Hope and Faith

I can hardly remember back when I was in middle school, but if I remember correctly, we didn’t have the same pressures as kids do these days. The advances of society can be part of the blame. We encourage growth in the world today and with that growth there comes a responsibility for us to grow and mature with society.  Well middle school students today are forced to meet these advances head on and some with no direction on which way to go. For some students advancing is not always just that easy. Some students do not have the tools to keep up with their peers, whether it is in the academic or social arena, some just fall behind.  Most of us parents send our kids to school without even thinking twice that they may not be at the same academic level of most of the kids in their classes. We assume you are in sixth grade, so you should know sixth grade material right? The previous school said they were ready so we trust in what the professionals tell us.

I had the wonderful opportunity to do my community based learning at a local middle school. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked this type of volunteer work, especially because middle school kids, at least eighth graders, are one step from high school, so having them listen to you could prove to be difficult. As I receive my first assignment in the volunteer world, I was met by the science teacher and was told that he needed me to encourage one of the kids to participate with his group so he can be included in the group work. From what I was told the student is withdrawn from the rest of the class and usually just sits there by himself during class and group time. The teacher had his hands full with the rather large class size of kids as she was demonstrating how to perform a science project. I sat next to the student, introduced myself and eventually helped him engage with his group. When I went back the next week my volunteer time, I was assigned the science class again and the same student looked eager to see me, and this time he willing went with his group and participated. Seeing this student go outside his normal comfort zone was confirmation for me that by giving kids the extra support and showing them they have hope, they can accomplish anything. I know this was just a small fraction of help or assistance that some of the students that feel left out need, but it is a big step forward for one kid that now has the confidence he needs to be successful. You see this student was probably going to get a bad grade in the class due to him not participating in group sessions.  Now he will be graded accordingly from his input and knowledge of the class.

I am currently reading a book title “The Hope” by Andrew Harvey. The book talks about stories ordinary people have had and how they persevered through having faith and hope. Some of the stories were about giving back to the community in the capacity of giving someone else hope. In one of the stories a man’s father is on his last days and leans over to tell his son “All that will matter when you lie dying, as I am now, is knowing that you gave what you could to help others and that you are loved, not for what you have and not even for what you have done, but for what you are” (Harvey).  I truly believe in these words as helping others should be from the kindness of your heart and not in return of anything. Helping others and giving back to your community is what will allow hope to be sustainable. I am sharing this book with three of my children so they will understand and know what a great gift of giving is and to always have faith because without faith it is hard to have hope.

References:

Harvey, Andrew (2009-08-01). The Hope (p. 48). Hay House. Kindle Edition.

~Melvin Smith, March 2014

Together We Dance

Together We Dance

Rosa Sanchez, March 2014

learning from Mosi

 

Mosi was finally focusing on the essay worksheet I had placed in front of him. His distraction was understandable – the community room that held Homework Club was filled to the brim with the boisterous voices of his fellow students and neighbors at Kateri Park. Children of all ages and ethnicities were talking, singing, chatting, laughing, teasing, and most importantly, studying. The adult and teenage volunteers, most of them from Portland State University and surrounding high schools, were seated one or two to a table. Each volunteer had their head bent over a student’s homework, offering the child encouragement and support.

I turned back to Mosi and his essay about a friendly giant.

Mosi was only in the second grade, but he was large for his age, possessing a deep voice and a commanding presence. Mosi seemed to feel that his calling in life was to be ringleader to the rest of the children, so it was challenging to move his attention away from the conversation and homework of his fellow students and back towards the business at hand.

Just as Mosi was finishing up his brainstorming, a teasing little hand tried to snatch his pencil away. It belonged to the tiny and mischievous Abasi, whose innocent face hid a true prankster. Both boys were Somali Bantu. Mosi spoke sharply to Abasi in their mother tongue and received an impertinent reply in return. Though I didn’t understand the language, I could see that the conversation was about to get heated. I made an effort to turn Mosi’s attention back to me.

“Is that Swahili you’re speaking?” I asked. Mosi shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s what we speak at home.”

As an Applied Linguistics student, I had been drawn to Kateri Park because of its immigrant and refugee population. Ten different ethnicities were represented here, Somali Bantu being the majority, along with Ethiopian, Nepali, Burmese Karen, Nicaraguan, Cuban, Russian, Vietnamese and others.

“I think it’s so great that you speak more than one language,” I told Mosi, “I wish I could too.”

“Mmm,” said Mosi, gazing around the room with a neutral expression.

The linguist in me nudged again. “Do you think you’ll want to speak only English when you get older? Do you think you’ll forget your other language?”

Mosi turned to look straight at me, for the first time. “I will never forget.” His young face was suddenly very serious. “I remember everything from before.”

I wanted to ask him if he meant before this family came to the United States, but I reminded myself that I wasn’t here as a linguistics student, but as a tutor, and we returned to his essay.

            Homework Club serves the children living at Kateri Park, a community of cheerfully painted apartments in Southeast Portland developed by Catholic Charities. Homework Club is organized and run by Elisabeth Gern, Kateri Park’s Resident Services Coordinator since 2006.

Homework Club in its current form could not exist without the cheerful and energetic presence of Elisabeth, whose relationship with the children is a marvel to behold. While the volunteer tutors occasionally struggle to keep the children seated and quiet, Elisabeth, though a small woman, will plow into the fray and put the room in order with a tongue that is both firm and good humored. She knows each child by name and can knowledgeably speak of their personality, schoolwork, and family life. Elisabeth’s affection for the children is contagious, as is her belief in each child’s academic success and personal worth.

Although Elisabeth is the heart of Homework Club, she is vocal about the necessity of volunteers, who act as the backbone: “It’s been going on for some time that we’ve got this solid core of people who we can count on twice a week. So every Homework Club day there’s a crew of people who I know are going to be there, supplemented by high school students and community helpers. But the core of it is the capstones. It makes a huge difference. So from being chaotic and unmanageable, it became sustainable. It’s an asset to everybody, to the kids and to the community, and you know, it’s also a really interesting capstone partnership.”

            And indeed it is. My experience with visiting Homework Club and Kateri Park twice a week has been both enjoyable and fascinating. After a few weeks of tutoring, I began to see the value of what we were accomplishing with Homework Club – helping the children with their schoolwork was of course essential, but more importantly it was the act of creating a space in which our time and attention was completely at the disposal of the children. You could tell how much they relished all that focus – despite all their complaining about schoolwork, every day they formed a line outside the door and argued over who got to be the first one to go into Homework Club. 

~ Mary Paleo, March 2014

God Gives Me Pink Things

Brooke Perry: Final Capstone Recap: click HERE!

New Hope

            I have always considered myself lucky to be a part of a religious community, as I grew up in a very large Christian congregation in the South. When I moved to Portland, it was a completely different atmosphere that definitely took some getting used to. However, it is not the size of the congregation, but the work that they are doing that is important. I have been in the Northwest for 2 years now and have had the wonderful opportunity of getting to help out at Fellowship Bible Church. Last year I helped with the tutoring program, KidReach. This is where the building opens their doors for kids to come in and receive help on their homework from local volunteers. I enjoyed this experience because at the end of the tutoring session, the kids all get together and one of the adults leads them in a group discussion.

            This year, because of my Mobilizing Hope Capstone, I was able to give more time to volunteer at FBC. The pastor at FBC, David Sobocinski, and a local physician converted the upper level of the church building into a separate, free health clinic, New Hope Health Center. This is where I chose to do my community based learning for Mobilizing Hope. The clinic has medical equipment and offers a wide variety of services to its patients; medical care, diabetes counseling, dental care, breast exams, and referrals for specialists. The physicians are also able to send patients out for necessary x-rays and blood-work. The volunteers at NHHC are not all affiliated with Fellowship Bible Church, in fact, most of them attend religious services elsewhere. Patients do not have to be religious to make use of the free clinic, however, most of them are.

            My responsibilities at the NHHC included screening for the free dental exam. On the questionnaire, the patient was asked about their religious beliefs. The space provided for this answer was two lines. If you were to sum up your religious beliefs in just two lines, what would it say? I found it very interesting to hear what the patients had on their mind about this topic. Most of them would explain it to me, then try to find a way to write it on the paper. I also helped office staff by filing and running paperwork to the doctors and patients who were waiting.

The clinic is nonprofit and run solely by volunteers.

            By working at NHHC, I was able to hear from some of the patients. Most of the people who I met had immigrated from other countries such as Somalia, Ghana, and Ethiopia. Many of their journeys made me think of the activists we read about in Mobilizing Hope and what led them to fight for their cause. One person that I spoke with, a volunteer, told me of her journey from Ghana and how her faith guided her to leave her old life behind and start fresh in America. She then informed me that in America, she is not granted all the same freedoms as those who are natural born citizens. This I was aware of, but had not considered the difficult path one must travel just to be given a chance. My conversation with her had me recalling our class discussion on “identifying with the margins.”

            These past several weeks when I was able to be a part of such a great organization, has opened my eyes to the issues that are right here in our own backyard and how just one small act can mean the world to someone else.

~ Jennifer Lubner, March 2014
PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS SLIDE SHOW OF JENNIFER'S WORK

Today is the best day of your life.

Today is the best day of your life. Today is a culmination of what you have learned from your beginnings and on up to this present day. Life is what one makes of it and the influences that are accumulated along the way. The path that one takes to get here is a unique path that only that one individual can travel alone. No two life’s experiences are ever going to be the same.  This is what I have learned so far from my Portland State University class on Mobilizing Hope, a class that was created by Deborah Smith Arthur, Assistant Professor. I say this also because of the assigned readings:

1. Loeb, Paul: The Impossible Will Take a Little While 978-0465041664
2. DeYoung, Curtis Paul Living Faith 978-0800638412
3. Taylor, Adam Mobilizing Hope

These selected readings had a great influence on what I felt was a good insight into becoming a mystic activist, one who with the faith in their god and or religion could be motivated to overcome all obstacles in their way, even if it meant their own deaths in the process of achieving their human rights goals. These types of individuals included the likes of Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, San Suu Kyi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dalai Lama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and so many others to name. These books told stories of their struggles and what it took to have enough faith in their beliefs to motivate them to do what ever it took to help their own people who were on the margins of society to have a fair chance at justice in this world. This kind of course can be a great motivator for change in ones life if one will embrace some of the stories that were covered amongst the pages of the required readings. There is a strong focus on religious faith as being a motivator for helping to mobilize ones hope which causes one to do what these great people have done to right the wrongs to people that are in the margins of our society and to make this a better world for all of mankind.  I as a individual may never rise to the level of these great people but maybe in some small way can be spurred to make a small contribution of giving back to people that may need my talents. I am a artist attending Portland State University to obtain my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree so that I may become a professional painter and in doing so, I have had the opportunity to volunteer my services through the Mobilizing Hope course to help others.  I have proudly donated my time to help wherever and whenever I can at the Janus Youth Programs, Inc. in Woodburn, Oregon, which was organized by Kathleen Fullerton, MSed.  I am working with a talented group of young men that just needed a little bit of guidance and are now creating great art on their own. What I have enjoyed in working with these young men is their own self -motivation into to the world of art making. I could walk away and these men would still be creating great works of art on their own. This kind of motivation is what I love to see in people who have a desire to want to learn. The desire was always there it was simply just having the opportunity to do so. What I also carry away from this experience is creating a very nice inter-relationship with these guys with the hope that these relationships will last because they all have made a lasting impression on myself. Before I started working with the Janus Group, I had no idea of all of the volunteer programs and all of the dedicated people it took to make this, such a successful program. I can now see that well before I had taken this course that there were already in place many people with a mystic activist attitude about helping others. People like Kathleen Fullerton and my very own instructor Deborah Smith Arthur for which I am in awe of their accomplishments for their unselfish dedication to what they believe in. It is people like this that has motivated me to try harder and to try and do more than I have done in the past but I can also say that I will never become as dedicated and committed as all of these people have become and who will continue to be an inspiration to people as myself.

         I am a student in a class at Portland State University in Portland Oregon and took a class in social organizing with an emphasis on how one uses one faith in how one treats others in everyday life. This has been an interesting experience for me because I am no longer a Christian follower but I am a spiritual person. My basic Christian roots and believes have not changed and I still apply my faith to everything that I do. When it comes to people I still have a strong compassion for how I treat people, as I would want to be treated. This is a testament on how this course and readings have affected my future outlook going forward in my life, this was good for me to experience.

~Leroy Elie,  March 2014

Workers’ Justice

“History is not something that takes place “elsewhere”. It takes place here; we all contribute to making it”

Vaclav Havel

At the first NWJP fundraiser that I attended, the founder Michael Dale told a story. He held up a framed check, a check that had never been cashed. The gentleman who’d been issued that check had worked on a reforestation project for weeks; this is hard, back breaking work. When it was time for this gentleman (who happened to be undocumented) to get paid, so many deductions had been taken out of his check for tools and living expenses that his check was less than three dollars. Hence, it had never been cashed… because the local check cashing place charged three dollars to cash a check! Michael Dale decided right then and there, upon meeting this gentleman, that any human being who puts in a day’s work deserves a day’s pay. And Northwest Workers’ Justice Project was born. NWJP provides advocacy, education, and support to low wage workers. They also fight for workers’ justice on a legislative level. This nonprofit legal services organization has been around for ten years, and they have managed to recover over 1.5 million dollars for low wage workers in Oregon.

WHAT DOES “ILLEGAL” MEAN, ANYWAY?

“I have a dream…that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed- we hold these truths to be self-evident- that all men are created equal”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

The truth is simple- undocumented workers are quite vulnerable to wage theft. The majority of NWJP’s clients are from Mexico, South America and Central America. I cannot lump all the folks together who are empowered by NWJP’s work. But I can tell you that those I met were warm and delightful people. Throughout my experience with this organization, when I proudly explained what NWJP does, I was asked why I’d want to fundraise for a nonprofit that helps “illegals”. I can only think… “I am helping fundraise for PEOPLE… for JUSTICE.” And with that, I have another story…about immigration. I appear to be the most typical American woman (whatever that means). People see my outward appearance and feel free to say scathing things about immigration. But I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for immigration. My grandmother was born in Armenia in 1914, during a time of genocide and terror against the Armenian people, as they were punished for being Christian, forced to pay discriminatory taxes and denied democracy, and often killed. My grandmother escaped to New York City as a young girl, but her cousin Yvenega was not so fortunate. Yvenega was taken as a slave for years before she was finally able to come to America to join her family. And they tell me that as she stepped off the ship, before she even fell into my grandmother’s arms, she lifted her hand up in the air and did a little dance as her feet first touched American soil. Thus, I cannot speak badly of immigration. I can only be grateful that it exists. And I am proud to be a volunteer for an organization that empowers human beings, regardless of their legal status.

MY JOURNEY

“Our vision of justice is rooted in God’s kingdom, which cannot be realized by human action alone”

Adam Taylor

I already had a relationship with NWJP when I began my Senior Capstone at Portland State University, a course called Mobilizing Hope. But this course, which taught me to examine my desire for social justice through the lens of my faith, brought me a new awareness of the importance of what they do. Most importantly, Mobilizing Hope exposed me to some ideas and some literature that brought me closer to my own spiritual awakening. I learned some very important things. I learned that even though I am a liberal, a feminist, and a humanist, I can proudly declare myself a Christian. I learned about a different Jesus than I’d been taught about in my childhood. I was introduced to a Jesus I could relate to- this Jesus is a revolutionary, a whimsical and clever guy, a man who sought to be in constant contact with God while he also sought to empower and heal the culture that oppressed his brothers. I learned that I can proudly claim the God that my grandmother could have died for worshipping and still keep my revolutionary beliefs. I come from a background of fear, pain, addiction, desperation, and degradation. Today I have a freedom and a hope that I had never thought possible, all because the God of my understanding chose to set me free. Now that I have been given life, who am I to just stand still and watch the world going by? I think that, quite possibly, I was given life so that I could help others find their way out of the darkness, too.  I will close with the words of Nelson Mandela, for he can articulate freedom and social justice in a way that I can only strive to attempt:

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s own chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”

Nelson Mandela

Thank you, Deb, professor of Mobilizing Hope! And thank you, Portland State University, for this amazing opportunity!

Meredith Meacham

March 2014