At some point midway through the year I think I forgot about my blog, although on the other hand I don't think that my writing can really capture what my life has been like for the past ten months. I recently put together a video for our end of the year debrief, which I think captures the dynamics of Blue 3 pretty well and expresses how I feel about this team better than I could by writing. So, here I present us, condensed into just over 14 minutes:
http://www.vimeo.com/13718046
Today is my last day on campus, I'll be flying home tomorrow morning at 6AM, arriving at about 5PM Eastern time. It's been sad watching everyone leave campus a few at a time, and I'm continually contemplating how I'm going to deal with the sudden lack of such a large community when I head home. I think it's gonna be a difficult transition, I fell in love with the people we've worked with and the team that's become like a second family to me. This year has been great for me, and I know I'll hold onto the connections made and lessons learned for life. Thanks to everyone who made this what it was.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Beginning of Round 2
Yesterday Blue 3 arrived in Green River, Utah after a day and a half of travel. Upon arrival in town a few cars driven by the people at Positive Action Community Team(PACT) surrounded our van and escorted us to the Boys and Girls Club while waving American flags out their windows. It was quite the welcome, and I feel like our presence is much more significant in this community than it was in Los Angeles. We met with the people working here (including several Americorps VISTA members and a former NCCC Corps Member from the Sacramento campus) and were told it was about time to pick up the kids from school. We walked a handful of elementary school students from their school to the Boys and Girls club and played with them until five, when Karate lessons started. At that point we were fed dinner and then sent over to a community hall meeting. It was really interesting to see the local politics in effect and to see the mayor and the council dealing entirely with tangible issues, rather than the vague promises and ideologies that seem to be more prevalent in larger governing bodies. After the town hall meeting we were finally given access to our housing, which is a really small two bedroom apartment, roughly the size of the apartment I had to myself back at RIT. Once we set up the place I crashed pretty much instantly.
Today, after our usual 6A.M. PT, we started a full day of work, which entailed us working at the Baxter Building, a run down building that they're trying to renovate into another office. I spent the majority of the day shoveling discarded parts of a layered tar roof that they'd recently pulled off into a dumpster. I was frequently up past my ankles in mud and was really grateful for all my personal protective equipment, as I got hit in the face with wood and found a roofing tack in my shoe while working. The wood was actually my fault, I threw a plank into the wood pile in such a way that it hit another one, causing it to come flying back at me. I don't think I've ever met such a vengeful pile of sticks before. After lunch half of the team left to work at the Boys and Girls club, but I stayed at the Baxter building to do more physical labor. After work we made dinner, finished setting up the apartment, and I'm currently writing this from inside the Boys and Girls club (we have unlimited access to this space too).
My first impression of the town is that it's a struggling, very tiny community. I think they don't really have the population to sustain a lot of business, so as a result a significant part of the community is unemployed. This further adds to the problem, because the town looks rather run down due to all the empty buildings, which probably further repels potential businesses. They do get by on what they have, which is commendable, but I definitely see why we're here. I feel like any work we put into this town will benefit everyone, which is very different from our first project. The town subsists primarily on agriculture and tourism, so they're subject to a lot of external factors as well.
Other random thoughts about our living: It's currently extremely muddy all through town; I doubt I'll be wearing my normal sneakers anywhere while I'm here. Food is really expensive here, so we'll have to be extra careful with our budget (we accidentally went way over today while grocery shopping). Having access to the Boys and Girls club is wonderful, because it gives us space to go away from the rest of the team in that very small apartment. The stars at night are amazing; I haven't seen them this clearly since I was in Maine. It isn't nearly as cold here as I thought it'd be, it feels pretty much just like being back home (not that home isn't cold, I was just preparing for worse). The people we're working with are awesome, they all seem really knowledgeable, funny, and mellow. I'm not ready to say that I'll like being here quite yet, but for now it seems livable and like our work will be appreciated, so I think it'll be rewarding in the end.
Today, after our usual 6A.M. PT, we started a full day of work, which entailed us working at the Baxter Building, a run down building that they're trying to renovate into another office. I spent the majority of the day shoveling discarded parts of a layered tar roof that they'd recently pulled off into a dumpster. I was frequently up past my ankles in mud and was really grateful for all my personal protective equipment, as I got hit in the face with wood and found a roofing tack in my shoe while working. The wood was actually my fault, I threw a plank into the wood pile in such a way that it hit another one, causing it to come flying back at me. I don't think I've ever met such a vengeful pile of sticks before. After lunch half of the team left to work at the Boys and Girls club, but I stayed at the Baxter building to do more physical labor. After work we made dinner, finished setting up the apartment, and I'm currently writing this from inside the Boys and Girls club (we have unlimited access to this space too).
My first impression of the town is that it's a struggling, very tiny community. I think they don't really have the population to sustain a lot of business, so as a result a significant part of the community is unemployed. This further adds to the problem, because the town looks rather run down due to all the empty buildings, which probably further repels potential businesses. They do get by on what they have, which is commendable, but I definitely see why we're here. I feel like any work we put into this town will benefit everyone, which is very different from our first project. The town subsists primarily on agriculture and tourism, so they're subject to a lot of external factors as well.
Other random thoughts about our living: It's currently extremely muddy all through town; I doubt I'll be wearing my normal sneakers anywhere while I'm here. Food is really expensive here, so we'll have to be extra careful with our budget (we accidentally went way over today while grocery shopping). Having access to the Boys and Girls club is wonderful, because it gives us space to go away from the rest of the team in that very small apartment. The stars at night are amazing; I haven't seen them this clearly since I was in Maine. It isn't nearly as cold here as I thought it'd be, it feels pretty much just like being back home (not that home isn't cold, I was just preparing for worse). The people we're working with are awesome, they all seem really knowledgeable, funny, and mellow. I'm not ready to say that I'll like being here quite yet, but for now it seems livable and like our work will be appreciated, so I think it'll be rewarding in the end.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Transition
I'm currently sitting in a hotel room with Steve, Mike, and Scott, somewhere in the border between Nevada and Utah. Regulation keeps us from driving more than ten hours or 550 miles a day, otherwise I'm sure we'd be in Green River by now. I'm really excited to get there and see what the community is like, and it'll be nice to start working again.
The past week we'd been on base for transition, preparing our debriefing for our last project and briefing for this project, along with miscellaneous meetings and projects. It was really weird to be back on base around all the other Blue and Green unit teams (all of Gold and most of Silver are still somewhere in the Gulf Coast). I frequently still hung out with Blue 3, but also had ample opportunity to wander off and reconnect with people that I hadn't seen since training, which was nice. In some ways it made me really appreciate my team, but I've also been wondering what life would be like if even one of us was replaced by someone else. It's interesting to think that replacing even one of us would completely change our team dynamics. While back at base we spent one day working for the Sacramento food bank (I don't remember the exact name), and sorted over 2400 apples and oranges, not including the bin full of rotten ones we had to throw out. Aside from that we didn't do much aside from meetings while on base.
However, I did get a really exciting offer for life after Americorps. I've been in contact with researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory about collaborating on prosthetics research once I get into grad school. They mentioned that they're planning some very exciting research soon, and that they'd like to have an engineering at University of Rochester working with the lab that generates most of their primate data. Based on that, I'm probably going to discount Purdue and UPitt from my list of schools, since they were ranked equally with U of R before and U of R has a pretty much guaranteed research opportunity waiting for me. I'm going to visit them the end of this month, and I'll be able to say more about the position after I get a chance to talk with the researchers there.
In retrospect, I do really miss working in Los Angeles, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the city. I really grew fond of the students I worked with there, and even though I know that another team is going to be replacing us at Dorsey I still worry about how they're doing without us there. I'm not sure how I feel about meeting a whole new group of kids in Green River, knowing that I'm going to be leaving them in two months as well. However, this group should be about a polar opposite of who we were working with before, so it should still be interesting. Also, it sounds like our site coordinator is very big on using individual talents, so I might be able to put some of my more practical engineering skills to use. Green River is apparently best known for its melon crops, so I'm thinking I'd like to try and obtain the supplies to teach the kids how to assemble a melon launching catapult. Model rockets and egg protecting devices might be fun activities too. Mike keeps making jokes about how bad of an idea all this stuff is, but hey, engineering should be fun, shouldn't it? I can't wait to see what it's like out there.
As a final note, the snow and cold, crisp, clean air are very refreshing out here. I was starting to miss having real seasons.
The past week we'd been on base for transition, preparing our debriefing for our last project and briefing for this project, along with miscellaneous meetings and projects. It was really weird to be back on base around all the other Blue and Green unit teams (all of Gold and most of Silver are still somewhere in the Gulf Coast). I frequently still hung out with Blue 3, but also had ample opportunity to wander off and reconnect with people that I hadn't seen since training, which was nice. In some ways it made me really appreciate my team, but I've also been wondering what life would be like if even one of us was replaced by someone else. It's interesting to think that replacing even one of us would completely change our team dynamics. While back at base we spent one day working for the Sacramento food bank (I don't remember the exact name), and sorted over 2400 apples and oranges, not including the bin full of rotten ones we had to throw out. Aside from that we didn't do much aside from meetings while on base.
However, I did get a really exciting offer for life after Americorps. I've been in contact with researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory about collaborating on prosthetics research once I get into grad school. They mentioned that they're planning some very exciting research soon, and that they'd like to have an engineering at University of Rochester working with the lab that generates most of their primate data. Based on that, I'm probably going to discount Purdue and UPitt from my list of schools, since they were ranked equally with U of R before and U of R has a pretty much guaranteed research opportunity waiting for me. I'm going to visit them the end of this month, and I'll be able to say more about the position after I get a chance to talk with the researchers there.
In retrospect, I do really miss working in Los Angeles, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the city. I really grew fond of the students I worked with there, and even though I know that another team is going to be replacing us at Dorsey I still worry about how they're doing without us there. I'm not sure how I feel about meeting a whole new group of kids in Green River, knowing that I'm going to be leaving them in two months as well. However, this group should be about a polar opposite of who we were working with before, so it should still be interesting. Also, it sounds like our site coordinator is very big on using individual talents, so I might be able to put some of my more practical engineering skills to use. Green River is apparently best known for its melon crops, so I'm thinking I'd like to try and obtain the supplies to teach the kids how to assemble a melon launching catapult. Model rockets and egg protecting devices might be fun activities too. Mike keeps making jokes about how bad of an idea all this stuff is, but hey, engineering should be fun, shouldn't it? I can't wait to see what it's like out there.
As a final note, the snow and cold, crisp, clean air are very refreshing out here. I was starting to miss having real seasons.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Reflections on Round One
Tomorrow starts the last week of our project in Los Angeles. Being here and working with the students at Dorsey has been both gratifying and frustrating. I've really enjoyed attempting to understand the student perspective on Mathematics and helping them piece together the fragments of concepts they don't understand. They're generally receptive to my teaching style and I've learned to catch myself when my explanations get overly complex, which is a skill I've probably needed for a while. This project made me realize that so many of the concepts I consider trivial or intuitive are actually constructs created from the combination of many other ideas, and if someone isn't comfortable with all of the building blocks then comprehension will be difficult at best. I've occasionally had to resort to telling the students that the rules in Math are arbitrary and just need to be memorized, but I try to point out the underlying framework whenever possible in the hopes that they'll be able to generalize the material and develop a solid understanding of the root concepts and how they interact. I think my favorite day so far has been when Mrs. Gay gave the students a bunch of triangles and squares to play with and told them to spend their class time trying to prove the Pythagorean theorem. It was really interesting to see them try to play with the ideas they already knew and use them to solve a new class of problem. Speaking of, Mrs. Gay has tried to convince me that I should consider a career teaching high school math and said that she'll miss having my support in her class.
I'm pretty sure I couldn't teach at a high school level though. I feel like I spend a significant amount of time silently fuming at the students that sleep through entire classes, copy off one another, or just flat out refuse to do anything. From my current perspective, I find it almost impossible to comprehend the continual laziness and lack of work ethic so many students demonstrate. I have to continually remind myself that they're all still really young and have a lot of growing up to do, but it's hard to not take offence when the assistance I'm trying to provide is rejected. It's also difficult to repress some of the resentment that comes with feeling like I'm just wasting my time but I know that these kids wouldn't respond well to my typical abrasiveness, so I have to force a positive attitude toward them, regardless of what's going on.
I also find the after school portion of the program rather frustrating. Our site supervisor was initially very unclear about the expectations of the program, so for our first few weeks we just hung out with the kids and had a good time talking and playing games. Something shifted about halfway through the project though, and suddenly we were expected to come up with organized teambuilding and enrichment activities, get them to do educational worksheets, and strictly enforce the rules about not coming and going as they please. As a result, it felt like we had to radically overhaul the culture of the program in a way that most of the students resented. We saw a significant drop in attendance the first few weeks we started doing it, although the increased organization seems to have benefited the students who needed the time after school to do homework. I think attendance seems to be coming back again, but it's still a struggle to get the kids to comply with the program expectations. It also doesn't help that our site supervisor seems more concerned with grants and the quantity of students we work with rather than ensuring that we have a really solid program. There was a day last week when she knew we had someone from an outside organization coming to oversee the program, so she had us talk to students during lunch to ensure they were coming, ordered pizza for everyone, and had them sculpting clay after school, which is a far cry from our usual day. I thought it was wrong of us to try so much harder the one day someone was watching, but it really wasn't worth the effort to point it out.
With both our job and within the team I've feel a bit of a conflict between acting as the person I want to be and the person I actually am. There are days where I'm absolutely determined to like everyone and do as much work as I can regardless of anyone else, but there are also days where I resent everyone else for being lazy or inconsiderate and wish I could lash out and let them have it. I want to be able to be happy and work hard all the time, but that mentality is still rather tiring and isn't something I can maintain indefinitely yet. As a result, I feel myself frequently bouncing up and down between moods, occasionally several times in a week. It also doesn't help that I often feel very alone in my interests, particularly things along the line of my reseach and education. I guess I got very complacent with the community I had back at RIT and forgot that they were far from typical. I do genuinely like everyone on this team, but for the most part they probably aren't the people I'd choose to surround myself with outside of the Ameribubble we live in. I've decided that I'm going to be happy and like everyone unconditonally, which really helps me interact with them on a daily basis. My relationships with everyone on the team are pretty positive. In particular, I feel like Steve and I have a very similar perspective on work ethic and competence and the same twisted sense of humor, Cassie and I don't really have any boundaries between us and can talk about almost anything, and Megan and I like to tease and mess with each other like she was my little sister. Despite my frequent frustration, which is something I'm working to control, I'm happy here as one tenth of Blue 3.
I'm pretty sure I couldn't teach at a high school level though. I feel like I spend a significant amount of time silently fuming at the students that sleep through entire classes, copy off one another, or just flat out refuse to do anything. From my current perspective, I find it almost impossible to comprehend the continual laziness and lack of work ethic so many students demonstrate. I have to continually remind myself that they're all still really young and have a lot of growing up to do, but it's hard to not take offence when the assistance I'm trying to provide is rejected. It's also difficult to repress some of the resentment that comes with feeling like I'm just wasting my time but I know that these kids wouldn't respond well to my typical abrasiveness, so I have to force a positive attitude toward them, regardless of what's going on.
I also find the after school portion of the program rather frustrating. Our site supervisor was initially very unclear about the expectations of the program, so for our first few weeks we just hung out with the kids and had a good time talking and playing games. Something shifted about halfway through the project though, and suddenly we were expected to come up with organized teambuilding and enrichment activities, get them to do educational worksheets, and strictly enforce the rules about not coming and going as they please. As a result, it felt like we had to radically overhaul the culture of the program in a way that most of the students resented. We saw a significant drop in attendance the first few weeks we started doing it, although the increased organization seems to have benefited the students who needed the time after school to do homework. I think attendance seems to be coming back again, but it's still a struggle to get the kids to comply with the program expectations. It also doesn't help that our site supervisor seems more concerned with grants and the quantity of students we work with rather than ensuring that we have a really solid program. There was a day last week when she knew we had someone from an outside organization coming to oversee the program, so she had us talk to students during lunch to ensure they were coming, ordered pizza for everyone, and had them sculpting clay after school, which is a far cry from our usual day. I thought it was wrong of us to try so much harder the one day someone was watching, but it really wasn't worth the effort to point it out.
With both our job and within the team I've feel a bit of a conflict between acting as the person I want to be and the person I actually am. There are days where I'm absolutely determined to like everyone and do as much work as I can regardless of anyone else, but there are also days where I resent everyone else for being lazy or inconsiderate and wish I could lash out and let them have it. I want to be able to be happy and work hard all the time, but that mentality is still rather tiring and isn't something I can maintain indefinitely yet. As a result, I feel myself frequently bouncing up and down between moods, occasionally several times in a week. It also doesn't help that I often feel very alone in my interests, particularly things along the line of my reseach and education. I guess I got very complacent with the community I had back at RIT and forgot that they were far from typical. I do genuinely like everyone on this team, but for the most part they probably aren't the people I'd choose to surround myself with outside of the Ameribubble we live in. I've decided that I'm going to be happy and like everyone unconditonally, which really helps me interact with them on a daily basis. My relationships with everyone on the team are pretty positive. In particular, I feel like Steve and I have a very similar perspective on work ethic and competence and the same twisted sense of humor, Cassie and I don't really have any boundaries between us and can talk about almost anything, and Megan and I like to tease and mess with each other like she was my little sister. Despite my frequent frustration, which is something I'm working to control, I'm happy here as one tenth of Blue 3.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Round One
Today's the first day since we've gotten to Los Angeles that I've had a few hours to myself, so I decided to walk to the local library and sit with my laptop so I could write, check my email, and try to acquire the newest episodes of Dexter. Living and working here has been a major lifestyle shift for me, but for the most part I've been able to adapt and am enjoying this new world I find myself in.
Our housing situation is about the exact opposite of what I'd become accustomed to my last year at RIT. We're staying in a small house attached to a church that consists of a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms, and a single bathroom. I'm sharing a room with the other three guys on the team which we've dubbed "the man cave". Each of us has a standard issue cot and a sleeping bag (well, except Mike, who somehow lost his when we did laundry last week). We put together shelving by stacking folding tables in one corner of the room. I have the space under my cot, half a table, and a drawer in the bathroom to store my stuff in. For the first few days we didn't have a stove, but our sponsor managed to find us one. We're pretty sure it leaks, so when we aren't cooking we turn the gas off and have to manually light it every time we use it. We've also got a microwave and a fridge, both of work well. Our bathroom is decent, although the toilet leaks large quantities of water every time we flush. Also, since we only have a single bathroom we pretty much don't have any personal space anymore. Showers are timed on work days, five minute max, and while showering someone else is usually in the bathroom using the toilet or the sink. The second day we were here Scott found a secondhand shop where the owner agreed to find a couch for us. It seemed a bit sketchy, but the guy really came through for us and got a nice black leather couch for only $80 (we gave him $100 to thank him). That, with another folding table on top of two storage crates for a coffee table, make up our living room. It's large enough for all ten of us to be in there at once, and we usually have about four people on the couch at any given time. For privacy we have a back stoop that's surrounded by maybe 100 square feet of grass that makes up our yard, most people sit out there while on the phone. We have no TV or internet, but I find that I don't miss it all that much, so long as I can occasionally come here to check my email.
The team is still doing well together, although our housing situation has led to a few tensions. A few of us have been sick this week, myself included, the worst of which was Fayanna vomiting all night on Tuesday. She's home with her family in San Diego this weekend though, and hopefully she'll return healthy. Megan is also visiting her family around here this weekend, who were kind enough to invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner. They provided us with an awesome meal and were really nice to talk to. Her mom bought us a few bags of cleaning supplies and I ended up talking with her dad for quite a while while they prepared dinner. I was really sad that this was my first Thanksgiving away from my family, but being with my team and her family was still a good time. Since we have a long weekend all of us have been splitting into smaller groups and checking out various things around town (last night we drove to see the Hollywood sign up close), which has been great for morale. It's usually hard for all ten of us to make a decision quickly, but if we break into smaller groups it's much more relaxed.
And while it's been nice exploring the area and seeing what L.A. has to offer, our real objective here is to work with the CYFC program at two schools. Our team was broken into two groups, with Scott, Cassie, Megan, Mike, and myself working at Dorsey High and Melissa, Steve, Emily, Aine, and Fayanna working at 61st Elementary. Us working at the high school have been assigned to provide tutoring support in Algebra, Geometry, and CAHSEE (California state exams) math review courses during the day and providing homework assistance and playing games with kids after school. We're on block scheduling, so we have a total of eight classes, four each day. The teacher I'm working with the most, Mrs. Gay, is fantastic with her students and commands enough respect to convince them to learn the material. The student population is 50% Black and 50% Latino. There's a girl in one of my classes that I think might be white, but I'm not sure. The teachers are a little more diverse, I work with a few Asian teachers and two have strong African accents. The kids occasionally make jokes about our presence (the first day one kid shouted that he was going to give his "white milk to the white kids", and on Wednesday one kid shouted "white power!" at me), but they're good natured about it and I haven't seen any hostility from any of them. They're also pretty smart, and almost always pick up on how to do the work after a few examples. I think one of the largest parts of my job is just walking up to kids and pointedly asking, "are you planning on doing any work today?" The typical response to which is usually a sheepish grin and an admission that they just don't get it. However, there's almost always an "oh yeah, I remember this, this is easy!" moment after I get them about halfway through a problem. After school we usually just end up chatting over games. They're all just normal kids, although some of them have gone through things I can't really imagine going through. I'm starting to pick out a few that I really like and get along well with, I hope I'm making a positive impact on their lives.
Despite the fact that our house is located close to Inglewood and is in a pretty rough area it isn't nearly as terrifying as media stereotypes make it out to be. Our neighborhood is a pretty quiet suburb, where most of the folk seem to just be working to get by. According to some of the kids at Dorsey we're located in Blood territory, specifically the Rolling 60s gang, but I have yet to see any gangbangers anywhere or anything else to make me feel unsafe (Dorsey itself is right in the middle of the dividing line between Blood and Crip territory). We're smart about it and usually travel in groups, but we can walk to the library (about 10 blocks from our house) in small groups at night or alone during the day without feeling scared. Also, according to the kids a lot of the gang warzone image portrayed in most media is a relic of the 80s. Granted, the gangs are still dangerous, but a lot of the old hostilities have died down somewhat. Case in point, one of the girls we work with had a Blood father and Crip mother. She doesn't have the nicest life, her mom is dead and her dad can't support her so she's in a group home, but has ambitions and is smart enough to go places. Also, one of the kids told us that some of the rival gangs around here regularly play football against one another. It seems to me that the gangs tend to be more fraternal in nature, so I think if these kids can find another group to identify with they won't fall into that lifestyle. I really hope that our influence on the kids we're working with will help them go farther in life and that we can actively demonstrate that there are alternatives to ignorance and just doing whatever is needed to get by.
Our housing situation is about the exact opposite of what I'd become accustomed to my last year at RIT. We're staying in a small house attached to a church that consists of a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms, and a single bathroom. I'm sharing a room with the other three guys on the team which we've dubbed "the man cave". Each of us has a standard issue cot and a sleeping bag (well, except Mike, who somehow lost his when we did laundry last week). We put together shelving by stacking folding tables in one corner of the room. I have the space under my cot, half a table, and a drawer in the bathroom to store my stuff in. For the first few days we didn't have a stove, but our sponsor managed to find us one. We're pretty sure it leaks, so when we aren't cooking we turn the gas off and have to manually light it every time we use it. We've also got a microwave and a fridge, both of work well. Our bathroom is decent, although the toilet leaks large quantities of water every time we flush. Also, since we only have a single bathroom we pretty much don't have any personal space anymore. Showers are timed on work days, five minute max, and while showering someone else is usually in the bathroom using the toilet or the sink. The second day we were here Scott found a secondhand shop where the owner agreed to find a couch for us. It seemed a bit sketchy, but the guy really came through for us and got a nice black leather couch for only $80 (we gave him $100 to thank him). That, with another folding table on top of two storage crates for a coffee table, make up our living room. It's large enough for all ten of us to be in there at once, and we usually have about four people on the couch at any given time. For privacy we have a back stoop that's surrounded by maybe 100 square feet of grass that makes up our yard, most people sit out there while on the phone. We have no TV or internet, but I find that I don't miss it all that much, so long as I can occasionally come here to check my email.
The team is still doing well together, although our housing situation has led to a few tensions. A few of us have been sick this week, myself included, the worst of which was Fayanna vomiting all night on Tuesday. She's home with her family in San Diego this weekend though, and hopefully she'll return healthy. Megan is also visiting her family around here this weekend, who were kind enough to invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner. They provided us with an awesome meal and were really nice to talk to. Her mom bought us a few bags of cleaning supplies and I ended up talking with her dad for quite a while while they prepared dinner. I was really sad that this was my first Thanksgiving away from my family, but being with my team and her family was still a good time. Since we have a long weekend all of us have been splitting into smaller groups and checking out various things around town (last night we drove to see the Hollywood sign up close), which has been great for morale. It's usually hard for all ten of us to make a decision quickly, but if we break into smaller groups it's much more relaxed.
And while it's been nice exploring the area and seeing what L.A. has to offer, our real objective here is to work with the CYFC program at two schools. Our team was broken into two groups, with Scott, Cassie, Megan, Mike, and myself working at Dorsey High and Melissa, Steve, Emily, Aine, and Fayanna working at 61st Elementary. Us working at the high school have been assigned to provide tutoring support in Algebra, Geometry, and CAHSEE (California state exams) math review courses during the day and providing homework assistance and playing games with kids after school. We're on block scheduling, so we have a total of eight classes, four each day. The teacher I'm working with the most, Mrs. Gay, is fantastic with her students and commands enough respect to convince them to learn the material. The student population is 50% Black and 50% Latino. There's a girl in one of my classes that I think might be white, but I'm not sure. The teachers are a little more diverse, I work with a few Asian teachers and two have strong African accents. The kids occasionally make jokes about our presence (the first day one kid shouted that he was going to give his "white milk to the white kids", and on Wednesday one kid shouted "white power!" at me), but they're good natured about it and I haven't seen any hostility from any of them. They're also pretty smart, and almost always pick up on how to do the work after a few examples. I think one of the largest parts of my job is just walking up to kids and pointedly asking, "are you planning on doing any work today?" The typical response to which is usually a sheepish grin and an admission that they just don't get it. However, there's almost always an "oh yeah, I remember this, this is easy!" moment after I get them about halfway through a problem. After school we usually just end up chatting over games. They're all just normal kids, although some of them have gone through things I can't really imagine going through. I'm starting to pick out a few that I really like and get along well with, I hope I'm making a positive impact on their lives.
Despite the fact that our house is located close to Inglewood and is in a pretty rough area it isn't nearly as terrifying as media stereotypes make it out to be. Our neighborhood is a pretty quiet suburb, where most of the folk seem to just be working to get by. According to some of the kids at Dorsey we're located in Blood territory, specifically the Rolling 60s gang, but I have yet to see any gangbangers anywhere or anything else to make me feel unsafe (Dorsey itself is right in the middle of the dividing line between Blood and Crip territory). We're smart about it and usually travel in groups, but we can walk to the library (about 10 blocks from our house) in small groups at night or alone during the day without feeling scared. Also, according to the kids a lot of the gang warzone image portrayed in most media is a relic of the 80s. Granted, the gangs are still dangerous, but a lot of the old hostilities have died down somewhat. Case in point, one of the girls we work with had a Blood father and Crip mother. She doesn't have the nicest life, her mom is dead and her dad can't support her so she's in a group home, but has ambitions and is smart enough to go places. Also, one of the kids told us that some of the rival gangs around here regularly play football against one another. It seems to me that the gangs tend to be more fraternal in nature, so I think if these kids can find another group to identify with they won't fall into that lifestyle. I really hope that our influence on the kids we're working with will help them go farther in life and that we can actively demonstrate that there are alternatives to ignorance and just doing whatever is needed to get by.
Friday, November 13, 2009
End of training
I, Adam Bosen, do solemnly pledge that as a member of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, I will serve as a leader and active citizen of my community and my country and will accept equally the opportunities and responsibilities of citizenship.
I will support and uphold the mission of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps to strengthen communities and develop leaders through team-based national and community service and commit to my role as a full participant of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. Sacramento Campus. agreeing to abide by the guidelines established to ensure a healthy and productive community experience for all Corps Members.
I will participate as a self-governing member of our nation. I will inform myself about the problems of my community and my country, and I will work with other citizens to solve these problems.
Further, I agree to continue to serve my country as a leader and citizen, not only through my involvement in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, but throughout my life. I make this pledge freely and without promise of personal gain.
I will support and uphold the mission of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps to strengthen communities and develop leaders through team-based national and community service and commit to my role as a full participant of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. Sacramento Campus. agreeing to abide by the guidelines established to ensure a healthy and productive community experience for all Corps Members.
I will participate as a self-governing member of our nation. I will inform myself about the problems of my community and my country, and I will work with other citizens to solve these problems.
Further, I agree to continue to serve my country as a leader and citizen, not only through my involvement in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, but throughout my life. I make this pledge freely and without promise of personal gain.
So, training is over and we're getting ready to ship out on Monday. Yesterday our team gave our first official briefing to our unit leader and the pacific region director, which went off without a hitch. I think the briefing was the first time we've completed a stressful task as a group. I was a little nervous about us at first, but after seeing how well it went yesterday I think we're going to do well together.
This is a picture that was taken of our group together at Camp Mendocino. From left to right: Steve, Aine, Emily, Scott, Megan, Mike, Me, Melissa, Cassie, and FayannaYesterday morning we had our second PT baseline. I managed 49 pushups, 69 situps, a 1.5 mile time of 10:57, and 13.5" on the sit and reach test. I'm really happy about my running speed, although I think that can mostly be attributed to starting at the front of the group this time.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Team Formation
I feel like I'm finally starting to get a good handle on what the people on my team are like, so I wanted to give a brief introduction to the nine people I'm going to be spending the significant majority of my time with for the next year. I'm going to try to get photos/video up soon so everyone can attach faces to names. The ten of us that make up Blue 3 (or Blü3, as I've taken to writing it) are:
Melissa is our fearless team leader, also known as 'mom' or 'boss'. Melissa has her masters degree in social work and hails from New Jersey. She's pretty low key but still has the energy to lead our team, and definitely has the New England sarcastic sense of humor. She's a bit older than the rest of us, but can still operate on our level.
Aine (pronounced Anya) is also from New York, although just north of the city (Westchester is definitely not upstate, despite everyone's opinion otherwise). She's funny and laid back. Her degree is in architecture, although she's not sure she wants to do that kind of work. Aine's role on our team is service learning initiator.
Emily is one of our two youngins, straight out of high school, but fits well with the older members of our team. She's quick witted and has a funny, sarcastic sense of humor, which is boosted by her somewhat monotone way of speaking (which she occasionally gets jokingly teased about). She's trying to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life while in Americorps, which is no small undertaking. She's our physical training coordinator.
Scott is really chill and relaxed, the kind of guy you can easily sit down and watch football with. He has a degree in communications and wants to work as a sports writer. I'm sharing a room with him and a guy from another team for the rest of the year. Scott is our project outreach liason.
Fayanna is pretty intense about being here. She's already been trying to schedule several independent service projects and seems to feel like she needs to prove her worth here. Still, she's generally pretty friendly and has a really diverse taste in music (I've never met anyone my generation that claimed the 40s as their favorite musical decade before). She was home schooled all through high school, and I think she's had to do a lot of adjusting since she got here. Fayanna has half of the roles of corps representative and photojournalist.
Steve is energetic and really funny (and was voted by our team to be most likely to wear nothing under his jumpsuit). He also likes comics, including Transmetropolitan and Watchmen (two of my favorites), and all kinds of beer. We've got plans to go brewery hopping in Sacramento next weekend before we leave for our first project. Steve is our media representative.
Cassie has her degree in psychology and is from Kentucky. She's really quiet and generally prefers to sit back and watch everyone, which makes the slight twang of her accent a little unexpected. She's pretty smart, and will happily talk with anyone that engages her directly. She's the first peer helper on our team.
Mike is from the glorious state of Texas, although you probably wouldn't be able to tell it from talking to him. He's into a lot of the more obscure things on the Internet (He quoted back random Homestarrunner lines when I once yelled "Hey, Steve!"). I think he's still figuring out how he really fits into our team, but I imagine he'll find his niche soon. He's our vehicle, safety, and tools coordinator.
Megan almost fits the Southern Cali girl stereotype at first glance, but is really friendly and enthusiastic about helping people. She's definitely one of the most outgoing people on our team, which is really cool. She's also straight out of high school and, like Emily, is working on figuring out exactly what she wants to do with herself after Americorps. Megan is our other corps ambassador/photojournalist
And I'm the last member of our team. I don't really know what I can say about myself, aside from the fact that I'm serving as our team's second peer helper. It'll be my job (along with Cassie) to keep the peace and make sure everyone's getting along well.
Our first project is going to be in Los Angeles, mentoring at risk high school kids. We're going to be living in South Central in a house attached to a Methodist church, so it'll definitely be a shift from my normal living arrangements. I'm excited for the opportunity to experience a new lifestyle, even if there's a bit of danger associated with being in that area. I've had some experience through FIRST robotics mentoring inner city kids before, but I think this program will require a whole new level of effort.
Last Friday we, along with three other teams from blue and gold unit, spent the day removing giant reeds from near a waterway in a suburb outside of Sacramento. All morning I got to work with loppers cutting down these reeds, which were like bamboo but a little smaller and not as tough. Some of them were easily 20 feet long, which was really fun when we were all cutting and they were falling around (and occasionally on) us. Once the reeds were cut the project sponsor came around with a herbicide that would hopefully be absorbed into the roots to ensure that they didn't grow back. It was good hard work, which felt really rewarding. We managed to get the whole project done and hour faster than the sponsor thought we would, which made me feel really good about our work together.
Melissa is our fearless team leader, also known as 'mom' or 'boss'. Melissa has her masters degree in social work and hails from New Jersey. She's pretty low key but still has the energy to lead our team, and definitely has the New England sarcastic sense of humor. She's a bit older than the rest of us, but can still operate on our level.
Aine (pronounced Anya) is also from New York, although just north of the city (Westchester is definitely not upstate, despite everyone's opinion otherwise). She's funny and laid back. Her degree is in architecture, although she's not sure she wants to do that kind of work. Aine's role on our team is service learning initiator.
Emily is one of our two youngins, straight out of high school, but fits well with the older members of our team. She's quick witted and has a funny, sarcastic sense of humor, which is boosted by her somewhat monotone way of speaking (which she occasionally gets jokingly teased about). She's trying to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life while in Americorps, which is no small undertaking. She's our physical training coordinator.
Scott is really chill and relaxed, the kind of guy you can easily sit down and watch football with. He has a degree in communications and wants to work as a sports writer. I'm sharing a room with him and a guy from another team for the rest of the year. Scott is our project outreach liason.
Fayanna is pretty intense about being here. She's already been trying to schedule several independent service projects and seems to feel like she needs to prove her worth here. Still, she's generally pretty friendly and has a really diverse taste in music (I've never met anyone my generation that claimed the 40s as their favorite musical decade before). She was home schooled all through high school, and I think she's had to do a lot of adjusting since she got here. Fayanna has half of the roles of corps representative and photojournalist.
Steve is energetic and really funny (and was voted by our team to be most likely to wear nothing under his jumpsuit). He also likes comics, including Transmetropolitan and Watchmen (two of my favorites), and all kinds of beer. We've got plans to go brewery hopping in Sacramento next weekend before we leave for our first project. Steve is our media representative.
Cassie has her degree in psychology and is from Kentucky. She's really quiet and generally prefers to sit back and watch everyone, which makes the slight twang of her accent a little unexpected. She's pretty smart, and will happily talk with anyone that engages her directly. She's the first peer helper on our team.
Mike is from the glorious state of Texas, although you probably wouldn't be able to tell it from talking to him. He's into a lot of the more obscure things on the Internet (He quoted back random Homestarrunner lines when I once yelled "Hey, Steve!"). I think he's still figuring out how he really fits into our team, but I imagine he'll find his niche soon. He's our vehicle, safety, and tools coordinator.
Megan almost fits the Southern Cali girl stereotype at first glance, but is really friendly and enthusiastic about helping people. She's definitely one of the most outgoing people on our team, which is really cool. She's also straight out of high school and, like Emily, is working on figuring out exactly what she wants to do with herself after Americorps. Megan is our other corps ambassador/photojournalist
And I'm the last member of our team. I don't really know what I can say about myself, aside from the fact that I'm serving as our team's second peer helper. It'll be my job (along with Cassie) to keep the peace and make sure everyone's getting along well.
Our first project is going to be in Los Angeles, mentoring at risk high school kids. We're going to be living in South Central in a house attached to a Methodist church, so it'll definitely be a shift from my normal living arrangements. I'm excited for the opportunity to experience a new lifestyle, even if there's a bit of danger associated with being in that area. I've had some experience through FIRST robotics mentoring inner city kids before, but I think this program will require a whole new level of effort.
Last Friday we, along with three other teams from blue and gold unit, spent the day removing giant reeds from near a waterway in a suburb outside of Sacramento. All morning I got to work with loppers cutting down these reeds, which were like bamboo but a little smaller and not as tough. Some of them were easily 20 feet long, which was really fun when we were all cutting and they were falling around (and occasionally on) us. Once the reeds were cut the project sponsor came around with a herbicide that would hopefully be absorbed into the roots to ensure that they didn't grow back. It was good hard work, which felt really rewarding. We managed to get the whole project done and hour faster than the sponsor thought we would, which made me feel really good about our work together.
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