Ripples

I was recently asked to write a blog post for the City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley blog. Here's what I wrote:

Ripples

“Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation… It is from numberless diverse acts of courage… [and]… belief that this human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

– Robert F. Kennedy, Day of Affirmation Address, University of Cape Town, South Africa

On Friday, October 1, 2010, the entire City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley site will come together for our “Bomber Dedication Ceremony.” It is a City Year tradition in which each Corps Member dedicates his/her bomber jacket to a person, idea, or cause that inspires them to serve.

When I found out about this event, I was bewildered. I was completely at a loss for words or inspiration on whom or what to dedicate my jacket. I was told that in the past, many Corps Members have dedicated their jackets to relatives, mentors, specific students, even ideas as large as the fight for social justice or the imbalanced education system.

For me, finding a specific person to dedicate something as powerful as a representation of my City Year service year is difficult. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of my family and friends. High school English teachers, dance teachers, and college professors inspired me to follow my dreams, no matter how lofty they were. Students from all over the country – a small New Hampshire dance studio, a charter school for at-risk students in Massachusetts, and every single student I serve at Mathson Middle School in San Jose – have fueled my passion for social justice.

came across the founding story, Ripples, in my Idealist Handbook and my bomber dedication began to form. Each corps member is allotted up to two minutes to speak, and all of the sudden this seemed impossibly short.

The past few weeks at my school have been tough. I have officially begun to feel the strain of this year of service. At the same time, I am starting to notice what I like to call “small miracles” happening on a daily basis. One of my “tough guy” tutoring students ran up to me before school started to make sure that I would be tutoring him today, and a student with exceptionally difficult behavior issues had two good days in a row. What I have realized this week is that no matter how insignificant or isolated these “ripples” may seem, they are the reason I’m here.

I’ve decided to dedicate my bomber jacket to all of the “ripples” that got me to where I am today: my family, friends, mentors, teachers, professors, school districts, and college. I am also dedicating my jacket to every “ripple” I hope to cultivate and inspire. To the idealistic leaders of the past, present, and future, I dedicate my jacket and year of service to each and every “ripple” you create.

The big, bad... middle school

Hello again!

I purposefully tried not to post for a while into my stay at the middle school. Some days have been extreme highs and others have been very low, and I was trying to wait until I had a real handle on the situation before writing about it. I've also been very, very busy!

We've officially been in the middle school for three weeks and it feels muuuch longer in some respects. Most of our days have been spent planning our after school program as well as lunch/yard duty (not the highlight of my day...) and other tasks that the school has needed help with. As of yesterday, I began what will become my more regular schedule of tutoring three students one-on-one during the second, third, and sixth periods of the day. I'm really excited to get to work so closely with a small group of students because I can already feel the relationships we're building and I'm excited to see where they go.

Our after school program has been slightly less structured this month than it will be in the following weeks and months, but I think it was a nice way to ease students into what is going to turn into a pretty rigorous after school program! We start with 1.5 hours of homework "center," where they finish their homework and can get help if needed. I worked with 5th graders for one week (they're awesome and adorable!) and 8th graders last week (a little less adorable and they have "hecka" attitude). I'm not quite sure what possessed me to do it, but I did indeed put 8th grade as my preference for the rest of the school year.

Which brings me to today. Today, we found out our specific placements in the after school programs as well as what enrichment programs we'll be leading, and what students we'll have for both of those time slots. I'm going to be an 8th grade tutor (as opposed to an 8th grade classroom leader), which I'm very excited about. The 8th graders have a lot of attitude, but they're also the ones screaming for help the most. I think the tutoring is really going to produce noticeable results.

I'm also leading a (surprise surprise!) dance enrichment! I was nervous that students wouldn't sign up for it, but it was actually one of the most popular ones! I have 18 students (7 of whom are boys!) and just had the first class meeting today. Although we didn't do too much dancing today, it was pretty hilarious to convince 10- to 14-year olds to do "Power Lunges" with me! We mostly spent time going over expectations and watching videos of different styles of dance today, and it was cool to see how excited the students got over certain things. I'm definitely looking forward to this enrichment!

I'll try to post some pictures soon... I've been pretty bad at taking them lately, so I don't have much to show you right now. I'll definitely work on it for next post, though!

Until next time...