Power and Ally-ship

Another week done! We had a great session with the students who finally made it! We attended a workshop with them from Scholarship Junkies in order to understand better ways to apply for and receive scholarships to pay for college. A major component of any scholarship application is the essay. Two important questions we have to answer no matter what prompt we are given are: Who am I? and Why do I do what I do? Making sure to answer these questions while incorporating a personal story with your feelings are specific ways to enhance a scholarship application. It gives the readers a better idea of what you have done and your potential in the future. Another way students can enhance their applications is by using their time effectively by participating in organizations, volunteering, or working. This can make them stand out from other applicants and show what they are passionate about and dedicated to working towards. Being mentors, the stars leaders can use this information to help them write better essays and encourage them to be involved in activities they are passionate about. The Empowerment Pipeline can use this to encourage students to be more involved in the community and school and help them find what they are passionate about. Scholarships contribute greatly to my vision of social justice. They give students the opportunity to fulfill what they're passionate about and give them opportunity to go to college which was once only available to people who could afford it. Having the same opportunity to go to college as other people is one part of my definition of social justice.

http://scholarshipjunkies.com/

An interesting article we read this week was "Finding Your Power," a short essay on people's responses and connections to others. Even though the article was brief and to the point, I found that the things he mentions are key elements of being a leader. I have always felt that you can best tell a good leader by their reaction to a situation. Excuse making is one negative trait that leaders must overcome in order to be a compassionate leader. Any time I am confronted about something I did that may have been the wrong way to handle a situation, before I respond I make sure I am clear on their point of view. I then make sure in my response to take responsibility for my actions and try to explain what I was thinking in that moment, without making excuses. Helping others rise above blaming is more difficult than yourself, especially if you are the one they are blaming. You have to realize that they may be defensive for different reasons such as they feel they are being attacked. But in the end everyone has to.....

The second article we read, entitled "The Do's and Don'ts of Being a Good Ally," was about specific ways to be a better ally, and things that allies shouldn't try to do. I think being a better ally means not being afraid to have conversations about topics that make you uncomfortable, and learning about topics relevant to that minority. Using this in STARS LEAD, I can better educate myself on different racial, class, religious, etc. minorities and their struggles, especially as they try to attain a higher education. Some of my strengths as an ally are listening to people's stories and treating others as a person and not a token. Other areas I need to improve on are contributing to uncomfortable discussions and asking questions that can help me understand the situation better in order to see how I can best help them. Being an ally means educating yourself, listening to first hand accounts, and standing up to bigotry.

Waiting for Superman

Hello all, I can't believe the warm weather we are having in March! It used to be the snowiest month of the year, and now it is 60+ degrees. Please accept my sincerest apologies for submitting this blog a little late, I was at the first annual The People's Institute Retreat which focused on leadership and diversity this past weekend. I will blog about that experience in a separate post later this week, but I had a great time and learned quite a lot.

This week we watched the film "Waiting for Superman." It talks about educational struggles and inequalities in public schools. It still made me shocked and infuriated at the injustice of the in-balance of the quality of education at public schools across the nation. It shocked me that no state is even close to having even 50% of proficiency in math or reading at the eighth grade level at the time of this movie, less than two years ago.  The saddest part is that the worst area is Washington D.C., our nation's capital.

Some students are doing poorly in school because of ineffective teachers, no family support, or lack the proper resources needed. By having ineffective teachers, especially at young ages, they are not getting the foundation they need to keep up with the learning. This gap widens as they get older and makes them more likely to drop out. Secondly, without family support it is hard to find the motivation to go to school; thankfully the children in the video had at least one adult in their life who helped them. Finally, many children's learning disabilities are undiagnosed or simply lack the resources and personal attention they need to learn. This became very real to me when I heard a personal story from someone else. Her mother had moved to the suburbs of Chicago to keep her and her younger siblings out of the Chicago Public School system. This was especially important for her younger brother who has a learning disability. They can no longer afford to live there so they now have to move back to Chicago, where her brother will not have the attention he needs.

If superman was going to save these students, he would have to create uniform rules and regulations for schools, recognize and accommodate the different needs of each community, and most importantly make sure all teachers are effective in teaching the required materials. We can help by advocating for different laws or repeals of laws that hinder the basic need of children to learn. Providing role models and examples of what life could be like for younger children if they go to college is also important because it keeps them thinking about what their life could be like and motivates them to follow their dreams. I believe trying to get parents involved is difficult, especially if they have to work. Even something as small as the parents making a sports game or performance or dance can encourage the student to continue to be involved and they would most likely enjoy going to school. I suggest for those of you who have not watched the video yet to do so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bzFhrkqE8g&feature=youtu.be

After reading the article "12 Lies To Stop Telling Yourself" I definitely read things that I can recall saying to myself. The article reminds me of a main topic that was taught at TPI retreat on Saturday. The main point was that we all have a single-sided story about ourselves which continually runs in our minds as an internal script. These twelve lies in the article are some of the top internal scripts that are our own single stories. What we learned is that there is no data to support these negative thoughts. I hope to improve myself by being mindful if I start these negative sayings, to counter them with a positive one. I can also go back and think of all the reasons my negative thoughts have no basis. I can use this information to teach other people not to judge themselves or others. I believe by being a role model for others I can show them that dreams are attainable, everyone makes mistakes, failure is necessary to succeed, and that your past is not indicative of your future. One quote I would like to share with other students is, "It's better to have a lifetime full of mistakes that you learned from, rather than a heart full of regrets and empty dreams."

A major flaw of the current U.S.  educational system is the way it is set up to distribute resources according to the socioeconomic status of neighborhoods. This creates a greater disparity between the quality of education and resources available to children in different neighborhoods. It is especially unfair because poorer children are often in more need for those resources. I believe I can educate myself and others more about the issue, and vote. Voting is important because elected officials can change legislature pertaining to the issues that are most important to you.

Choose Happiness

On our last meeting before spring break, we had a chance to just unwind from the first half of the semester by learning more about each other through an activity. For this activity we made cards and on the front wrote our names and things that described us. We drew symbols and wrote words about our personalities, clubs we are in, things we like, etc. Afterwards we shared what we wrote with everyone. I thought this was a great way to learn more about people we might not necessarily have met if not for the LEAD program. It was interesting to find things people had in common, or that were unique to them. The second part of the activity we did was writing in everyone else's cards a positive message to them. This made me realize that even though we learned a lot about everyone during this activity, I still don't know as much as I would like about everyone in the group. It was nice to read the messages from everyone as I was riding the bus back home to Minnesota. I like these cards because sometimes comments are unexpectedly perceptive about an individual's personality. They also make you realize that you have a lot more people supporting you than you know.

 After reading the article "10 Ways Happy People Choose Happiness" I can see how it applies to people in their every day lives. Happiness is something you choose by the ways you conduct yourself and your attitude in different situations. I can readily identify with a few of the main points, especially because I see myself as a fairly happy person. I do carry out some of the main points, but there is always room for improvement. I plan to focus on the first point, "be the best you can be" because I sometimes compare myself to others. This is a bad habit that I know will not help me continue to meet my goals. I need to focus on what I can do, rather than what others can. I will also try the 6th step "take care of my body" by eating more fruits and vegetables and going to work out more often. I believe this will help me focus more and become a healthier person both physically and mentally. Finally, I am going to focus on "choosing to embrace the next step in your life" because I have both followed this advice and gone against it. The quote that really resonated with me was
"Never let success get to your head and never let failure get to your heart. [..] And don't forget, a smile doesn't always mean a person is happy right now; sometimes it simply means they are strong enough to face their problems going forward." I have some times taken failure extremely hard and let it discourage me. I plan to persevere when I fail at something and make sure to learn from my mistakes.

There are various things that make me happy in life. Most are the little daily things like a kind act for me or another. I enjoy sun and warm weather, thunderstorms when I don't have to go anywhere, and rainbows. Going on adventures with friends and catching up with old friends is really fun. I enjoy hiking and camping, being in nature. Being with my sister always makes me happy, especially because we don't get to see each other on a regular basis.


To be honest, I haven't thought much about the upcoming projects we have. The e-portfolio, I will admit, I haven't actually started making it. I am really excited to create one though. I have started to think about the style and format of it. I have also decided that I will put on papers from various classes to show my diverse range of writing. I will also put on key experiences that I have had outside of classroom learning. This will show how I learn through experiences too. For the final project we have, I think it is a good idea to have footage of when we interact with the students from the Empowerment Pipeline. I think it might be nice to have each of us talk either about something we learned from the LEAD program or quotes on leadership.

For spring break I went home to Minnesota. I saw family and only one of my friends because most of them have spring break this week. I got to catch up on my sleep; I slept about twelve hours every night! I also was able to eat good food, my favorite was the ribs I had. The second weekend of spring break I went to Milwaukee where I visited my sister. We went out for food and did some shopping. This was probably the highlight of my break because I love the time I can be with my sister. I was also able to see two friends who attend UW-Milwaukee. The trip was a nice chance to catch up with all of them. When I came back to school on Sunday I went out for food one last time with my friends Cheryl and Karina to a Chinese/ Korean restaurant. The food was fantastic and it was a nice way to end spring break 2012. For the summer I plan on applying for more jobs at home and possibly applying for internships. The money would be very helpful for tuition and the experience would be extremely valuable.