Practical Visionaries: Turning Equity into Action at Tufts UEP
What if your graduate program didn’t just prepare you for a job, but equipped you to challenge injustice head-on? That’s exactly what I found at Tufts’ Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning MA program. Naturally, most urban planning graduate degree programs will focus on planning, and some will delve into policy. Tufts does both, and more!
This social justice approach is embodied by the department’s tagline to create practical visionaries who embrace complicated urban, social, and environmental issues, rather than shy away from them. While other graduate programs may only pay a passing mention to complex societal issues, the UEP embraces these issues as our shared reality. Injustices are omnipresent in our daily lives; practical visionaries are taught to recognize and address this.
Since the UEP frames their program in the context of these urban, social, and environmental issues, it would be doing both our program and students a disservice to leave these issues unaddressed. I believe that being a visionary is addressing that burning desire to uplift others from inequity. There is always an opportunity to help others regardless of one's future role: urban planner, GIS analyst, researcher, policymaker, and more. Visionaries advocate for everyone who faces inequity, despite what their business cards, résumés, or LinkedIn profiles may say. Being an advocate for the people that struggle to have a voice or go unnoticed by our existing societal hierarchy supersedes any job title.
The practical component of being a practical visionary is the application of our visionary ambitions. If the idea is visionary, the tools are practicality. All UEP students and graduates are uniquely equipped to be advocates. Some may be proficient in mapping or design software while others may be masterful in conscious community engagement. The UEP program is multi-faceted and built to help students recognize their strengths and interests. Once a student begins to sharpen these skills or tools, they become better equipped to address their vision. Theory becomes practice. As ambitious as UEP students are, it is impossible to become a master of all crafts. Therefore, a practical visionary works within the practical confines or their role and skillset to address their vision for equity. There is undoubtedly strength in numbers. If more people become practical visionaries, our collaboration would be powerful. The collaboration of practical visionaries has the power to turn our vision into a reality. At UEP, we don’t just study change—we become the people who make it happen.