Blog 2 Extra Credit

The Homestretch

 

 

 

 

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      The film The Homestretch was a very touching film as it described the struggles of homeless youth. The story that left the greatest impact on me was the story of Roque. Roque was taken in by his teacher who realized the neglect he was suffering. She influenced his life so deeply to improve his grades and develop a great aspiration to attend college. He is currently a student here at Northeastern Illinois University. However, the struggle was that much harder than myself and most of my classmates have encountered, as he is an immigrant with negligent parents. Roque contested his decline of acceptance, and fortunately was accepted, but the struggle continues. Roque was unable to attain financial aid as he can not provide the required documentation.

   

      Roque's journery allowed me to appreciate the opportunity to be in this country. Often times in courses like these we focus on the negative issues in this country, and not on the positive things it provides. Although I am grateful to not have suffered the difficulty of Roque's journey, his story left me disappointed once again in this country, and its priorities. It allowed me to reflect on the many reasons why America is one of the only two countries to not ratify The Rights under the Convention on the the Rights of a child, because we would then shift the priorities to our civilians and not to monetary profit.

 



Blof 2 Post I

Chicago

 

Inequality in Chicago schools

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/district-299-chicago-public-schools-blog/2012/01/the-legacy-of-cps-segregation/

 

 

 Over the last years technology has developed greatly. This is a positive as well as a negative for our youth. Due to the development of technology many corporations have begun to incorporate certain technology requirements for employment. What occurs when public schools do not have the funds to update their technology? The youth attending these low funded schools are no longer qualified for these jobs. Unfortunately this youth is left at a disadvantage. This was a very interesting concept to reflect on, that was provided by "How Public Schools Can Fight Back Against Inequality".

 

          The article also brought up another interesting point of how they manage to concentrate the poor students with the poor and the rich students with the rich, leading to education inequality. We see this in action with the closure of many city schools and or their conversion to charter schools as discussed in our cities projects.

 

 

 

 

 

Duncan, Greg J., and Richard J. Murnane. "How Public Schools Can Fight Back Against Inequality." The Atlantic (2014): n. pag. Web. Nov. 2014. <http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/how-public-schools-can-fight-back-against-inequality/283669/>.

Blog 2 Post H

Shipler

 

 

          Shipler poses a statement that in order to get out of poverty, all the ways to get out of poverty must be completed at once. I have mixed feelings about this statement. In a sense, I can see Shipler's point of view. Much like the African proverb " it takes a community to raise a child" it indicates that all of an individual's systems must be working together at once to have the individual succeed. By systems we are referring to any points of contact in a person's life, school work, etc.

 

           On the other hand, one can argue in the theory of risk & resilience. In other words, that regardless of the negative factors of an individuals life they can still succeed. For example a child who attends a very bad public school in a violent low income neighborhood, being accepted to an ivy league school. This exemplifies resilience.

 

 

Blog 2 Post G

Wal-mart


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        As a child I grew up shopping at Wal-mart, like many other Americans through out their life have. The reason my family chose to shop at Wal-mart was because of it's affordable prices, however we were not aware of the costs of these low prices. The documentary on Wal-mart and it's ethics regarding employees, communities, the environment, and people in general, was very eye-opening. This was an issue of exploitation. It is exploitation in every sense, the workers are being exploited for their labor abroad as well as in the united states. Workers abroad being exploited seems like a topic that we are able to grasp more easily as it is not said to be occurring in our country which is false. American workers are also being exploited, the documentary explains how they are not receiving adequate healthcare provided by the employer, instead they are being paid low wages to be able to qualify for government healthcare. Not only is this occurring but they are also being encouraged to rely on government assistance. The system is a vicious circle in which an individuals struggle for success is that much greater. 

Blog 2 Post F

Hunger Banquet


 

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           Through out this course I have learned life lessons I didn't think I'd learn in a class room environment. Some of these lessons came from speakers who had heart warming and life concerning journeys to tell us to bring awareness to issues of justice today. Service projects that helped us as students not only learn how agencies function but also provided us with life lesson of gratitude and appreciation. The Hunger Banquet was one of these experiences. Many of us will never be able to experience the life of those that are less fortunate and many of us may unfortunately end up in their shoes or hopefully assisting them. The Oxfam America Hunger Banquet allowed for us to get a small glimpse of what it would be like for one meal to be in the shoes of others. 

          Upon the entrance of the banquet you were provided an index card with a new identity and with that new identity came a new class. There were three sectors in the banquet high class, which was one table for very few people, it was fully adorned with silver ware and a three course meal. There were about three other bare tables for the middle class, and lastly there was the floor for the lower class. It was important to notice the amount of chairs for each sector, the high class had the least , then the middle class, and most of my classmates were in the lower class, which remained seated on the floor. 

          I was provided a card of a small female business owner. She owned farms and was able to make a living out of them which set her in the middle class. I sat amongst about eight other individuals. We however did not have a three course meal. We had bland pasta and water. This represented the availability for us to feed ourselves, however not in abundance nor the best quality. The lower class had broth and remained on the floor. 

          The most impacting aspect of this excersice was when random individuals were selected to stand and they were said to experience crisis such as a medical emergency or no rain for crops , these life crisis set them down to the lower class. It really brought reality to the situation, and allowed us to realize this instances can occur to anyone. Our position unfortunately is unstable, therefore we should be compassionate of those in less than favorable situations as we don't know how they got there, what we do know is they wouldn't like to stay there. 

Blog 2 Post E

Jake Bradley 

           One of the most enjoyable aspects of this course is listening to our guest speakers. Every speaker has been able to provide us with a face of an injustice and a struggle occurring today. Jake Bradley provided us with very enriching information regarding the LGBTQ community and the issue of poverty and homelessness. Jake is a very valuable member to this society as he is one of the founder of "The Crib". The crib was an experimental program which later became fully funded and many other programs were modeled after it. What a great success! Jake brought awareness to a very important issue within homelessness, he stated that a vast majority of the individuals being housed at this center were homeless because they belonged to the LGBTQ community. This is a very compelling statement, to think that individuals are going through such suffering because of their sexual orientation, which is a freedom we all have. 

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Blog 2 Post D

Service Project 

          I completed my service project at Lakeview Pantry. I volunteered there from October 24th to November 25th. I very much enjoyed being given the oppurtunity to explore the many roles in the agency. 

My first day I volunteered alongside two of my classmates, Ali and Mike. Mike and I were assigned to sort out flower bouquets. We found this detail very heart warming. Clients utilizing the food pantry were able to pick up fresh flowers as well! 

I was then transferred over to the produce department in which I would be packaging and providing fresh fruits and vegetables for the qualifying clients. Produce was available for pick up to clients once a week. I was astounded by the quality of the produce. Almost all of it was organic and fresh with a variety of fruits ranging from mangoes, berries, pomegranates etc. This I found to be my favorite as I was able to assist clients and was able to provide a little more options than the rest of the food categories. 

My second day volunteering I was assigned my own counter. This entailed I waited for instructions from the intake coordinator, they would provide me the number of people in the household and I would gather all their juice, milk, grains, etc. The interesting part of this role was the pantry accomadated those that were homeless by providing a sector of food labeled "outside no-cook". This meant they were homeless with no access to a stove. There was a large bin of premade meals and the clients in this category were able to take unlimited amounts as well as fresh fruits and vegetables! The pantry had a secondary sector labeled inside no-cook. This catered to those "couch surfing" with no access to stoves. I was glad to see an agency cater to different clients with different difficult situations. 

On another occassion Mike and I were assigned the role of sorting meat and bread. This was one of the least enjoyable. Many packages of meat were ripped causing liquids to spill and such. We were instructed to dispose of any packages with tears. I found a concerning issue during the meat sorting process. There were boxes with meat that had unfrozen through out the process of shipping and delivering. We were then instructed to put all the thawed out meat into seperate boxes then they were put in freezer to refreeze. To my understand this can cause sickness.

Mike and I were assigned hygene packages during one occassion. There were boxes of toiletries such as toothbrushes, toothpastes, shampoo, soap etc. We created kits out of these materials. 

I was also given the oppurtunity to manage the carts of the clients. Their system worked wonderfully. As the clients would enter the pantry with their carts they would check them in with me. I would provide them a card and the matching card would be attached to the cart. When they were called up to their counter I would bring out the cart for them to load their groceries. This was done to maximize the space the pantry. 

One of the most impacting duties I was given was assisting the blind and disabled clients. I would walk them to their designated counter where there food had been arranged by another volunteer, for the blind, I would verbally describe each food item for their approval or if they would like a substitute. For the disabled we would do the same process and Mike and I would take their groceries to their designated bus stop. 

It was a great learning experience, and one I believe every individual at least once in their life should experience!