The End – Bri Williams

I came into this class knowing a few things about homeless and food insecurity. I knew it happened to people. I knew it could happen to anyone. I knew it was hard for people. I have seen it, I have witnessed it, I have felt it. But I never knew the numbers, the amount it people it effected. How the state and government handle these very American issues.

I have learned we can not solve it all, but we can take steps to show we care. We love to help others and lend a hand. But we do it for a little bit, and stop. Or we do not finish out our mission. So, the goal I have for here on out, is to finish the mission. Fight the good fight. And make sure everyone is being heard.

But in this class, I have learned that I need to study and do my research. And make a real effort to make a change. Show that I care more. This class was very beneficial to my knowledge about hunger and homelessness. The trip added a visual to my knowledge and hope for change. To know the facts is one thing, but to work in it and affect peoples lives. It is a really hopeful feeling.

Final Blog | Li Wang

Reflecting on my experience to Alternative Spring Break Service Learning class I feel I get a lot out of it. The “Strat Something That Matters” book though me something new every time I read it. I feel lucky, that have the opportunity to go to the Alternative Spring Break trip in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, Alternative Spring Break trip went to New York City we focused in service and leadership, and In 2017 we went to Washington D.C. learning about hunger and homelessness. We partner up with YSOP for both trips, but the experience was totally different.

Start of the school year, I know that we have to take the service learning class enable to go to this service trip. In 2016, the Alternative Spring Break class was optional, but I have decided to take the class. It was definitely a good class that worth to take. I have learned so much about service learning, civic engagement, hunger, property, and of course leadership. Start of the school year I was afraid the class will be the same as last year. Chelsea did make some change for the class compare to last year. For the class 2016 Alternative Spring Break class Chelsea focused more in service and leadership, and this school year she focused more in hunger and homelessness issue. I think the class is a good reminder for me to always keep those precious things in my thoughts, when I don’t have someone always there to reminds me why is important to do volunteer service.

In class, Chelsea always challenge us with hard questions. Those questions make me wonder why service is so important? One person can’t stop the hunger, but why we need go out and help? Chelsea has told us we can’t stop hunger in D.C. in one week, but is important that we go to the Washington D.C. and see how people in Washington D.C. fight for hunger and homelessness issue. We can bring what we see back to Wichita, and make a difference. To educate ourselves to be mindful about what we see and do when we saw someone life in the street.  Things are not always the way we see it, don’t judge people by how they look. She shaped how I see service and the civic engagement.

During the trip the most memorizing part was the day two service dinner. It makes a huge difference for my service trip experience. It brings my service trip to a whole different level compare to the year before when we in New York City. I learned that the people stay at the street do not means they don’t work hard, or they don’t have a job, or they don’t have money. It is cause by many different causes, and live at the street is choice that they have to make.

One day we go out export the city after service. I saw a homeless guy with an injured dog. He was asking people for change so he can get some medication for his dog. I give him some change, but at time I was thinking if he doesn’t have the dog with him would I do anything about it? Maybe yes? Maybe no? I see a lot homeless people during the week, sometimes I will give them money when they ask, but sometimes not. It hurts that when I realize how we do care about pets, but we don’t even care about a life human being. I realized, we need stop our ignorance.

Overall, end of this class I have deeper understanding about hunger and homelessness. I want to bring what I see and what I learned in Washington D.C. back to Wichita. I know one person can’t make a huge different, but influence someone around us, will make a difference.

WAKE UP! | Yasas Vithanage

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When I started this program I just wanted to go to Washington, I just wanted to escape Wichita, I just wanted to be apathetic. It was just easier. I felt like I had been fighting for the past year for causes I believed in and I was burnt out. I wanted to be a bad student. I was a bad student, papers and readings are not my strength, I learn by doing and shared experiences. Nevertheless, I tried to put into words social issues I had no grasp on. I was just looking forward to Washington so that I can see the sights and explore the local coffee shops but as soon as we stepped on the flight to Washington my mood immediately changed. Here I was sitting next to these students who were so excited to be an active part of the social change that we spent the past 8 weeks contemplating about.

We land in DC and I was handed a folder and told by Trip Coordinator, Chelsea, to take care of 8 young adults for 5 days. Don’t get me wrong I loved my team (shout out to team Serving Stallions!), but I had prepared myself to be a passive member of this trip. Suddenly there was a personal stake to be more knowledgeable, more trusting, and less apathetic. Like a scene from Saving Private Ryan, it was almost as if Chelsea touched my shoulder and told me “I need you, I need you to help guide these troops”, and that was just the shot of espresso I needed to wake up for this trip!

Our first day of service was a great eye opening moment when all my emotions and motivation struck me at once. Here I was playing furniture Tetris with a truck, laughing, learning, and hugging. A stark contrast to how numb I felt reading in preparation for the trip. Seeing Mrs. Hicks as my mother made it more real, it made it closer to home, it made it important for me to learn and be a change agent.

I think one of my successes over this trip is getting to know some amazing people from our team and from our service days. Nathan, a  man who happens to be homeless on the streets for 17 ish years just loved homeless. He loved that he got to travel places and that he learned a lot from the streets. Dressed like gentlemen, he thought of himself very highly but he was never afraid to try to make friends and share his love of 1990s Madonna. If anything he was just so human it scared me, he kind of reminded me of me. Me, with all my privileges, was just as much human as he is. Being in a class learning about social issues does nothing unless you experience it, because the experience of being human can only be observed when you are 5 feet from one an other.

Personally my biggest failure was being too complacent. To be truthful I did not complain a lot other than about the food we were eating. I personally could not leave that one privilege of choice of food behind for one week. The work we’re doing was self-less and in that I found a way to be selfish. I hope I move away from that mindset next year.

In the end my eyes are open. I love my team, I love the people I met, and I love the city. I came back home and spread the word to everyone who brought up the topic. It has personally made me a better advocate for other causes I support because I know that change can only come from self-less acts and a true engagement in the community it affects. If you have the chance to be immersed in a community I encourage you to do so. Life is a combination of experiences and the more experiences you have the more of your life you’re living and the more life you are spreading to others. I like helping others and I just don’t want to say I am, I want to do what I can.

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Final Blog | Kellie Deutsch

Reflecting on this past semester’s Alternative Spring Break Service-Learning class and trip, I am amazed at how much I have learned and grown. Prior to even starting the class, I was hoping that this class would be a venue through which I would be able to serve, learn, and grow. I am pleased to say that I was provided with opportunities to do all three of these things. Before going to Washington D.C., our class time was dedicated to preparing us for the trip. I felt that the class time prior to our takeoff adequately provided us with the knowledge necessary for making the most of our trip. Although our class could only teach us so many facts and lessons through class lectures, group discussions, and reading assignments, I know that the trip would not have been as meaningful and impactful if we had not prepared our hearts and minds beforehand. The time in class made me more open-minded and helped me to stay away from dangerous mindsets like that of thinking of yourself as a “savior.” By this, I mean that I became more aware of the unhealthy mindset of thinking that you are saving people from their sufferings. Having this mindset is not only not true, but it is also damaging to those you are serving. In addition, our time in the classroom allowed me to absorb knowledge about policies, stereotypes, events, and other things that negatively impact those who face poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity. This education played an important role in shaping the way the rest of the class time and trip would go.

The education I was getting in the classroom would not have been fully completed, however, if we would not have had the chance to actually go out, serve, and see and hear from individuals who are experiencing homelessness and food insecurity firsthand. Being in Washington D.C. taught me much more than I could have ever learned in a classroom. In addition, I did not think I fully understood the importance of reflection until I came back from the trip. Had I not reflected on my time in Washington D.C., I would not have completely thought through what I saw and heard and processed those things. Reflecting, specifically through taking time to think and write these blog posts, was really helped me grow as an individual. Reflecting also let me brainstorm the ways in which I can apply the concepts that I was learning when I came back home to Wichita.

One of the things that I had learned about in class and then witnessed in Washington D.C. was some of the causes of poverty and homelessness. In class, my eyes were opened to many of the actual reasons poverty exists compared to the stereotypes that imply the causes of poverty. For example, while culture often tells us that homelessness is caused by laziness, I saw that affordable living is far more often a cause of homelessness. Similar to what I learned in class, poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity are often due to circumstances that individuals cannot control.

As a result of this course and service trip, I have been able to understand my own privilege better. I take for granted and do not recognize the circumstances and environment that I grew up in, my support system, my financial resources, the education that I am getting, and much more. This course and trip has helped me understand that I have certain things that others do not have, and that is not because of what I have done. Rather, I was born with these privileges. The course and trip also exposed me to the realization that I could at any time become homeless. My circumstances are temporary, and something could easily happen to me that would cause me to be homeless and hungry.

The last thing that I want to say in this final blog post is that my desire to serving, learning, and growing does not stop here. I have served, learned, and grown a lot through this course and service trip, but I also realize that I am doing myself as well as my community a disservice if I stop seeking out opportunities to do these three things. I will continue to serve, research, listen, observe, and reflect.

Not My Final Blog | Stephanie Merritt

First and foremost I hope that this is not my final blog for the Alternative Spring Break Program. Thinking about how to wrap up this course with a capstone blog leads me to start at the beginning in 2014 until now 2017. I began the 2017 ASB trip with a simple pre-trip blog that I would like to revisit. In that initial blog I choose to focus on the individuals that I had met along the way on my ASB journey. Now as I look back at those pictures from that blog I see groups of people that have come together to help to create a course at Wichita State University that will not only continue on, but also continue to grow and thrive.

First trip ASB trip 2014 to New Orleans where we worked on hurricane relief clean up.  From this first trip I have developed a life long friendship, someone that I can count on and enjoy a senior trip with.

 From this ASB trip in 2015 to Washington DC, I learned that the importance of voting is a right that I had not been exercising.

From this ASB trip in 2016 to New York City, I learned that places that I thought I would feel unsafe in, I in fact was welcomed as if I was a friend.

 

From this ASB trip in 2017 to Washington DC, where I learned that Patty was still selling papers at the same place as two years before during ASB.

 

            I am not sure how to begin to recap this course and/or experience. What I have gained from these four trips is immeasurable. From the personal experiences to the service learning experiences, what I have gained during these cumulative experiences will remain with me the rest of my life. To say that I am an advocate for this course would be an understatement. I feel that a course of this magnitude should somehow woven in to the basic curriculum of all university campuses, if not with travel on a national level at the very least on the local level. I feel that this course is a capstone course in teaching our younger generations of how not only to make changes in systemic issues but to also care for one another on a global basis.

A course of this type is something that students should want to take for the betterment of their town, city, state, country, and world. What I have learned as well in the ASB program is that I am responsible. I am responsible not only to those around me for the issues at hand but also to those generations that will come after me. I hope to in some manner carry that duty forward from this course. Carry it forward in to my town, city, state, country, and world. I believe that possibly the greatest thing that I will retain from this course is a since of community on a global basis. On a basis that we most all want a better place to live.

I recently applied for the MALS Graduate program at Wichita State University. In that program a student builds their own program and guides their curriculum around a thesis. I plan whole-heartedly to weave one more Alternative Spring Break trip in to my educational journey. I have not really an idea of how this course will incorporate in to my thesis, but I intend to make it work. I intend to attend the Alternative Spring Break trip wherever it may go one more time. Therefore, I this will not be my final blog. ASB I will see you again!

Final Blog Post |Baylee Brown

 

The Alternative Spring Break class has opened my eyes and heart to a social injustice that, before taking the class, I did not know much about.  I knew hunger and homelessness was a problem but I didn’t know to what magnitude, or how I could help and serve people. I remember learning about the Alternative Spring Break and thinking about how cool it would be to do a week long service experience, and that it would be a great opportunity for me to learn about a subject I knew little about.  Spending a whole semester, spring break, and a lot of Tuesdays immersing myself in knowledge surrounding hunger and homelessness helped me to truly understand this issue. It has opened my eyes to the injustices and stigmas, that surround people who are homeless and people who are hungry, and how we can help people understand.   I love to see how a class can change my perspective on so many things, and how it can change the perspective of many more students to come.

Nothing could have prepared me for the things I would see and experience while in Washington, D.C.  This class educated me with the facts, and self reflections required before going on this trip but nothing prepared me for the emotions I would have from working with people directly. This most important thing our class taught me was to remove the stigmas that I had, and to go into our trip with and open mind and understanding of my privileges.  I think when you can understand these things about yourself, you can serve others and really reflect on how they are affected by the situation that they are in.  I think this class really helped me realize that when serving others, I need to listen, and understand that there are a lot of things that lead them to where they are now, and none of those being easily reversible. A lot of these reason being because unforeseen circumstances with jobs, illness, family, and various other reasons. It not because they are too lazy to get a job, because while at Martha’s Outfitters I helped a man find the necessary things for a job interview. He really wanted out of homelessness and he was actively trying, people who are homeless aren’t lazy it just hard to “put your boots on” when you don’t have any. This example really resonates with me because I think it is a perfect example that can disprove a common stigma.  This class prepared me for where my mind should be before going, but not the thoughts and feelings I was going to have while on our trip.

With taking our class I think I got a firm grasp on what my privileges are, and this whole semester has changed my outlook on my privilege, it has made me face it. I don’t think privilege is a bad thing, it is something to be incredibly thankful for. I just had to understand that with my privilege I can help other who don’t have the same as me, standing beside them and fighting for them. My privileges have helped me get to where I am today, I have never had to worry about whether or not I was going to eat dinner.  Whether I was going to have a roof over my head next week.  I have been able to make consistent and meaningful relationships with others because I had been in one place my entire life.  That I am in a room right now, with a roof over my head, typing this on a laptop, having finished dinner two hours ago. While talking to one of my coworkers about my trip, she was talking about how she volunteers at a shelter often.  She explained to me how she realized that one thing a lot of people in these shelter didn’t have, it was a support system, someone to fall back on if everything went wrong. A family, who could take them in at their darkest times. That is when it dawned on me, one of my biggest privileges is having people to help me if I were to suddenly loose everything, my parents would support me, my family would support me, and my friends would support me. I have all of these things to fall back on if something goes wrong, I’m not saying I will never be homeless because you honestly never know what happens. I have people who would be willing to help me if I needed help.  That is why service is so important, while we can’t reverse the situation they are in, we can try to make it a little easier by showing people compassion and humility.

The Final Chapter | Sandra Carlo

I always hope to look back at the span of an experience and not feel as if I wasted any of it. For there to be a sense of relief that everything I could have made out of what I was doing I did. That every lesson was learned, every “t” was crossed. As we sped through the first part of the semester I worried I was putting my Alt Break experience on the back burner. I enjoyed learning about the social justice issues we were tackling, and I especially enjoyed “manning” the education committee with Nibras to help cover all of our bases before we went. Several weeks pre-trip I made a bond with myself that I would  invest myself as fully as I possibly could in this experience so I didn’t leave with any sort of regret, or insight I would have otherwise skipped over. How privileged it is to be able to spend a months worth of rent and groceries to be able to fly across the country for a week to work with poverty. Honestly. This isn’t coming from a place of guilt, but I feel as if it’s a wake up call one who participates in these service learning experiences must have. What I’ve learned the most centers around my passion, but also my drive. My passion has always existed. I’ve always put the well-being of others above my own needs but as I learned in DC, that has a direct correlation with my drive and endurance to be able to continue the work. So often we expect servant leaders to always be just that, but it’s important to take time for self-care and have an “at the roots” experience. Specially for me, that was the YSOP dinner we hosted. It was a renewing experience, despite the fact that I was worn down. I felt selfish in the presence of those with less than I to be so detached even though I had an air mattress and food upstairs that would comfort me after we finished cleaning up.

If I could give any piece of advice to someone who was about to embark on an Alternative Spring Break experience it would be: don’t take the reflections for granted. Whether that be in writing, in groups, with your peers, etc. Be vulnerable in these. Open up, say what you’re really feeling. All too often we put walls up to those who are feeling with us. Allow yourself to feel with those around you. And then let that feeling guide your work afterwards.

At YSOP we wrote letters to ourselves to receive a month after. I’m excited to read mine. I excited to feel what I was in that moment once again. Never underestimate the pure, authentic will power associated with being inspired to make a change. That’s what I felt at the end of that week. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel it now, but life will take it’s toll and convince you those passions are unimportant. I’m learning how to fight through. How to be resilient in the face of opposition and hopelessness, and rise up above.

“Whatever our souls are mad of, his and mine are the same.” -Emily Bronte

Final Blog|Nibras Karim

As the semester is coming to it’s close, I have realized that this class and trip has impacted my life a lot more than I expected. As a senior getting ready to graduate, I felt like I had my fair share of life changing collegiate experiences and that there was not a lot of change left to make in my life at this point. During the class time before the trip, I felt pretty set in what my values were and my views of the homeless and hungry populations were. What I mean by that is that I already felt compassion and understanding towards them so I did not think that that was going to change. It wasn’t until later that I realized how crucial the lessons and activities were to understanding purpose and meaning in service. Through the readings and class discussions, I was able to learn that service learning is a lot more intentional than just volunteering. I learned that you need to take the focus off of yourself when you go to volunteer, but not necessarily take yourself completely out of the equation. Service learning is not about how you feel after volunteering, it is about what you have learned about the society, the community you served, and about what your world view says about you.

It is interested looking back because before the trip, I took what I learned and thought “well of course that is what service learning is about” and that this was such an obvious thing to know. However, while I was in D.C. serving, I realized how learning these things allows you to be hyper aware of intent. While doing service in D.C., I was more intentional about being compassionate and understanding toward those that I served, especially when it came to those quick judgements you make when you first see someone. I was also more intentional about learning about the people we were serving as well as the populations. I wanted to learn about the individuals that we were serving as well as the communities as a whole so that I could understand the unique situations and see them as individuals but also be able to see what impacts the community as a whole to understand the source of the problem.

One thing that I distinctly remember over the trip was when the director of HUD, Marvin Turner, said that the homeless population in D.C. was smart. I was reminded of this quote later in the trip when other volunteers described the people they were serving as adorable and cute.  It was then that I became aware of how us as volunteers might unintentionally belittle those that we serve in seeming harmless ways. Then I became intentional about my own ego and how my privilege is not necessarily a constant or guarantee just like for those that are homeless and/or hungry.

Another distinct memory was that of Day 2 during the trip when we went to Drew Elementary School and after we had tutored the student, we did a reflection and talked about how the community had gotten so impoverished. What the people from D.C. had talked about was gentrification, which I only vaguely knew about. After discussing it more, I realized that Wichita is going through the same things. Although it seems like no one really has a solution for gentrification, the discussion or reflection did allow me to see Wichita differently and more critically. I am glad that I was able to go on this trip because now I feel like I am more (not fully but more) prepared for whatever is to become of Wichita and I feel like I am that much closer to helping it with it’s future.

Final Blog | Katie Deutsch

Delving into course material related to the institutional factors contributing to hunger and homelessness before serving with YSOP in Washington, D.C. was a powerful way to preface our service-learning trip. I was fortunate to attend two service-learning trip to Washington, D.C.– one in the spring of 2015 and our trip this spring. While the service completed during 2015 was still largely impactful to me, I did not have a fully contextualized idea about the extensive barriers those we were serving faced as I did on this service-learning trip. As I reflect on how this course has shaped my understanding of my own privilege, in sharp contrast to many others, I am humbled in reflecting on the many ways in which I often take my currently middle-class cushioned, privileged lifestyle for granted.

My research paper for this course focuses on widespread gentrification throughout D.C. Gentrification can be defined as: An economic and social process whereby private capital (real estate firms, developers) and individual homeowners and renters reinvest in fiscally neglected neighborhoods through housing rehabilitation, loft conversions, and the construction of new housing stock. Unlike urban renewal, gentrification is a gradual process, occurring one building or block at a time, slowly reconfiguring the neighborhood landscape of consumption and residence by displacing poor and working class residents unable to afford to live in the ‘revitalized’ neighborhoods with rising rents, property taxes, and new businesses catering to an upscale clientele. To put gentrification into a D.C. context– the Washington Post reported in April, that the hottest zip code for D.C. real estate is the mostly black Trinidad neighborhood in the once shunned northeast quadrant. Homes in zip code 20002 in Washington, D.C., were worth $570,531 on average in 2015, about 91 percent more than in 2004. These rising property values push out entire communities, making way for wealthier and far more privileged ones.

I’ve become become painstakingly aware of the high cost of living within D.C., not only due to my research paper focusing on gentrification and our week of service, but because I am preparing to move to D.C. after graduation myself. In preparing for this move, I have been scouring the internet for months searching for affordable housing, often times with little to no luck. As a result of a gentrification, affordable housing is extraordinarily rare within the District. Apartment complexes that do offer a small portion of affordable housing units are often littered with ghastly online reviews written by more well-off tenants complaining of the “alcoholics” and “chronic drug users” occupying the income-restricted units within their apartment complex. Even within these affordable housing options, individuals stuck in the cycle of poverty and the aftermath of its gripping facets, cannot escape the stigma of being labeled “low-income” within a city whose demographics are so rapidly shifting at the hands of gentrification.

During our week of service, Marvin Turner, Director of the National Capital Area Office for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, reiterated this dire need for affordable housing. Marvin provided extensive insight into the systematic barriers surrounding affordable housing in D.C. and the surrounding counties. In D.C., for example, a studio apartment alone averages around $1,400/month. This high cost of living hits families with children– especially families only supported by single parents– the hardest. For this reason, family homelessness is incredibly common in D.C. Family homelessness is so common in fact that the average person classified as homeless within D.C. is eight years old. This fact was so shocking to me because it humanizes the issue of homelessness to a painful extent. Because of gentrification within the city, children are finding themselves and their families on the street, with no shelter or security.

As I think about these individuals caught in the cycle of poverty and homelessness, I reflect on an excerpt from a blog post I wrote immediately after our trip:

“Anyone [can] find themselves facing homelessness– even the most privileged are not immune. . . Without a strong support system, health, a livable wage, etc., anyone [can] find themselves without a roof over their head and food on the table. Humanizing homelessness and further understanding the systematic barriers surrounding it emphasize the the dire need for policy intervention and institutional support to combat homelessness, elevating those that are disproportionately susceptible to its grip.”

This semester of learning, along with our week of service, has made me recognize my privilege head on, through experiences that have been painfully eye-opening and humbling. I hope to use these experiences to serve and advocate for those disparately impacted by gentrification within D.C. and the systematic factors surrounding homelessness.

Final Blog | Hayden Schrag

As I look back on our Alternative Spring Break class I reflect on the journey our group has been on. When enrolling in the class I was had an eager mind, ready to dive into our service trip. Before our plane took off however, we met many times in the classroom being educated on the issues we see today with food insecurity and homelessness. Coming from my hometown of Pratt, I had never seen homelessness, only food insecurity. I had seen a homeless person before, but always in an urban setting. When hearing about the trip last semester I was very excited to educate myself about the homeless population.

Coming onto the trip I felt many mixed emotions. I was excited for service, but nervous and uneasy about what to expect from the homeless community. Once we dived into service I realized how many mazing people and organizations there are in the Washington D.C. area. My faith in humanity was restored seeing people genuinely care, making a difference in the lives of others.

The second day of the trip was easily my most powerful experience. Sitting on my bed (air mattress) before our dinner I thought to myself, “When was the last time I really received something reflecting on my service experience?”. Little did I know that I would gain what I wanted in the next couple of hours. Our group along with another service team paired up to make a dinner for 40 people to come in and eat along with us. I met a woman, Tish, and our group eventually bonded over a card game. After dinner while writing blog I realized I had the reflection I had been looking for.

The rest of the trip I had learned first-hand that many generalizations and assumptions about the homeless are completely false.  Many of the homeless people I saw had jobs, were not lazy, and were not dirty. The first cause of homelessness in D.C. is affordable housing. In Wichita, I know many people that live in apartments just under $400 a month. In Washington, many if not all apartments are well over $1,000 a month. With the minimum wage being just over $10, it is impossible to be able to live in a home earning minimum wage. I believe that, if earning minimum wage one would be living in poverty, but should be able house themselves in a residence.  Realizing the circumstances that many people are given, many will never get the chance to see their own home.

Looking back, this class has been a great learning experience, one I will never forget. It split right through the stereotypes of the people we helped, and I believe I gained more knowledge in that one week than I couldn’t in any classroom. As of now, I am spreading my experiences to friends and family, helping educate them on the issues I saw, and how grateful we are in our daily lives.