San Jose Spotlight — History shapes people. But for San Jose State University sociology professor Scott Myers-Lipton, people also shape history.
Myers-Lipton has taught his students that not only do they live through world events, they have the ability to create change. Now after 24 years, Myers-Lipton is making a significant change in his own life—retiring this summer.
“Once you’re in this work, you realize that you can’t do it all,” Myers-Lipton told San José Spotlight. “What we can do is be part of a larger collective of people that are working for a better world.”
The 63-year-old is moving on to become the director of the Teaching Social Action Initiative, an organization that encourages students to apply what they learn about policy to their own organizing. The incorporation of applied activism has been part of his work at SJSU since he started in 1999. The only difference now is he will teach social action to educators, he said.
“Come up with a policy that you want to change (on) the campus or (in) the community for the better, and I’ll teach you how to do that,” Myers-Lipton told San José Spotlight. “We want to see a social action course every semester on every college campus in the country.”