Hi! Unfortunately I'm about an hour and a half away from U of M, and my college doesn't seem to have an EA group. I will definitely check out the list of humanities ideas though, thank you!

Hey Y'all, I'm Mar! I'm an undergraduate student studying Arts and Humanities with a focus in community engagement and a minor in Sustainable Natural Resource Recreation Management.

Learning about EA was entirely a coincidence. I started seeing more and more recommended tweets that interested and/or inspired me. I like the emphasis on reason and rationality, the acceptance of people of diverse world views, and that everyone seems genuinely kind. I followed more accounts, and saw "EA" in many of the bios. I had literally no idea what that meant, and didn't think much about it until I noticed the majority of people I followed were identifying as Effective Altruists. I started to read more about it, and I like many of the ideas and values. 

I feel lucky to have found EA. I've been frustrated with my college and degree path. I'm in a small liberal arts program that produces and encourages unrealistic, unproductive, echo-chamber ideas and culture. Some examples are: a non-acceptance of political or economic ideas other than communism or socialism, valuing identity politics over factual information, none of my community engagement classes involving doing community engagement,  and hypocritical ideas on the value of human lives. I initially loved this program and believed much of that myself, until living in a kinda-anarchist housing cooperative caused me challenge and re-evaluate a lot of the social and economic beliefs I held. EA addresses a lot of the concerns I have about the world, and does so in a way that feels a lot less harsh and judgemental than my my college community. 

I'm drawn to EA because of the positive critical thinking, the acceptance of diverse beliefs, the kindness, and the action. I want to learn more about global sustainability, philosophy, and AI and how it can be beneficial in community engagement.

Some Concerns I Have: There seems to be a really strong emphasis on EA's being smart and good at science things. I'm a liberal arts girl, and I'm worried that there isn't much value in that here. Also, I could totally be wrong, but it seems to be a more male dominated community. Which isn't necessarily bad, just confusing to me. 

Random Fun Facts About Me: As if this intro isn't long enough, here's more. 

• I have a cat! Her name is French Toast (I will gladly provide unlimited cat pics)
• I'm a vegetarian! And I have a pretty bad dairy allergy so my diet is like 99% vegan
• Some things I like to talk about: Decriminalizing drugs, gender and feminism in country music, consent/sexual violence/and sex work, making art