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

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

Changing hearts through sports

High school student athletes seem to have a negative stigma behind them.  They are thought to be bullies, uninterested in their education, and vain.  But there’s a side to them that most people refuse to believe and learn about.  They all came from a specific background and upbringing that carried them into athletics.  When looking at these athletes as a whole, there is something special that drives them and it is apparent in the way they carry themselves.

I had the nerve-wracking pleasure to work with high school athletes from the surrounding Portland area for the past 10 weeks.  While I was a high school athlete myself, I still had negative connotations for the typical “jock.”  Maybe it was because I’m a female and the term “jock” typically applies to boys, or maybe it is because I attended a private, Christian high school and the behaviors that “jocks” may display at public high schools were not tolerated at my high school.  Either way, when I began this assignment, I was nervous to see how these high school athletes would take to me. 

 My project I had chosen included stretching and proper weight-lifting form sessions every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from noon to 1:00pm in the physical therapy clinic I work in full time.  During this unpaid lunch hour, the student athletes from high schools such as: Centennial, Reynolds, Gresham, Barlow, and Parkrose were able to come to the clinic and attend various sessions about the most effective way to stretch and safe and proper weight-lifting form and techniques.  I decided to focus on these things because most coaches focus on the plays of the game and fail to instruct their athletes on how to stay physically healthy.  

As time went on, I was able to dig deeper into these student athletes’ lives and hearts, and figure out their true beings and potentials.  It is an amazing experience, once you break through the barrier of a tough athlete, and find out their emotional strengths and weaknesses, their background and family life, and how they want to carry their talents on after high school.  I never thought I would become so connected with these students on an emotional level after these 10 weeks were over.  My mindset coming into this assignment was to teach the basic concepts and physical health and to help them stretch and lift more effectively.  Once we were able to become comfortable with each other, I had these athletes from competing schools finding common ground and becoming friends. 

These athletes proved to me that they are so much more than their sport.  They aren’t bullies: they made friends with each other and talked about their involvements in other extra-curricular activities at school in which they were able to grow their base of differing personalities and friends.  They are very interested in their education: these athletes have a great understanding that the chances of them playing at a paid, professional level of their sport is incredibly rare, and they have solid plans to attend college and gain a high education to become successful in their adult lives.  They are not vain: as they began to open up and talk about their insecurities, weaknesses, and faults, they began to shine as their loving, caring, selfless personalities became apparent.  

These last 10 weeks, I have learned more about myself and my potential from these student athletes than I would have just by sitting in a classroom learning from lecture.  This hands-on course has led me to the true potential that our Portland high school athletes have to make the future bright and successful.

~ Kaitlyn Lane, March 2014

Print Poor Environments and Public Libraries

“The past two decades of research powerfully connect access to print with higher reading scores and, conversely, lack of access with lower scores” (Trelease, 107). 

Think back to when you were a child. Did your parents read you bedtime stories? Were there bookshelves full of interesting titles around the home? Did you ever see an adult in your life reading for relaxation? The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease discusses the role of print reading material in the home and school. In his research, he discovered that low income children are hit by a double print gap – in the home and in the school. Schools are supposed to make up for home deficits, but a study by Nell Duke, featured in the text by Trelease, discovered that urban students have out of date school libraries, less time in class to read, and restricted access to the library.
Reading is important. No one will argue that. Why is it then that 14 percent of the American population cannot read? In fact, 21 percent of the adult population cannot read above a fifth grade level. Even more, 19 percent of high school graduates are illiterate. The most startling statistic from this study? 63 percent of prison inmates cannot read. There is clearly something wrong here. All data I have mentioned was retrieved from the US Department of Education and National Institute of Literacy study conducted on April 28, 2013. That is less than one year ago. 

Reading and proper literacy has been made a privilege in our society. In the study by Nell Duke mentioned early, he found that in the twenty urban first-grade classrooms he visited, teachers read from a less complex text, and the books-per-pupil ratio was half of what it was in the “advanced” classrooms. By treating low-income students differently than others, the public school system is creating two classes of people that graduate. The fact that over half of the prison population cannot read at an age appropriate and comprehensive level is as much the fault of the

schools than anything or anyone else. What can be done to combat this inequality in our education system? 

For my capstone project, I volunteered with the Scappoose Public Library, located in Scappoose, Oregon. The public library is one way to combat the social injustice of access to books. Anyone who lives in the library district can be a library card holder and check out all the books they want. The library is a public institution that creates the availability of books for everyone, no matter their age or reading level. Trelease wrote that the mere presence of books in the home is enough to encourage reading (110). If the schools are lacking in providing reading time, than it falls back to a job in the home. Even with busy working parents, a trip to the library every couple of weeks can be enough to have a stack of books to occupy children’s imaginations. 

My community based learning at the library focused on the Wednesday morning story time program for children ages 0-5. This is an excellent service provided by most public libraries that creates a community of reading among young children and parents. It is a way to attract families with children to the library and begin using it at a young age. Each week had a theme, such as cows or numbers, and we read a few books and did a craft. The fight for ending illiteracy begins with access to books. Public libraries provide free and easy access for all people.
Throughout this course I was connected with other people fighting for various social justice causes. I learned through our readings that it takes people like me to stand up and make a change. Public libraries are often the first on the chopping block when communities prioritize funding needs. It takes just a handful of people to spread the importance of libraries and their programs and the connection to increasing literacy to keep these services open and available. I know that I plan to be a lifetime advocate for public libraries. 

“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world" (Loeb 71). 

References:
Loeb, Paul Rogat
2004 The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear. Basic Books, New York.
Trelease, Jim
2013 The Read-Aloud Handbook. Seventh Edition. Penguin Books, New York.
Illiteracy Rates. Statistics Brain. Accessed March 15, 2014 at http://www.statisticbrain.com/number-of-american-adults-who-cant-read/. 

~Emily Rocha, March 2014