In our Intro to GEM class, one of our last assignments in the class was a project in which a few members in class teamed up with a student community leader pursuing a social impact, advocacy, or entrepreneurship project. My peers and I were paired with fellow GEM alum, a Venezuelan-born and Atlanta-resident who was investigating ways in which Venezuelan residents could be rehabilitated from harsh conditions in the country while maintaining protection from the government. It is a project she’s still developing to this day, and the sensitivity of the issue prevents me from including her name in this post. We’re still in contact and have helped each other on both arts and activism-related projects.
The assignment covered a lot of meaningful and discomforting conversations through which I learned more than I’d ever studied or read about Venezuela from personal to the large-scale ideas. The ground we covered opened my eyes to movements that can begin with Venezuelans living outside their home country and the positive role that film and social media has in sharing and discoursing the question of Venezuelan freedom in its various forms.
