{"id":484,"date":"2020-10-30T13:39:10","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T13:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communitybasedlearning.me.holycross.edu\/?p=324"},"modified":"2020-10-30T13:39:10","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T13:39:10","slug":"understanding-the-two-feet-of-service-and-social-justice-in-my-hometown-and-ascentria-dora-calva-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/2020\/10\/30\/understanding-the-two-feet-of-service-and-social-justice-in-my-hometown-and-ascentria-dora-calva-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the \u201cTwo Feet\u201d of Service and Social Justice in my Hometown and Ascentria\u00a0 – Dora Calva ’22"},"content":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in my Community-Based Learning (CBL) newsletter highlight, I<\/span> volunteered with my high school friends to start this organization called Brick City Aid.<\/span> The organization came to be because COVID-19 has dramatically<\/span> changed everyone\u2019s lives, particularly vulnerable people such as the homeless<\/span> community have been more affected. My friends and I started by having zoom meetings to discuss<\/span> how to turn <\/span>this small idea into an organization. We all knew we were passionate about social<\/span> j<\/span>ustice issues that impacted our hometown, Newark, NJ. Once we had all of our ideas<\/span> organized, it was time to raise awareness through social media. We even created a<\/span> GofundMe account, which was a success for the first of our many distributions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Engaging in service while also tackling the social justice issues reminded me of Holy<\/span> Cross\u2019s Jesuit values. The phrase \u201cfor and with others\u201d has been something I have<\/span> gotten to know more at a deeper level. Even though I have volunteered at food banks<\/span> and clothing drives since high school, since my Montserrat class with Professor Ryan, Exploring Differences, I finally<\/span> began to understand the true meaning of the \u201cfor and with others.\u201d I have learned that there are<\/span> two components in Community-Based Learning that should always go hand-in-hand.<\/span> One is service by volunteering at your site. We continuously explore service as part of<\/span> the surface level that many volunteers end up doing. Service is great, don\u2019t get me<\/span> wrong, but service should not be the only goal you look forward to attending your CBL<\/span> site. The second component is understanding the social justice issues at hand. Service and social justice<\/span> issues should be the \u201ctwo feet\u201d you walk with and keep your balance. I say this because<\/span> thinking about social justice leads you to begin to question why CBL is needed in the first place.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This semester, <\/span>I volunteer at Ascentria<\/span> Unaccompanied Refugees Minors Program (URMP) through being a CBL Intern.The opportunity to be able to be part of the Worcester community even virtually is a<\/span> blessing, although tutoring students through Zoom has not been the easiest. I have witnessed firsthand the difficulty it is to connect on the phone rather than a<\/span> computer. Sometimes, when it comes time for Ascentria students to connect to their wifi, it<\/span> is unstable to the point where you can\u2019t hear their voices. Even managing the<\/span> zoom features in English was troublesome at first, as many of them speak Spanish. I can connect with the Ascentria students\u2019 technology experiences because starting of this semester was a troublesome adjustment as the week before<\/span> school, I had just been in an accident with my friend. For the following days,<\/span> my mother and sister kept me a priority; however, we all knew I had to leave again<\/span> because the home environment was not suitable to focus on any assignments. As I<\/span> moved to Buffalo, NY, I soon realized that I left my computer in my house\u2019s front porch<\/span> chair. The next two weeks were challenging as I needed to use my phone to join zoom<\/span> for my classes and meetings. Even submitting homework was limited as there were not<\/span> that many options accessible through my mobile device. As soon as my computer<\/span> arrived, I felt relieved that I could finally get more work done.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite my own challenges and the challenges Ascentria students face, I have noticed<\/span> the eagerness and willingness of both Ascentria and Holy Cross students to do their<\/span> part. I<\/span> always look forward to spending the afternoon with a student and trying my best to get<\/span> through most of the homework via the share my screen option on zoom. Through my<\/span> CBL experience, I have gotten to know students I have not met previously, which has<\/span> also been fulfilling because learning about who they are is something you can\u2019t<\/span> exchange time with money.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Returning to the \u201ctwo feet\u201d mentioned above, I have reflected that Ascentria students and others who are trying to do well in their<\/span> studies sometimes do not have all the available resources at their fingertips. Knowing<\/span> this, I want to make a difference by applying for the Marshall Memorial Fund in<\/span> the future through the Donalen Office.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As mentioned in my Community-Based Learning (CBL) newsletter highlight, I volunteered with my high school friends to start this organization called Brick City Aid. The organization came to be because COVID-19 has dramatically changed everyone\u2019s lives, particularly vulnerable people such as the homeless community have been more affected. My friends and I started by having … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Understanding the \u201cTwo Feet\u201d of Service and Social Justice in my Hometown and Ascentria\u00a0 – Dora Calva ’22”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/communitybasedlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}