This is so much bigger than us, this is so much bigger than Lehigh,” Rizzo said. “It’s amazing to be a part of it, I (feel) very privileged and honored to be at a school that connects people to those resources and really wants students to have that experiential learning.”
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4 Comments
If Lehigh really wants political activism then it needs to support both sides of the aisle and the center. I encourage the writers, fellow students, and faculty to push for this. I will not hold my breath though because Lehigh, like so many other virtue signalling universities, is biased against conservatives and conservative groups. Most apathy is the result of shoving one left wing ideology so long centrist, libertarian, and those to the right disengage.
Action I would love to see would be the school funding and supporting someone like VP Pence , Admin Pruitt, Sec DeVos, or Justice Thomas coming to campus to speak. I would love to see equitable funding for TPUSA or marches in support of free speech, right to bear arms, and right to life. But we know Lehigh won’t do anything even remotely like this. [Can you believe it is still ashamed of the honorary degree granted to President Trump 30 years ago when he was the commencement speaker. I wish they would grow up and take their duty to educate all students seriously, engage the left, center, and right.]
Focus on the left is not the complete injustice to the students – it is only one of three tragic acts. Unfortunately Lehigh bundles its leftist focus with lack of free speech and terrible due process. This combination makes it even more reasonable for non leftist students to be disengaged from political action, because who wants to get in trouble for speaking up with your contrary ideas – let’s just get through this class or semester. Lehigh’s silent student majority is a testament to how it’s lack of free speech and due process chills engagement.
https://www.thefire.org/schools/lehigh-university/
We take in over a million legal immigrants every year and that makes me very very proud for them.
Now people that break our laws and try to cheat the system i could care less about and i will fight them until my very last breath.
Just because some Americans might not suffer any negative effects from illegal aliens doesn’t mean other Americans are not disadvantaged & displaced by them.
Why don’t you care about the Americans that are harmed by illegal aliens? Or do you really think that millions of illegal aliens don’t harm and disadvantage or displace any American?
Why do you think its Ok to just show up here & demand we educate your kids in our already underfunded schools & give jobs to anybody that can illegally make it here?
Please tell me Do you think we should just have open borders?
Or do you think if any Illegal Alien can make it here illegally they should never be deported?
There’s 6+ billion people on earth do you think they should all be allowed to come?.
Granting any kind of a AMNESTY only Encourages more illegal immigration we learnt that the HARD way back in 1986.
So tell me how we stop the next 11 million illegal aliens?
Or how do we stop the next wave 800,000 of DACA Dreamers?
REMEMBER this AMNESTY only encourages more illegal aliens that’s a ~~~>>> FACT <<<~~~
Why on earth should even 1 poor & needy American child be disadvantaged by even a single DACA illegal alien or any illegal alien?
Just admit that these DACA & the illegal alien people take away opportunities & resources & jobs from our own poorest neediest AMERICAN born children. It’s sad our tax dollars go to educating illegal alien kids and not for our own needest poorest children that need our help the most.
I’d say the millions of illegal alien workers in our country is much more harmful to us poor people but that doesn’t seem to bother the democrats at all in fact you democrats are fighting to keep illegal workers here i just don’t understand it??
Still think illegal aliens don’t take poor people’s jobs and lower our wages?
800 illegal alien workers at Cloverhill Bakery lost their jobs when found using fake & stolen SS IDs they made $10.00 hr & where replaced by unemployed Americans starting at $14.00 hr
THAT’S 800 THAT’S 800 jobs 800 JOB’S we got back….. Wake up we need MANDATORY E-Verify with hard prison time for anyone caught hiring even a single illegal alien worker from a housewife hiring a maid or cook to the CEOs of multinational corporations
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/at-major-northwest-side-bakery-labor-issues-pit-blacks-vs-hispanics/