Last day at FLOC

Today is my last day at my placement, For Love of Children.

I have been deeply inspired by the many workshops and sessions I have had with our students. Several of our students are now on the track to successfully graduate high school and work towards a college or post-secondary degree - in fact 100% of our senior class will be moving onto a post-secondary program this fall!

The last few months have been quiet, as a majority of our students have been working summer jobs through the D.C. Summer Youth Employment Program. Though some of our middle school and high school students have been attending summer camp at FLOC's Outdoor Education Center in West Harper, WV. For the past several weeks the high school-middle school program has merged into a condensed after school program now known as the Scholars program.

My community consisting of Lauren, Andrew, Rachel, Laura and I are ending our year with sincere goodbyes and preparing our JVC house for next years JVC community. We have experienced everything together / uniting as acquaintances together at the beginning of the year / adjusting to life in Washington, DC / taking roadtrips to other JVC houses/retreats/gatherings / Mass at St. Augustine's Catholic Church / meeting each others families / amazing dinners / great converstations / extreme weather/ and an eternity of friendships ahead.

So what's next for us?

Lauren will be staying on a second year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps at her placement, Samaritan Ministries. Rachel is heading back to her ala mater, UNC-Chapel Hill to attend medical school. Laura, also returning to her ala mater, Penn State University, for law school. Andrew will be joining me in Portland in a couple of weeks for a visit, then meeting with his father and uncle for a bike ride through Oregon and California. Andrew will end at home in San Diego. And I am heading back to Portland for a couple of weeks, will be attending my cousin Liz's wedding, then moving to the mid-west to Wausau, Wisconsin where I will be entering my journalism career as a multimedia journalist / reporter at WAOW-TV, an ABC affiliate an hour from Greenbay.

I am very sad to leave JVC, my community, and the greater JVC community. But I am also very excited to take what I learned this year and to put it into my career and in life.

Thank you all for your support to me and the JVC over the past year.

College access at College Summit

Last weekend, five of my students and I attended a College Summit workshop at Trinity College in DC. My placement FLOC is partnered with College Summit. College Summit is a "national nonprofit organization that partners with schools and districts to strengthen college-going culture and increase college enrollment rates, so that all students graduate career and college-ready." Upstairs of my placement is College Summit's national office. Members of the national office staff have been guest speakers in a number of my program's workshops.

The workshop was held Thursday-Sunday and offers inner city students the tools they need to write a personal statement for their college applications, create a college list, and offer sessions for students to express themselves and recognize their personal successes, hardships, and vulnerabilities. Students in my program and in the greater DC area have remarkable stories that they were able to express through this program.

Volunteers, alumni leaders, and staff of this program came from all over the country. Over the course of just four days, I quickly became familiar and comfortable with the chaperones, college coaches, and writing coaches. Students left the weekend with an established college list, a solid personal essay, and many new trusting relationships. I am very grateful that I got to witness and experience the growth I saw in my students. Since experiencing the weekend, I have been recommending the volunteer opportunities with College Summit to many of my friends and family members. I look forward to being involved in another workshop in the future.

Only two more weeks remain at my placement in Washington, DC. In three weeks, I will be returning home to Portland, Ore and my Jesuit Volunteer Corps year will be complete. More soon.

More on College Summit: http://www.collegesummit.org/aboutus

FLOC Students Grow and Inspire

My after school education programs have ended for the 2009-2010 school year.

I instructed a life skills and career-based workshop to our sophomore students. For a majority of the spring semester, our students constructed a personalized Ten Year Plan. The Ten Year Plan reflected what students spent the year researching their plans for their remaining years in high school; their future years in college, dreams for their future careers, and even created budgets that reflect their future salaries. The students made amazing effort and I was inspired by their hard work and excitement for their futures. (Left, a few of my sophomore students and I in workshop)

My co-worker Kristina and I co-taught our junior workshop, which ended with students narrowing down their college lists and prepared to take the SAT and ACT exam.

In addition to instructing workshops, I assisted with our post-secondary scholars program. We also offer need-based award to our high school graduates, The Fred Taylor Scholarship. Seven of our high school graduates were recipients of this scholarship and ten of our participants in the Scholars program graduated college this spring.

Our program space is a lot quieter, but we are keeping busy building curriculum for next year. We are combining forces with our middle school Leaders in Action program with our high school program, Educational Guidance & Advocacy. Combined, we have renamed our program "Scholars." Our program will continue to offer grade-based workshops, while also offering additional theme-based programs for out students.

In a few short months, my year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps will come to an end - I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by, and how much I have learned in such a little amount of time. Most of all, I am most proud of the students I served and I cannot wait to see what they do with all of their potential.

DC Students Speak Out Against Graduation Rates

Last Wednesday, I took a few of my program's students to participate in a march and rally organized by S.T.E.P. (Success Through Educational Progress) Up DC. The rally was formed to speak out against the devastating high school graduation rates in the nations capital.

In 2006, the DC public school graduation rate from high school was 49%. The good news, however, is that the number of students graduating high school in the District is rising. The DC Public School system reports that the class of 2010 will have a graduation rate of over 70%, same as the national average. Thought presently, only 9% of DC public school students will receive a four-year degree in six years or less.

It was inspiring to see my students participate in speaking out at such an important cause with many DC students and teachers. We gathered in front of Cardozo High School in Northwest Washington for a rally; then we marched to to the campus of Howard University, which is a prominent historically black college not far from where my JVC community and I live. At my placement, 100% of our students graduate high school on time and 100% of the students have been accepted to a post-secondary institution.

Special West Wing Tour

My housemates Lauren, Laura, Andrew, and I were fortunate enough to get a tour of the West Wing of the White House last night. Our neighbor, Patrick, worked for the Obama campaign and has been working for the Administration since inauguration. We were able to see the Situation Room, the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room, and the Press Room.

One highlight of the visit was the sighting of the first family's dog, Bo (quick photo taken with my housemate Andrew below). A very memorable tour on a beautiful night in DC.


This weekend my community and I will be joining other JVC East Communities on the Ignatian Silent Retreat in Morristown, NJ.

Supporting Non-Profits

Last Wednesday, my placement held its annual breakfast fundraiser. A few months back, I signed up on a committee to help assist the planning. Given my background in the media and film production, I was assigned to help a film crew put together a documentary-style video to help tell the story of For Love of Children that we would share at the fundraiser. The film included current students, members of our staff, and volunteers who are committed to serving FLOC. The staff and I arrived at the AED building on Connecticuit Avenue early Wednesday morning to begin setting up for the event. I helped greet guests, all who entered came in with a smile and graciously listened about our programs that support high risk youth in the DC area. Within the hour, our executive director, program participants and members of the board shared stories of what we do at FLOC and outcomes of our students. While some days can be challenging, the fundraiser breakfast reminded me of the mission of our program and why I am spending my year serving DC's youth.

Spring Jumps to Summer in DC

I don't think I've ever been so tan in April. Less than two months ago my community and I were struggling to dig ourselves out of our house, now we're getting into summer mode and putting on sunscreen.

It's been a busy few weeks since the last time I blogged. During the last week of March my parents and our good family friends, Paul, Sarah, and Maggie Duwelius visited Washington, DC for spring break to visit my brother Brian and I. Paul's nephew, Patrick, happens to live on the same street as my community and I. My family and friends rented a house in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of DC, about 7 blocks away from our neighborhood in Petworth. My favorite part of their visit was sharing my community and placement. Many meals, laughs, and walks in DC made the week very special.

After my family and friends departure, I geared up for a four day college tour with my students. The high school program staff and I took 8 students to visit six colleges in North Carolina and one in Virginia. We had many packed days touring campuses and our students were able to meet with many college recruiters and one former participant in our high school program who is now a member of our FLOC Scholars program.

My community and I had a wonderful Easter weekend. It was filled with lots of visitors, great weather, and the Cherry Blossom festival. On Sunday we went to Mass at St. Augustine's, a very diverse parish near U Street in Washington. We had a great dinner at our house with friends in the area, including Jeff, a JV in Bridgeport, CT, my brother Brian and friends from home Mike, Kyle, and Sarah.

Gentrification in Washington: Local Students Perspective

A few weeks ago I began offering a public speaking course at my placement. While I intended the workshop to have a lot of structure and regular meeting times, it's turned into a weekly round table discussion among a few members of our program, ranging from freshman to seniors. As mentioned in my last blog post, this course has offered our students some time for valuable dialogue for an hour or so each week.

Yesterday I brought up the topic of gentrification. Honestly, before I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, I had hardly heard of this term or really knew what it meant. Gentrification is when wealthier people move into and develop a 'deteriorating' area of a city. This results in a displacement of the poorer and original residents of the community.

The students apart of this discussion are all long time residents of Washington, DC. I was intrigued by their thoughts and we began to make a pros/cons list their personal feelings of gentrification in the neighborhood, specifically the nearby neighborhood of Columbia Heights:

Pros:

• Increases value of property
• Makes the streets and buildings cleaner
• Less drug dealing and drug use
  
• Public transportation more accessible to area
  
• Police walk or bike more, less need to drive
  
• Brings in more grocery and retail stores
• Curfew is instated for kids under the age of 18
• Brings diversity into the area

Cons:

• Removes affordable housing (including Section 8) which forces people out of the area
  
• Too many large condos not occupied by many people
• Restaurants, movie theaters increase prices
• Too crowded
• Drives historical value out of area
  
• Less character
  
• Loss of original community

Columbia Heights is an example of where a drastic gentrification has taken place. Columbia Heights is a neighborhood between my communities home in Petworth and my placement in Adams Morgan. 14th street is a historic place where the 1968 riots took place after Martin Luther King Jr's assassination. After the riot, it left many homes and buildings vacant for decades. This resulted in Columbia Heights becoming a booming area for drug dealing and other criminal activity.

In 1999, the city began revitalizing the neighborhood, especially 14th Street. They installed a metro stop and new businesses began breaking ground to begin the process of rebuilding. Despite the changes, crime and drug use continued. A couple of my students said that until recently they were never allowed to travel alone to the Columbia Heights metro. As the rise of new buildings continued, peoples homes and small businesses including bodegas, pharmacies, and grocery stores were pushed out of the area. This was because either people couldn't afford the new high taxes (due to the value of property increasing) or because the city forced them out to make room for new developments.


Seven blocks east of Columbia Heights is our neighborhood known as Petworth. Petworth is beginning to look more like Columbia Heights, where newer condos being built and many more young professionals moving into the neighborhood. Overall, gentrification does two things: For one thing, it makes the neighborhood safer and more appealing for new people to move in. And secondly, it drives the original residents out of their community and they are forced to find a new place to live. One student put it as: "I wish we could make the neighborhood safe without losing the community."


Thanks to my students Donnell, Faizah, Imani, and Naje for their willingness to share their thoughts on gentrification in Washington, DC.

Kinship at work, home

The snow banks in Washington, DC are about gone. It's March and finally starting to feel more like we are getting closer spring.

This weekend three of my housemates and I drove to Raleigh, NC to visit the five Jesuit Volunteers living there this year. Like most of our trips, we rented a car for a quick 24 hours. While our trips require us to be in the car for several hours, we always enjoy that excuse to have a few hours together to just drive and enjoy one another's company. We pulled into Raleigh around 8:30 that evening. It was a great time with Jesuit Volunteers who made the trek to the most southern community in the JVC east region.

Friday night JV's from Philadelphia and Newark drove to DC to cut down on the driving time to Raleigh. We always enjoy guests at our house; every visit to a JV house that I have made I always find comfort. I'm continually amazed with the amount of friendship that has been formed throughout the JVC communities.

Over the past few months, I have formed a curriculum to begin teaching a public speaking and professional communication course. I offer this course every Wednesday evening for an hour and a half to students in our after school program. It is not a required class, but allows our students an opportunity to open up about themselves in a fun way through activities such as impromptu games and presenting 'how-to' speeches. Later in the course, we are going to focus on more formal presentations which include practice job interviews, resume building, etc. I feel as if I have gained a lot of knowledge about youth this year, but this course has allowed students the students to become more vulerable by allowing them to share.

Over the past few weeks, things at work and home have been very busy. Growing in community can be a challenge, both in an intentional house community and at my placement. I realize that putting great effort and not coasting is how one can find success in both.

DC gets slammed with snow

I'm spending my day off catching up on e-mail and the news looking at the bank of still three or four feet of snow outside of a coffee shop in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in Washington, DC. Record snowfall granted most of my housemates and I nearly a week off of work from our placements. Andrew, who works in hospice care, trekked each day to his placement.

When word that the snowstorm was coming, Lauren and I reacted like everyone else and went to a grocery store about a mile from our house to pick up a few items... not the basic staples such as milk, eggs, or bread; but supplies to make a gourmet dip that we could enjoy during the Superbowl. The lines at the cashiers stretched the entire length of the store. After waiting in line for 45 minutes (which felt like a very stressful and emotional experience), we decided we could go without gourmet dip, put the items back on the shelf, and decided to walk home.

The picked up heavily late that Friday. That night we were enjoying some time playing games, when our neighbors knocked on our door to join them in a snowball fight. Afterward, Andrew and I walked to the neighborhood Wonderland bar which was packed with neighbors from nearby. The rest of the weekend continued with snowball fights and time together. Rachel and I walked to Mass at Sacred Heart and walked to the national mall to take photos of the snow.

Work was canceled Monday, and thinking things were starting to get back to normal, the second round of the snow came through. This led to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to be canceled. I never thought I could get tired of staying up late with friends, sleeping in, eating, watching the news, and relaxation. But having to go back to work on Friday was a breath of fresh air.

On Saturday, my housemates and I rented a car and drove up the Philadelphia for a visit and crossed over to Camden, NJ for to join fellow Jesuit Volunteers for the annual Valentine's day party. A great time spent by all, always a pleasure to see other JVC communities.

This Friday I am going to begin tutoring at a local middle school, Malcolm X, in northeast DC. The high school program I work in does not have program on Friday's, so I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to work with youth who are involved in For Love of Children's neighborhood tutoring program.

State of the Union: Live from Washington

It was an exciting evening in Washington on Wednesday. I had planned on watching Obama's state of the union address at home with my community. We don't watch too much TV, except for some news and a couple of sitcoms throughout the week. I haven't missed TV as much as I thought I would, as it gives me more reasons to read and watch movies with my community.

On Tuesday, I found out the staff that I interned for at Fox News Channel was going to be in DC convering the state of the union address. In the summer of 2008, I interned for Neil Cavuto and his staff of his 4 pm business show, "Your World w/ Cavuto."

I got in touch with the staff and they invited me to come visit them at the Newseum where they were broadcasting from on Pennsylvania Avenue. I stayed around for the evening, helping greet guests, deliver research, run cue-cards to the producers, etc. The staff produced three shows that evening that aired on Fox Business at 6, 8, and right after the address until 11pm. Guests on the shows included former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, former attorney general John Ashcroft, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, and Tennessee congresswoman Marsha Blackburn. It was wonderful meeting all of them on such a historic evening. Around 8:35 pm, we watched the presidential motorcade travel down Pennsylvania Ave.

Catching up with Neil and his producers was great. They were a wonderful staff to work for and I am very grateful to have kept in touch and to have them as my mentors.

Re-Oriented: Mid-year reflection in the JVC

This weekend the 87 Jesuit Volunteers on the east coast gathered outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania for our re-orientation. This is the first time all of us have been together since our orientation retreat in mid-August.

At the end of this month, we will have reached our half-way point in our year of service. The weekend allowed us to re-evaluate our commitment to the values in the JVC. A majority of the retreat was focused on social justice/Catholic social teaching. The discussions were led by a Jesuit priest from Houston, Fr. Fred Krammer, SJ. One of the most valuable parts of the weekend was having discussions with my apostolate group members who are also working in education placements. Many of our stories matched as we witness many of the same struggles in the education system: Poverty, lack of parent involvement, conflicts in the family, learning differences, and limited resources in our non-profits. These discussions have helped me become more energized about my placement and the remaining six months in the JVC.

This weekend also helped me get reinforced about the four values of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and how my community and I continue to live them:

Simple living: Living off a stipend. The majority of my pay check goes towards rent, utilities, and community food money. Personally I am allotted $85 in spending money. We refrain from using cable TV, subscribing to the Internet, buying expensive food, etc.

Community: Living with four other Jesuit Volunteers and embracing one another's experiences. Nightly dinners, weekly spirituality and community nights. Supporting one another through the struggles and needs of one another. Staying in touch with the greater east coast JVC communities.

Spirituality: Having open discussions about our spiritual lives and how they are integrated into our year of service. We take turns leading spirituality nights; attend Mass regularly. I have been bi-monthly participating in spiritual direction with a local Jesuit.

Social Justice: This year I am working at For Love of Children as an evening high school instructor and assisting with our college scholarship program. The goal is to make college and other post-secondary school programs available to the inner-city at-risk youth that participate in our program.

Re-Orientation was a wonderful experience that allowed me to recognize that challenges that I have been faced with this year and the gratitude that I have for my community, placement, and city that I live in.

2010 in the JVC

I returned to my placement a couple of weeks ago after taking some time off for Christmas break. To celebrate the holidays, I returned to my hometown of Lake Oswego, Ore. It was a nice time of the year to return to the Pacific Northwest. No snow to come home to this year; less exhaustion since I was not recovering from a series of final exams, and certainly a different feel at home than long extended Christmas breaks I had in college.

I had a chance to catch up with a lot of friends from home, many of us which I recent college grads going down different paths whether it be continuing school, starting a career, or volunteering. My family and I had a nice holiday and celebrated with our normal traditions. We spent a couple of days in Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon with friends of ours who have a house down there.

On my return to the east coast, I stopped in one of my favorite places in the world: New York City. Several of the Jesuit Volunteers traveled to Harlem to ring in 2010 together. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the holiday but in a festive city with such a great group of people. The next day I returned to Washington DC via the Mega Bus. I came home to housemates Andrew and Rachel who were already home. It was nice to have a couple of days to settle in and gear up for work to begin. Laura and Lauren returned to DC the following Sunday.

It's great to be back to Washington DC. Visitors are always a pleasure to have. A visit from teachers from both high school and college have been a nice treat since our return.

All of the east coast Jesuit Volunteers head to Re-Orientation this weekend. I look forward to re-connecting with many people and seeing what it's all about.