http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/ are you who you want to be? en Copyright 2008 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:14:13 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Now that the project is mostly over, I feel satisfied with my work at PSP. It was a great week to finish up my volunteer work. I think I will volunteer here and there for the rest of the semester. What I really need to do is focus on contributing the curriculum. I feel that it would be something that would be so useful. So I think overall I have accomplished my objectives. I have learned a lot of things that have helped to shape my mind towards thinking about others before myself. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/journal_entry_14.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/journal_entry_14.html Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:14:13 -0600 I guess in thinking about teaching volunteers how to tutor it makes me think about how I do service in general. Why do we do service? Do we need to be trained? What type of attitude and perspective should I have when I am tutoring a stubborn 2nd grader? People who respond to the needs of others are doing great service as opposed to those who are apathetic or unaware of the issue. We get comfortable thinking about ourselves. But to take it a step further, volunteers must be knowledgeable and must relate to those who are in need in a proper and effective manner. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/journal_entry_13.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/journal_entry_13.html Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:12:40 -0600 Writing all that stuff made me realize that this stuff is really important. I am learning a lot by having to think about what this project is all about. It is important to me. Even though I stressed over it the whole week, I am glad that I am doing what I'm doing. I just have to keep working at it. I have learned that if I focus and work hard, this could do a lot of good. If I don't follow through with what I'm recommending, then I think that would be selfish. What I'm suggesting would be a great service to the tutoring program. I have the capability to do it, just gotta get it done. I used to think that this was all a pain in the butt, but it doesn't have to. It is a matter of perspective. I mean, I really am helping kids out, and if I put together this curriculum I would be helping out so much. But it wouldn't be me; it would be God's handiwork. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/week_12.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/week_12.html Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:35:38 -0600 I haven't focused too much on the chapters and more so on thinking of the purpose and volunteering. I'm building some relationships with the other volunteers who mostly are U of M students. So I am slowly accomplishing my goals, even though I am procrastinating a little bit. My personal objectives are being accomplished because I really think that I am making a positive difference in the educational lives of the kids. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/week_11.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/week_11.html Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:34:47 -0600 I learned that there are some very average kids that are really cool. The system that Chantel has going on works very well. The other volunteers are very good at good at assisting kids with work. I'm still concerned that I can't recommend anything to improve their setup. I've learned about the issue by realizing that these kids may not be able to achieve their full potential. However, the education program is important in changing that. It seems that PSP is a haven for getting some assistance. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/week_7_8.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/week_7_8.html Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:31:30 -0600 By reading the articles, I acquired a very shallow understanding of the extreme complexities of homelessness. It is easy to think of a homeless person as lacking a house. But the homeless also lack a stable family, caring parents, a well rounded education, good and long-lasting friends, and other things. They face drug abuse, sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, depression, confusion, judgment, hatred, violence, misunderstanding, and fear. It is a sad complexity. These things are what the children and adult guests at PSP face. Now I ask myself, what do I do? http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/week_6.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2008/03/week_6.html Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:30:20 -0600 I guess I did alright. I would give myself a B-. Still need to work on it outside of class. But I've decided that the right attitude for this service project is not an attitude of self-righteousness. It's easy to go out and volunteer and then say, "Look at how I am helping people. Look at how much good I am accomplishing. I don't really want much recognition for what I do. The people I interact with do more for me than I do for them. My objectives are still kind of hazy. But personally it is impacting me. Sometimes I think that this project is not really accomplishing much. If I were to do have an internship position, I feel like I would give so much more to PSP. But that isn't necessary. The effort that I put into the project is what matters. I'm worried about doing a literature thing because I haven't even started to look at that stuff. It'll work out though. I feel junky for not doing well on Chapter 1. I guess it is reflective of my motivation and effort that I've put into this project. I don't even know. I'm having a hard time balancing out all of my roles and responsibilities right now and I am not doing that with huge success or effectiveness. Whatever. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/11/week_three_journal.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/11/week_three_journal.html Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:11:14 -0600 I learned that it is important for me to just put as much of myself into those kids. What am I doing this for? I'm doing this not for myself but for children that are struggling. So I might as well give them as much help and joy as possible. By working with Shaun for two hours straight it really hit me that he might not receive help if I'm not there. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/11/week_two_journal.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/11/week_two_journal.html Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:09:15 -0600 So starting off the project has gone overall well. I have to commute via metro transit to the site during rush hour. It takes me about 45 minutes to get there and 30 minutes to get back. The first night I was given a short overview of the tutoring program. There are about 6 tutors each night and about 10 kids that come in. The main responsibility is to aid in homework and to use the provided resources to build their academic skills. I have tutored a total of 3 kids and one of them (his name is Walter) I have tutored twice. It was sort of overwhelming at the start. The kids are for the most part well-mannered and behaved. But its hard to get them to do homework and other skill-building activities when they were at school all day long and they just want to play games. I have mostly just played games with the kids. After the tutoring session we are to fill out a profile form for the tutoring session. This helps tutors that have returning kids by providing useful information about the child prior to the session. This last Wednesday I ate supper in the cafeteria at the site. I feel like I'm not accomplishing much by tutoring these kids. I haven't been doing a good job of keeping them on task and I look at other tutors, and they seem to be doing well. Part of it is my inexperience with children. But I think I'm doing some good because I try to treat the kids with respect and I give them attention. One girl named Destiny came in and she didn't jive with homework. In everything, she was competing for my attention. She would get upset when I was helping Walt and not her. She would get upset when she did things the wrong way. But we sat down and made some crafts. I made here a paper card for her to take with her. Maybe she didn't think about it or realize it, but hopefully she felt loved by that card. Maybe she'll look at it in 10 years when she is having a bad day and it'll simply cheer her up. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/11/starting_out.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/11/starting_out.html Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:26:18 -0600 Description of Project People Serving People is an organization that helps people have the most basic needs of food and shelter. It exists to provide education, social, and life skill programs to people in need of them. They own and operate a ten story building in the downtown Minneapolis area. The facility which was constructed in 2002, provides a fully staffed dining facility, two libraries, classrooms and study areas, indoor and outdoor recreation spaces, a medical clinic, child care facilities, a laundry room, a computer lab, 99 separate shelter rooms and 10 two bedroom transitional apartments. The organization started to provide temporary shelter in 1982 for homeless men with chemical dependencies. It has now grown to serve thousands of families with shelter, food, and so much more. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/10/project_description.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/10/project_description.html Project Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:17:18 -0600 Saturday morning the honors class went to Keystone Communities (I think that’s the name; if it isn’t, then whatever) which is a local food shelf on University Avenue. It was closed at the time so we were given a tour of the place sort of. The lady working there told us about the place and how they operate and who uses their services. There are boundary lines within which their clients must reside in order to receive help. She also said that when the light rail comes through in a few years the dynamics of the area will change and so will the structure of their food shelf. From listening to her, the food shelf is doing amazing things for people that need it. They give 21 pounds to clients each month which may not be a lot, but it probably helps a lot. Touring this food shelf was sort of like working at Feed My Starving Children. Both provide food for those who need it. The food shelf is not saving people from starvation, but it is providing food for people. It might provide some people to get caught up on a credit card bill, or go to the hospital, or do something fun for their kids. Not having to pay for food enables them to have a little more freedom with their lives. Those kids that are starving have a little more freedom to live with hope on account of their full stomach. I think it was weird for everyone when we were offered bottled water. Everyone probably thought that it should be given to the poor people that come here for groceries. That was interesting to me. A food shelf that gives food to people that can hardly get by, and she offers some of the food shelf’s bottled water to us as refreshment. She maybe did that because there is an overabundance of bottled water and not enough people are taking it. Maybe this is a situation where we assume that the people in need are less than us and so we should give up our comfortable bottled water for their sake. I don’t think that not taking bottled water is going to do anything to help people. What will help is if we go to that food shelf and volunteer. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/04/the_food_shelf.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/04/the_food_shelf.html Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:28:16 -0600 http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/04/glen_crawford.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/04/glen_crawford.html Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:26:14 -0600 Yesterday, Tammy came in to talk about Bread for the World. It seemed as if they were a mix of a lobbyist group and a service group. She had a lot of facts about hunger and also pictures from her travels to different countries. We were told to pick one of the facts, pictures, or posters that caught our attention. We then explained why it jumped out at us. She shared some personal stories about her experiences with Bread for the World. We were also told why we should write to our government representatives about meeting our nation’s goal of giving so much to end poverty. Having Tammy come into to talk about her organization is similar to when that one guy came in and had we do a hunger simulation. Both times we learned about an organization that is out in the world trying to benefit the poor. The message was the same from both people: do something once you’ve heard me speak. Tammy wants us to write letters and the hunger simulation guy wanted us to tell people about the simulation and how it might help people understand hunger. What really struck me was the piece of paper that Tammy had which represents the yearly budget for the United States. How can we spend so much money on ourselves and then give a sliver of it to the rest of the world? Do we not realize how much impact we could have if we gave only $10 billion to end hunger? We spend $10 billion on the war in Iraq in just a few days. If we wanted to pick a war that we could actually win, we should fight a worldwide war on poverty. Instead of terrorism, let’s fight poverty. Then other nations will see that we actually care about humanity instead of hating those that hate us. No one can see how much we care if they only see us hate our enemies. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/03/bread_for_the_world.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/03/bread_for_the_world.html Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:30:00 -0600 Last Wednesday, some of us went to Feed My Starving Children (FMSC.) We arrived all in one piece thanks to Greta’s amazing driving skills. We were told to fill out a form and then put on hairnets and an apron. Then we were introduced to the place and we watched a movie about how Feed My Starving Children is having an impact in the world. Next, we were instructed about how to package the bags of food. I was the person that would put the bag under the chute and I also put the rice in. After we were done, we cleaned everything up and had a sample of what the food tasted like. Then we left for college. Volunteering at this place was an experience unlike anything else that we have done so far this semester. The only other time where we have actually helped people in need was at neighborhood house. Just like at neighborhood house, we sacrificed our time to get to know immigrants so that they could practice their English. At FMSC, I also got to know the people I was helping by packaging their food. Every time I put a cup of rice into the bag, I thought about how someone was going to have some food for a day. I always wondered if I should put some more in just so that they may have one more swallow of food. I got to know those starving people by being their cook. When I was thinking about if I was putting enough in the bag or not, I was asking myself, what if they need just one more bite? I have the power to give them one more bite so I should make sure I put as much rice in as allowed. Even though it was a matter of only 20 mg, I was thinking about this. Sometimes I feel like I’m starving. I realize that I am also a child and that I too need to be feed. Maybe not always with actual food, but with spiritual food. I guess one way to being feed spiritually is to feed others. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/03/feed_my_starving_children_htv.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/03/feed_my_starving_children_htv.html Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:29:50 -0600 The movie amazing grace follows the story of a man named Wilberforce who during his lifetime works to abolish the slave trade in England. He was a political activist in Parliament for years until some new friends convinced him to put a moral issue into action. Based upon his Christian based morals and the encouragement and support of his friends, he fought fiercely for the abolition of the slave trade. His fight was inspired by the song Amazing Grace which was written by the priest that told him to fight slavery. In the end, his goal of abolishing the slave trade was finished. This can relate to parts of the film concerning LBJ’s war on poverty. In that movie, the black people were still feeling the impact of slavery in the south. They were stilled viewed as inferior even after the civil war called an end to slavery. Wilberforce fought to provide the slaves with human rights just as LBJ was fighting to give human rights to families that were too poor to afford them. This included not just blacks, but also many white families who were in just as bad of shape. Color didn’t matter in LBJ’s war because he saw that poor folk deserve to have the same economic opportunities as that of the rich. Wilberforce fought because he saw that the black brethren have the right to opportunities that were being provided to people in England and America. This movie sends the message that one person can make a huge difference. Sometimes that impact is felt on a worldwide scale such as that of Wilberforce. But it can be as small as providing hope to just one single person. God commands us to not conform to the things of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The movie did a wonderful job of showing that Wilberforce was a man who did not allow the world to shape his behavior. He was transformed into a man who brought life to humans who were considered beasts. If God did that with Wilberforce, certainly he will do similar things within my life so that his message of love may reach the corners of the earth. http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/03/amazing_grace_movie.html http://blogs.markschuler.com/wendorff/2007/03/amazing_grace_movie.html Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:10:39 -0600