Power, Privilege, Oppression, and Intersectionality

In December, I was able to site lead an Alternative Break through CMU.  I site lead the Youth Development AB that went to Omaha, Nebraska to work with Youth Emergency Services, a non-profit organization that provides resources to homeless and nearly-homeless youth in the area. This AB challenged me in ways that other ones had not yet. Being a site leader, I had extra responsibilities, such as making sure everyone arrived safe, communicating with community partners, and facilitating community building and reflections with my group. I did this with a co-site leader, from who I learned from and problem-solved with. This AB also helped understand the depth of intersectionality more than my previous ABs had.

Through service we helped sort through donations, deliver donations, set up for a Christmas Service with the members of YES!, and help run the Christmas Service. Through working with the donations I learned a lot about how much privilege I have by having easy access to everyday products that I use and need. Specifically, I looked at this through the lens of being a woman. During service, I spent lots of time going through feminine hygiene products and was surprised at how many donations of tampons and pads there were. I then realized that if I had no income or way to pay for these necessities, I would have no way of getting them. Females NEED access to these every month, and it is something that is not often donated because it is overlooked. So, if you are looking to donate to a shelter, consider donating feminine hygiene products. I also learned from my community partner the terrifying statistic that once a female is homeless, within 90 minutes 43% will be a victim of sex trafficking. This AB made me think deeper about my privilege to have access to things that keep me safe and healthy but also how much of a privilege it is for me to even go on an Alternative Break. The ability to take off time from work and serve for a week is privilege. To have access to education is a privilege.

The Christmas Service was set up with donations from members and organizations in the community for those who utilize YES! to come and take what they need. This included, diapers, baby clothing, cooking utensils, toiletries, blankets, hats, gloves, coats, and clothing. Everything in the Christmas Service was brand new, it was a gift. This made me even more aware of my privilege because when I saw individuals coming through to take what they need, when given the choice of perfume/face masks or toothpaste/blankets, they chose the toothpaste or blankets or soap, because it was what they needed. They had the opportunity to take things that aren’t a necessity, and they would get excited about soap or diapers, because it was something they needed. I had one girl who was about 13 come up and ask me what all she should take in order to take care of her hair. In that moment, I realized that not everyone has access to learn about different elements of what we consider everyday actions, let alone have the materials to be able to do them.

I also learned how those in power are implementing policies that are harming these individuals. In Nebraska, one is not able to sign a lease for their own home or apply for a loan until 19. This means that the task of going to college or moving out is extremely difficult. This puts a large number of individuals without a home unless their parents can afford to help them once they are done with high school. It is disproportionately harming families from lower socioeconomic status areas and putting them in danger. This harm increases for communities of color, woman, and individuals with disabilities. This is one example of the way those in power have the ability to shape the lives of individuals.

Alternative Breaks never fail to make me realize my privilege and give me a resurgence in my belief that it is my responsibility as a person who has privilege to do my best to help those who have not had the privilege of being given access to the same things I have. I look forward to site leading another Alternative Break this summer.

Detroit Service Trip LEAD team, try number 2

My freshman year, my cohort of LAS went on a service trip to Detroit where we received education about Detroit and served the community. This year I was on the LEAD team for the Detroit Service Trip for the freshman cohort of LAS. This meant I was able to participate in the experience and facilitate reflections with a small group of students. This experience had some differences from my freshman year, and I have grown a lot and am different too. It is because of these differences that I was able to learn so much and be impacted so heavily by the experience.

One of the biggest things that I took away this time was how aware I was of the gentrification that is occurring in Detroit. On the first day of the trip, we spent some time with Quicken Loans and took a historic tour of Detroit. During the tour, we learned about the housing barriers that have been placed on people of color and the systemic racism that has driven many decisions that have been made in the city. Decisions that were made not that long ago, have had immense effects on communities of color. After the day, I was eager to get into reflection because of the impact the tour. It was fulfilling to hear and see students response to the tour and the amount they learned. They were able to connect the dots in how power and privilege can lead to groups being oppressed. The next day we served with CASS. The group I was with worked on recycling paper. I helped sort paper before it went to be shredded.

This experience was an amazing one that gave me the opportunity to help members of the freshman cohort reflect and grow from their experience, and it gave me the opportunity to learn and grow myself.

Morality

One of the classes we are required to take for LAS protocol is a philosophy class taught by the one and only Gary Fuller.  I can honestly say this is one of my favorite classes I have taken so far at CMU.  Gary Fuller walks into the classroom with an unmatched personality and energy that creates an atmosphere that I do not think anyone in my cohort was prepared for.  Gary also has a deep amount of appreciation and respect for his students.  I still see Gary on campus outside of the classroom, and we have a full conversation every time.  He is a professor who genuinely cares about his students, and he even throws us a Christmas party at the end of the semester.

Aside from the professor, I loved this class because of the way it made me think.  This class added not only the question of if something was morally okay or not, but also why something was moral or not.  I have always been a person who was very strong in beliefs, and I am willing to vocalize them.  I was constantly being challenged in this class to be able to defend my beliefs and whether or not they are moral.  This class touched on a lot of topics that made people angry.  The topics paired with the 8ams caused for a large chunk of the class to often become disengaged.  This added even more to my overall takeaway from the class.

You cannot make people care.  I may believe something is or is not morally okay.  Someone else may believe differently.  We may have our reasons and that is where debate begins and change happens.  However, if people don’t have an opinion, no one is challenged.  There is a lack of growth, and there is a lack of change.  Discovering how actions and ideas line up with your values is essential to being a leader because it allows you to have the important conversations and to make a difference.

“It made a difference to that one”

This summer I had the privilege of going on an Alternative Summer Break through CMU. Alternative Breaks (AB) work by having students sign up to work for a cause they are passionate about, not knowing where they are going or what they will doing.  12 students go on each break, and they meet weekly to become educated on the issue they are going to be working with.  A couple weeks after signing up, the group figures out what service they will be doing and where they will be going for their week of service.

Ever since I was little I have had this crazy amount of love for animals.  Since coming to college I have also become very passionate about the environment and saving the earth we live on.  So, I signed up for the break that deals with the issue of Animal Endangerment.  We found out that we were going to be traveling to Palm Beach, FL to help baby sea turtles find their way to the ocean, and yes, it is as perfect as it sounds.

So, me and twelve girls packed into two mini vans and drove to Palm Beach.  The first day there we spent time getting to know the area and visiting the GORGEOUS beach that we were going to be doing some of our service on.  We make our own meals throughout our week, so we went grocery shopping and set up at the Faith Lutheran church we were staying at.

Throughout the week we spent long days doing service.  We arrived at the beach at 6 A.M. every morning to work with the  Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island.  We worked with this woman Debbie, who started the Sea Turtle program on Singer Island herself.  Debbie is a woman who, though I only spent a week with her, she has made a huge impact on my life.  Everything Debbie says inspires the people around her to do whatever they are passionate about.  She has had numerous jobs throughout the years and all of them were because she felt a pull to them at that time because it was her passion.  She said “I would get these brainstorms of what I wanted to do, and I had to do it.” She started the Sea Turtle program after already having children and having a career.  She wanted to save the turtles, and so she did just that.  Debbie does all of this program solely based on volunteering.  She and her volunteers, and us for the week we were there, spend 4 hours every morning walking the beach, helping baby sea turtles find their way to the ocean, excavating old sea turtle nests, marking new sea turtle nests, and documenting hatched nests.

After working in the mornings with Debbie, we would head over to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center to volunteer with them.  Loggerhead is a sea turtle rehabilitation center that helps rescue turtles of any age and nurse them back to health, to have them later released back into the ocean.  Loggerhead was the most amazing place I have visited to see animals.  They don’t treat the turtles any different than how a patient at a rehabilitation center that was a human would be treated.  When volunteering with Loggerhead, we did any type of work that they needed help with,  the majority of this being painting the pier they own.  We also helped them with yard work stuff in the front of the building.  Even though we were not directly working with the turtles at this point,  there is still so much reward to be gained from doing indirect service.

Our last service trip stop of the day was to MacArthur State Park.  While working at MacArthur State Park, we helped remove invasive species, trim trails, and clean up trash from trails.  This service was probably the service that was the most difficult for my group simply because we were usually doing service here at the peak heat of the day in long pants and shirt in the middle of August.  However, this work was work that really helped fire up my love for the environment.  Seeing all of the trash that is left around is heartbreaking, and so being able to help contribute to making the world a cleaner place was the ultimate win.

This trip taught me more than I could ever imagine.  Sea Turtles are endangered and only 1 in 10,000 sea turtles make it to adulthood.  Most nests have around 100 turtle hatchlings in them.  This means that a lot of nests are overall unsuccessful.  I saw a lot of nests that not a lot of the sea turtles made it to the surface of the sand alive because they get fried in the sand as a result of rising temperatures.   When sea turtles do make it out the sand, many do not make it to the water because of the amount of light that is on from buildings, hotels, and condos that lead them in the wrong direction. A lot of sea turtles are harmed once they get in the ocean because of the amount of trash that is left in the ocean. Overall, I just learned how much of an impact our everyday actions can impact the animals around us.  Even though so many sea turtles don’t make it to adulthood, and we can only help so many in a week, it is important to remember that we may not have saved all the turtles, but we were able to help some. Any is better than none.

A few things that I have started changing about my everyday life to lessen my carbon footprint and help support the environment:

• I was already a vegetarian before this trip, but this AB has reiterated my reasons for doing so
• I no longer use plastic grocery bags
• I limit my use of plastic straws
• I do not drink out of plastic water bottles

My AB was one of the best weeks of my life because of the work I got to do, and the people I got to connect with.  You can bet I will go on another Alternative Break this winter.

 

 

How a (gleeky) TV show changed my life

When I was little my family used to always make fun of me because I had what they called an “obsessive personality.”  I do not disagree with them because I get very hooked on specific TV shows, movies, bands, songs, foods, anything at a time.  However, one of my favorite TV shows and biggest obsession periods was the TV show Glee.

Glee is probably one of the dorkiest TV shows and that is exactly why I love it.  I first fell in love because it was a light-hearted funny show based on music…what wasn’t to love?  However, the show came out right when I was in middle school and my view on the world was expanding.  People quickly went from saying “that’s dumb” or “that’s stupid” in elementary school to “that’s gay” or “that’s retarded” in middle school and I HATED IT. I still do.  I could never really convince people that it wasn’t the nicest things to say, so I kind of kept to myself on the issue for a little while until this one episode inspired me to stand up to whoever said these harmful things.  One Tuesday night I was watching my favorite TV show and one of the characters said to one of the gay characters that something was “faggy.”  The dad quickly overheard and gave one of the greatest television speeches I have ever heard about this derogatory and exclusive language.  The video can be seen here.

This really opened my eyes to even though people are saying they don’t mean anything bad by saying “that’s gay” or “that’s retarded” they still are putting a negative connotation with words that should not have any negative connotation with them at all.  It creates a sense of superiority that is unnecessarily cruel and offensive.  This happened very early on in the show and it really opened the character’s eyes as it opened mine.  The show continued to tackle social issues, and, though it is heavily dramatized at times, it really sparked a fire in me to say “hey, judging others is not right!”

Because let’s be honest, what if the roles were reversed? Say in some parallel universe being a straight white male was the minority and it was treated as though it was a “disability” or a “handicap” rather than just a regular part of that person’s life?  What if people said “That’s so straight”?? Sounds pretty dumb doesn’t it? So why do people go around wasting breath with hateful and exclusive language?

I hope this is a fad that dies out, fast.

So, to all of you out there who get (lovingly)picked on by your family for loving a TV show, know that there is a chance it can change your view and outlook on the world and shape your life forever! Thanks Glee!!!

“It’s a No from me”

I was asked “does leadership come from a yes or a no?”

Not gonna lie, at first I wanted to pick no because I wanted to stand out because I feel like a majority would answer yes. However, this goes along with exactly why I say leadership comes from a no.

A large part of being a leader is being a role model.  This includes being able to stand up for what you believe is right.  You should want to be different from the crowd and have your own voice be heard.  This comes from saying “No.”  No should not be seen as something negative, because a large part of having a positive life and impact is getting rid of the negatives in your life.  So, in order to have a positive impact on those around you, you need to be able to say no to the negatives.  For example: Say no to conformity, say no to your fears, say no to the bad influences in your life, say no the negativity.

You can never truly have a “yes” if you don’t at first, have a no.  You can’t say yes to the positives in life if you are stuck focusing on the negatives.

Living the lifestyle of positivity will give you the opportunity to set yourself up to be a better leader than before.  You will be able to have a positive influence on the people around you and spread smiles.

This is a mentality I hope to embrace.  I want to complain less and say no to the things that are not necessarily the best influences on me.  Saying no may be hard sometimes but I think in the end it will be worth it because the reward will be me becoming a better person and having a better influence on the world and people around me.

 

Choosing Civility

In our leadership class for LAS, our cohort was split into 6 groups that all read a different book and then presented how their book applied to leadership to the class.  My group was assigned the book Choosing Civility.  This book focused on the 25 rules of how to be civil.  The three rules that I had the responsibility of presenting about were “Refrain from Idle Complaining”, “Accept and Give Constructive Criticism”, and “Don’t Shift Responsibility and Blame.”

The first rule, “Refrain from Idle Complaining”, is the rule that I decided was the one that I needed to improve on the most in my life.  As leaders, we have a large influence on the people’s lives around us.  Everyone’s attitudes are contagious, so why not do our best to make everyone around us happier?  The main point of this is that we spend so much of our daily lives focusing on the little things go wrong…”the line was so long today at the store”,”ugh I don’t want to go to class”, “It is so cold outside today.”  These little negative things may not seem like a big deal at the time, but these complaints add up and create a negative atmosphere around us.  Instead, try to focus on the positives in life and you will make not only yourself, but also everyone around you happier.

“Control the controllables”

The second rule, “Accept and Give Constructive Criticism”, is a life lesson that I think is very valuable.  My volleyball coach in high school focused heavily on this during our practices.  Instead of saying what we shouldn’t do( ex. “Don’t miss this next serve”), she had us verbally say out loud to each other what we WILL do(ex. “I will make my next serve”).  This constructive criticism that we gave ourselves and others allowed us to improve because we focused on improving what we were doing in a positive way.

The last rule, “Don’t Shift Responsibility and Blame”, applies a lot to my core value of integrity.  By not shifting responsibility and blame, you are being accountable for you actions.  In leadership and in life, it is important to admit that you have made mistakes.  This allows you to grow and learn from your mistakes rather than run form them.

The book also mentions the steps to take in order to implement these rules into your life.  It says to focus on one rule at a time, and day by day increase how much you practice the rule in your life.  For example, if you wanted to focus on the rule “Refrain from Idle Complaints” you would focus everyday on slowly saying less complaints and instead making positive remarks.  This is the rule that I plan on focusing on first.  I know that there are a lot of days when I spend way too much time complaining.  Part of this is because I like to talk a lot, and when I don’t have much to say, I fill the empty space with little complaints, such as “I’m tired” or “I don’t want to do this.”  This is a really bad habit of mine but I think if I can cut it out, I will be allowing myself to be much more positive and spread positivity to others.

My group decided to implement these rules by passing out nice cards to people on campus that say nice things and motivate people to do their best!  Overall, I think this project allowed me to see how much little things we do can affect others.  It has made me more conscious of my day to day actions.