University Students Take Action Under the Gaze of ‘the Eye of Success’: A Narrative Collective Initiative— Marcela Polanco

This paper presents an initiative for narrative collective work to address western ideas of success. Within the context of the author’s practice at the Student Counseling Center at Nova Southeastern University, Florida, this initiative addresses what the author calls ‘the eye of success’, along with its effects on students’ identity conclusions. Drawing from ideas about modern power, the author situates the eye of success in western educational traditions that set thresholds of success and rating scales against which students measure their lives. The collective narrative practice employed to respond to this, ‘The Wall of Wisdom’, is presented as a way to extend individualistic therapeutic practices by creating public spaces of acknowledgement that link students’ practical options for action.