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.

 

 

Post Trip | Hayden Schrag

We all finally made it back to Wichita late Friday night, and it sure feels nice to be home! While our group was reflecting in D.C. we decided that we as students and volunteers needed to spread the word about our experiences, sharing what we learned from our past week.Since being back I was able to see my family and tell them all about my trip. The Sunflower also wrote up an article about our trip to publish, and Baylee and I had the honor of sharing what we had learned in our nation’s capitol. In class this past Tuesday we also spoke about future service events we will be participating in, which is exciting knowing that our service doesn’t have to stop when our trip does. I am very eager to see what my schedule looks like next spring, because I am all for going on the ASB trip at least one more time! Thank you to all that have been keeping up with our blogs as well!

Day #4 | Hayden Schrag

Today our group traveled to a local elementary school to be a reading partner for a day with kids ranging from Kindergarten to the 5^th grade. Earlier in the year my Youth and Education Cause Committee group watched a movie, Waiting for Superman, which explains the educational field in Washington D.C. Only 15 percent of kids in the district of Columbia can reading at the reading level for their age. While we were there we participated with kids in different reading activities and pronunciation with words. The first student I had, Micah, was very well mannered and enjoyed doing his activities. Nearing the end, he was growing restless and wanted to play Tic-Tac-Toe, but I know I would’ve done the same exact thing at his age. Our second student, DeCarlo was bouncing off the walls. After the teachers and myself tried to calm him down a bit we finally found a happy medium, which ended up being him dancing while putting together a word puzzle. Many kids learn in many different ways, and DeCarlo was an excellent example of that.

We then had a group reflection with YSOP, reflecting on our experiences from this past week. After our short meeting, we all ate a group dinner in the heart of Chinatown. After some exploring of the district, our group went back to the church to rest up for our final day in D.C.

Day 3 | Hayden Schrag

For our third day, we traveled along the metro to Seabury, the Age-In-Place. They are a nonprofit organization that cleans and provides services for elderly folk that cannot physically do it themselves anymore. In Washington D.C., there are strict laws of maintain your home. For instance, if your lawn isn’t mowed before it gets too high, you could be ticketed with a $500 fine. Many of these elderly people must live off a 300-500 dollar check a month from the government, so not being able to cut their own grass could put them out of their own home. That day we went to Mrs. Jones house. At her residence, we polished her kitchen cabinets, dusted many photos, and cleaned the basement. Unfortunately, there was a little miscommunication, she had other people over redoing her bathroom, and with us also there, there was as many as 15 people in one small house. After tripping over each other for an hour or so we finally got what we needed to do. Although we couldn’t be much of a service it was great learning about the organization does, because I know their clients appreciate so very much.

Later that day we went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Reserved tickets are backed up for almost 2 years, and our group found that they release a certain amount at 6:30 a.m. We spent over 4 hours, rushed through, and still didn’t get to see quite all of it. It was amazing experience realizing what all African Americans have done, and still do to make the United States an extraordinary place to live!

We also visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, FDR’s Memorial, and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

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Day 2 | Hayden Schrag

Embarking on our second day of service, our group went to Food and Friends, an organization that cooks, packages, and deliver over 3,000 meals a day to people in D.C. with special dietary needs. These patients require a doctor’s note, explaining their diagnoses, so they are eligible for the supplied meals. As we were getting meals ready for packaging there was a volunteer coordinator that was giving us insight and direction. Thanks goodness he was there, because he knew the entire place inside and out. As many people know, dietary restrictions can seem infinite, and one small mess-up could have you looking at a lawsuit, and someone in the hospital with just one wrong meal. I was very impressed with their staff’s knowledge, and friendliness, thanking us many times for coming in to help them out (they even baked us some amazing cupcakes)!

Our next activity was to reported back to the YSOP (Youth Service Opportunities Project) Building and help make a meal for roughly 70 people. After cooking and setting up the dining room, we were finally ready to welcome 40 guests! After serving our guests we had the opportunity to sit down with the people in need to play games, talk, and have a fun evening! I had one woman sit at my table named Tish. Tish, Ari, Sandra, and I began playing the card game Uno. Through this game we all bonded, and grew quite close as a group! I had asked Tish if she had ever been outside Washington before, and she said she had not because of her financial state. She later told me she was currently living with her cousin and stated, “It is not God’s plan for me to have my own home, but I will follow him through darkness.” Myself, being a firm believer in Christ, couldn’t help the smile on my face. I reflected, realizing that even if you have very little, there is still so much to be thankful for. I have been so blessed to have been given the opportunities and privileges in my life, and Tish helped me bring out those realizations. That night I was able to help someone in need, but I also received so much out of a service opportunity, and that is what I came to Washington to do. Day two was in the books.

Day 1 | Hayden Schrag

After finally arriving to DC late last night, our group made it to our new home for the next couple of days, the Church of the Epiphany. My reaction was that it smelled just like an old church does, but resembles the Municipal Building quite well (readers back in Pratt know exactly what I’m talking about). On Monday, we all woke up in the early morning for our service projects. My group of seven went to A Wider Circle.  They are an organization that takes in donated household goods, mainly furniture, and in return clean it up and gives the supplies to families in need. While I was there I carried items such as couches, desks, chairs, and lamps from their warehouse to the display room. The display room is set up just like a furniture store, so people can walk through and pick out their furniture as if they’re shopping rather than picking an item out of a pile, making it much more dignified. Attached to the Wider circle building is another part called their Business Professional Development center. Someone in need can walk into their facility and be paired with an employee to find a minimum of 5 business attires, and learn skills of the business world. They staff around 60 people, and many volunteers each day.

After our amazing day of service, we listened to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Marvin Turner. Dr. Turner has worked for several presidential administrations, doing his best to find the source of the problem of homelessness. After this presentation, we went to District taco, and later wandered around the city of D.C. I haven’t been to Washington in a few years, so my group and I also visited many monuments. So far this has been an unbelievable start to my Spring Break!

 

 

Pre-trip Blog

The day is finally here! I have been anxiously waiting, preparing, and packing for this day to arrive! We will be flying out of Wichita at 5:50 this evening, and I couldn’t be more excited. This past week I was asked many times what I would be doing for spring break and most people expected for me to be somewhere at a beach. However, they were all so pleased to hear what our group will be doing during our “time off”. I’m very grateful that this time I get to fly to D.C. (Last time I had to ride a bus for 2 days), and get to see the wonderful city again.

My sister has gone on an Alternative Spring Break trip before and was giving me pieces of advice here and there about the people I might meet, which was very helpful. I’m feeling quite anxious to getting my hand dirty, and being able to help a community in need. Washington, here we come!

 

 

Jim Valvano- Hayden Schrag

“Every single day, in every walk of life, ordinary people do extraordinary things.” -Jim Valvano. Jimmy V went far beyond coaching, creating the “Jimmy V Foundation” raising more than 150 million of dollars for cancer research.

 

The Learning in “Service Learning” | Hayden Schrag

Through Service learning student can participate in community service events, working along people and communities to help make a difference. If we look at an example, I may volunteer at a local food bank for a couple of hours a week, but if I don’t take anything from my away from it, I’m losing a valuable part of my service experience. Don’t get me wrong, volunteering is great, without it there would be nothing to reflect on; but, if we can learn to reflect on what we have done to help we can engage on the entire act of volunteering.

Without reflection on your volunteer experience you and your group will not know what changes need to be made for the service to improve. Imagine if nobody had ever reflected on service, things like non-profit organizations (That can help millions of people annually) wouldn’t even exist. My sister graduated from Kansas State this past winter and had a focus in non-profit organizations. She asked me what the goal of an organization like that was, and I just assumed to help as many people as they could. She stated that they as an organization would like to go out of business, because that means the needs they have been trying to fulfill have been met. An interesting take nonetheless.

The question remains, Is reflection important to service Learning? You bet. Just recently I helped put on Wu’s Big Event, a service event that provides a day long community service opportunity for students in Wichita. After we were done with our service event we sat down had lunch and reflected on our experience. Whether it was how it made us feel or how we made others feel. I ran into someone from my group and we ended up talking for 15 minutes or so about the event, what she liked, and what she thought we could change. Without that dialogue, our event would stay the same and we would not be able to improve our service opportunity for others around the community. As we participate in our service it is important that we remember what we did, and what we can do to improve our service for future opportunities. Through reflection we can engage others in helping to make our world a little bit better place.

This will be my first Alternative Spring break, and I am ecstatic to see the difference our group can make, no matter how big or how small.