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 From what I was told the student is withdrawn from the rest of the class and usually just sits there by himself during class and group time.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

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

Invest in hope ~ Invest in OUR children

    

Do you have children? That’s a silly question… of course you do. We all do! I know we’ve all heard the expression that it takes a village to raise a child. It’s true. We all play a role in society, and the extent of how that role can affect others, for the better, is up to us. If you’ve ever felt weighted with the issues of society today and wondered what, if anything, you can do to help create change, I implore you… spend time with OUR children. It is not only one of the greatest investments one can ever be privileged to make, it will not only make a difference in the life of a child, it will not only improve the quality and connectedness of our community, but it will potentially fill your heart with hope. So, if nothing else… be selfish; do it for you. You deserve to be full and inspired by a child’s greatness. 

“Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future”   ~ John F. Kennedy

I often joke with kids that they have the best job in the world… to be a kid! While I still believe this to be true (especially for little ones), I don’t want to ignore the fact that growing up today is hard. The challenges and pressures that today’s children deal with are concerning. Aside from the emotional and physical changes that come with growing up, they are presented with social and educational challenges, the excessive need to compete with others and, often, there is also a layer of family and economic issues that they may be exposed to. Navigating these times can be confusing and difficult.

Although there is no wrong place to spend more time with our children, one of the most important places to get involved in a child’s life is at school. There are conflicting reports out there – some that argue that academics is the strongest indicator of future success and others that argue that school engagement and connectivity is the strongest indicator of success. Regardless as to which is true, studies from the University of Michigan have shown that children spend more time at school today than other generation before them (Swanbrow).  During that time, it is essential that they are getting the proper support that they are in need of. I am under no impression that educating a child is an easy task. In fact, I believe that it takes extremely special people to decide to dedicate their lives to educating children - especially given the demands that come with it. In the recent years, schools have experienced significant budget cuts, increased classroom sizes, a larger population of children who have various special needs, and more. There simply isn’t always enough staff to provide the quality of care that each individual child is deserving of – despite the staff’s best efforts to do so. This is where we come in.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of partnering with Mountain View Middle School in Beaverton as part of the community based learning project for my capstone course. My focus was/is to provide support to children who have social and academic challenges, as well as to be a support person for the staff as needed. In the short time I spent working with the children throughout this term, I found them to be intelligent, energetic, inquisitive, and enthusiastic about having a little bit of extra help.  Even though there are some children who may struggle a bit in particular areas, when given the appropriate individual time and attention, something that a single teacher can’t always provide when directing an entire classroom of students, the potential the students have revealed is undeniable.

It’s no secret that parental involvement in a child’s education has proven to result in the child having more success in academics, better social involvement, higher rates of graduating high school, and even higher aspirations to attend college. But, the fact of the matter is that many parents aren’t able to be involved in volunteering at their children’s school for various reasons. There are parents with demanding work schedules, families that have additional children at home that require caring for, and some who have language barriers that may prevent them from school volunteerism. And, while we hope that parents continue to provide extra support at home, their absence at the school shouldn’t mean that a child in need simply goes without. Extra support and mentorship can, and should, be provided by any willing participant who can spare the time to work with these children. Our children need us to go the extra mile for them. Some need personal mentorship and others need extra academic support or tutoring. Whether volunteers are students’ grandparents or other family members, local college students, or any other members of the community, by committing this time to our children, we are assuring them that they are worthy and valued. We are showing them that we care, that they matter, and that we want them to succeed.

 Just as we are all responsible for creating positive environments in our communities, we are also responsible for the positive upbringing of the children in our communities - not because they are my children or because they are your children, but because they are all of our children. We owe it to them, and to each other, to help them to learn and grow to be the best people they can possibly be. By working with them, you’ll see (just as I have) that a little bit of time goes a long way. It’s imperative that we empower our youth to create a strong, bright future for themselves by giving our time in order to help them succeed. This is not something that we are responsible for doing as parents of our own children; this is something that we should feel a responsibility to do for all children. We are all a part of this village. Invest in hope. Invest in our future. Invest in our children.

 "To ignore your personal duty to a child you invited or thrust into this world is entirely unacceptable; but to feed or care for only your child while a mob of wayward kids knocks hungrily on the door is also indefensible. The moral challenge lies in both ones personal duty and community responsibility."  ~William Ayers

References:

Ayers, William. A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court. Boston: Beacon, 1997. Print.

Swanbrow, Diane. "U.S. Children and Teens Spend More Time on Academics." U.S. Children and Teens      Spend More Time on Academics. The Regents of the University of Michigan, 2004. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.

~Teri Smith, March 2014

Chicken Project!

And the winner is... Team Blow Out!

Rose Haven is a resource center for abused and homeless women in Portland.  The facility serves over 2,000 women and their children every year.  Through my studies leading up to my degree, I have become passionate about women issues, so Rose Haven was a perfect fit for me as a community partner for my Capstone class.  Each week, averages of 20 to 30 women with children are helped by Rose Haven providing them with diapers for age’s infant through toddler.  Rose Haven recently lost their diaper source, and asked me to help find one for them.  Their current source has gone out of business.  When taking on this task I thought, well that should be easy, and I will be on to another project in no time.  Little did I know, finding a diaper supplier who is willing to donate to this worthy cause would be a challenge my entire Capstone class.

I started by reaching out to all the standard manufacturers such as Pampers, Huggies, and etc...  I also reached out to all the retail stores I could think of, such as Costco, Walmart, and more.    If I heard anything back from these types of companies at all, it was thanks, but no thanks.  I started to get frustrated as the list of options started to dwindle. I began to feel as if there was no one left to ask.  I started to lose hope as my frustration built.  I figured if I cannot get someone to give diapers continuously, then I had to come up with another idea.  I decided to do a diaper drive.  I had no idea how to go about conducting this type of drive.  I thought, who I can ask to help sponsor a diaper drive?  I did some research on the internet, and thought about reaching out to Walmart, Freddy’s, or maybe even local churches, to see if someone would support me in my idea.   On a whim, I asked the receptionist from my office what she thought about doing a diaper drive, rather than adopting a family, as we usually do during the holidays.  She was excited about doing something different, and loved the idea.  Having that little bit of encouragement gave me the confidence to ask the big boss if he would support the idea.  He not only wanted to support it but he was excited to do something new as well. Here is the flier posted at my work.

 

I went to the office meeting the next week prepared to make the most of the diaper drive.  I work in an office of 20 people.  We are sales people so we are very competitive.  I decided to divide the office into three teams, and challenged them to compete to see which team could bring in the most diapers.  I named the teams, Droopy Drawers (The management and receptionist), Diaper Genies (My team which consists of the inside sales group), and team Blow Out (the field sales team).  Everyone embraced this idea, and started reaching out to their families, friends, customers, and representatives in the industry.  It was an extreme success.  I was so pleased I had decided to do the drive within my office, and it made me even happier to know I work with a company full of people who want to help with such a wonderful cause for Portland.  I am proud of Rose Haven and the work they do and also proud of my co-workers for getting behind me in this project.   This is not a solution for Rose Haven by any means.  I am happy with the success, of the drive but, I know this is just a stop gap to a bigger long term problem that we need to fix.

Below are the final numbers of the diaper drive.

Team Blow Out wins with 6,664

Team Droopy Drawers in second place with 5,594

Sorry Team Diaper Genies you came in last at 2,624

All together we collected 14,882 diapers and wipes for Rose Haven.

Needless to say, I am sad my team did not win the contest.  We did the count by the individual amount of diapers or wipes provided.  I am grateful that everyone was competitive, and got behind this worthy cause, so I lose graciously for the good of diapers.  If you knew how competitive I am you would understand that losing isn’t easy for me. This project has taught me to have faith in people, to never give up, and that even if you cannot fix the problem you might still be able to do something about it.  Although, I am disappointed with not finding the long term source for diapers, I do feel accomplished that we are able to supply diapers for at least a few months before we will need to do something again.  

~Heather Glass 

Compasses

Across all faiths and within all spirits lies a compass, a moral one of sorts.

When I look at the big picture, my compass can feel overwhelmed, off kilter even

But when the child of an incarcerated parent or the homeless on our streets come into my line of sight

My compass becomes strong and pointed in exactly the right direction.

Resistance turns to flow and impossibility becomes probability.

Faith turns into action and my soul feels alive.

This past term, I continued my internship into my Capstone. My internship was with Girl Scouts Beyond Bars and I was able to assist in connecting incarcerated mothers with their daughters, through Girl Scouts: meetings were held within prison walls and yet I watched freedom occur. I met an amazing mentor named Cassi whose heart is unmatched to any other I have ever known and I never imagined it could get any better.

Fall term came around and it was time to select a Capstone. I begged to be in one that worked with adjudicated youth and writing workshops: I wasn’t able to get in, so I prayed.

God led me to Mobilizing Hope (ironically taught by the same professor as the one who led the previous one I wanted). Throughout the term, I evaluated and re-evaluated my own faith. I was able to learn of different perspectives from my classmates and my professor (whose name is Deb).

What I learned is that even those who have been placed on a pedestal as heroes started as ordinary people. And what has been celebrated as outcome has not nearly been stated enough as journey.

Through this course, my faith has been restored and my trek towards social justice has been renewed. I have been re-ignited and I am so grateful for this past term.

Mobilizing Hope is a journey that I will never forget.

~Kristen Griffey

The Littlest Servant

I never thought an 8-year old would have such a profound effect on my life. I never dreamed of being nearly graduated from college then suddenly wanting to change career paths. I didn’t foresee God stepping in and using children to teach me. Of course, God tends to work in my life in ways I would never expect and at times I can never predict. I’m getting used to just going along for the ride.

I went into my senior year of college dreading my senior capstone. I thought it was an incredibly stupid class, requiring us to pay more money to do free work in a field that has nothing to do with our future lives. I don’t think I’ve ever been more wrong in my life.

Every essay I read for this class brought things to my attention I had never given much thought to. Perhaps I just didn’t want to think about them. That way I could stay safe and comfortable in my life and with my faith in a Jesus I didn’t fully understand. With each passing week, I was confronted more and more with a choice: Jesus, or comfort. This choice burned within me because I knew which one I should choose, but that path meant working toward something I may never achieve, every single day for the rest of my life. It meant trying to make change and live the radical way Jesus did, and not treat my life with the taken-for-granted complacency I had become so accustomed to. It terrified me, because I didn’t know how to do it. To be honest, I still don’t.

The 8-year old that changed my life was present though all of this. She was there, helping God change me, once a week for three hours. And that was it. That was all it took. It wasn’t only this little girl herself who changed me, but what she represented. She had a childlike innocence that I loved with a real intelligent mind and a bit of an idea of who she was. She negotiated and didn’t take no for an answer, which as her teacher made my job difficult, but secretly I was proud of her for that. It will serve her well when she gets out into the world. Perhaps the reason she affected me so much was because she embodied what I wanted my children to be like, and what I wanted to help nurture in all of God’s children. Isn’t it funny how we get so frustrated at those kids who are different, stubborn, independent, smart-asses and yet deep-down that’s how we want them to turn out as adults?

The first time I met her, she reminded me to much of myself when I was her age that I had to laugh. It was because of this girl that the things I was learning stuck. She made the choice more real for me, showing me that it wasn’t just myself at stake. This little girl depended on that choice, as did all the kids in my class. I wanted so badly to make a lasting effect on her, to give her some kind of tool to help her cope with the future. I was insecure and not independent and didn’t know who I was when I was younger, and I made mistakes because of it that I regretted deeply for a long time. When I looked at her, I felt this desire to impart the lessons I had learned on her so that she would be better prepared than I was, so she wouldn’t make the same mistakes I had. I wanted her to make different, better mistakes. I wanted her to think back on her life, and remember that one teacher she had that truly made a difference.

And then it hit me. I knew I had to do something, to make a difference in children’s lives. I always knew God had given me this gift of teaching and a heart for children; why hadn’t I thought of this before? I needed to be a teacher!

I also know that I needed to be different. I needed to shine the light Jesus had given me into the lives of others, especially “the least of these.” He taught me the importance of that, and gave me a practical lesson in how to do it, when he put me in the midst of these kids, especially this little girl.

My heart changed. It grew three sizes and poured out more love than it took in. It learned tiny steps forward are better than standing still. Even if you don’t know where you’re going or you don’t think you’re making a difference, keep moving forward.

On the very last day the little girl stuck by my side, even at recess. Then she wrote me a letter telling me to have fun and keep being me. It was like God was telling me, “Well done, my good and faithful servant” through the pencil of one of his littlest servants.

Thank you, Marissa.

~ Nikita Collier