Michael on money, service, and what's between

As I prepare for graduation, I have been considering the course that my service will take outside of the Bonner program. After having been a Bonner, I'm deeply accustomed to working in the community as a standard part of my schedule. It seems impossible to stop at this point.

The issue as I face in entering the larger, post-Wofford world is the balance between making ends meet financially and still working towards social justice in a way that I can feel good about. As I've mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I will be attending law school in the fall. In law school, I will have many opportunities to serve the community I'm in through legal clinics and summer internships at nonprofits. This is a little easier to imagine, though - I'll still be in an academic setting and making money will not be my primary goal.

Though things could always change, I currently have difficulty seeing myself in a work setting after law school that is not service-oriented. The job could be governmental or in a nonprofit - the important part is that it helps change something for the better. Particularly in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties law, becoming an attorney will hopefully allow me to take my service to a new level of efficacy. The problem will be resisting the higher paychecks and greater clout a more traditional legal career would provide.

Bonner is a perfect example, though, of a program that is highly profitable and service-oriented. I signed up for Bonner because of the scholarship money, but I stayed a Bonner because I love feeling like I've been valuable to my community. I hope to find a comparable balance in my professional life as well.

Jose on new ideas

My volunteer site was at the assistance league thrift shop of Charlotte. The Assistance League of Charlotte is a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and families through community-based philanthropic programs. . Even though our task was simple, being able to take part in the service the thrift shop provides for the community was certainly rewarding. The impact the thrift store has on community is phenomenal.

The volunteer staff of the thrift shop gave of us the simple tasks of helping sort out their accepted donations. The volunteer staff helps organize and pay special attention to the assorted donations that come into the shop, and make sure that the merchandise is of the best quality for the customers. They maintain a descent amount of stock of goods in the back of the store. It’s without a doubt that the store runs so well thanks to all its volunteers, including those who take part even in the simplest of tasks. Such as organizing decorative items by the holiday or occasion they belong to on their shelves, which was my job at one point.

Throughout the day I had the privilege of meeting some really awesome people. One of the volunteers was a student from a local high school that often comes in during his weekends, and volunteers at the thrift store for a couple hours. He mainly helps out in the back of the store folding clothes and organizing donated items like we did. When we asked him why he volunteers he was simply honest and explained to us that it was a part of the volunteer work he’s required to do for a school organization that he is a member of. He says the thrift shop does so much for those in need.

You could definitely see that as I first entered the store. You notice the people who didn’t have much were able to buy various amounts of items. As I came out to put out an item in the store front you could see the kids picking of their favorite jackets that will hopefully keep them warm during the cold month of January. What really touched me was when I was able to understand the Hispanic couple that the wife was telling her husband that they did not have much to spend. However, by the time they walked out they were surprised they had enough money to buy clothes for their whole family. It was moments like these that made me stop and appreciate the things we are blessed with.

After we left the store, I still couldn’t forget the Hispanic couple and I thought of an idea that has not been done in awhile at the Hispanic Catholic service that I attend. That is, people bringing clothes that they don’t use anymore for the people in our mass that really need it. I thought of all the clothes I don’t wear anymore that I have still lying in my closet, and made it a plan that I will be bringing them to church soon.

Whitney on urban restoration

For our All Bonner Winter Retreat this year, we volunteered our services to various places in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. My group was chosen to serve at the Urban Restoration Center, which is a nonprofit organization serving the children and families of the inner city of Charlotte since 1993. Urban Restoration is Charlotte’s largest inner-city outreach ministry that aims at decreasing crime, drugs, gangs, and abandonment issues within the area and helping local ministries to grow stronger in order to assist people experiencing these factors.

The Urban Restoration building has several classrooms for its youth programs which include Saturday Morning Kid’s Club, Summer Camp, After-School Services, Christian School, and Counseling. Other youth programs that are fit for older youth are Friday Night Youth Group, Job Training, Sports Teams, Athletic Camps and Mentoring. Programs developed for inner-city families include Emergency Food Assistance, Household Appliance Assistance, Family Counseling, Job Training, Parenting Classes, and Foster Parent Training. Lately more families are becoming involved with Urban Restoration and the amount of space available to hold them all is limited. Therefore, the organization plans on adding more classrooms and hallways to the building.

When we visited Urban Restoration the staff was in the process of remodeling the entrance way of the building. They needed us to paint the walls green in order to brighten it up from the bland beige color it had at the time. It was my first time ever painting a whole room before and I found it enjoyable. We were only able to finish the first coat of paint. However it still had an effect on the front entrance by giving it a more comfortable and inviting atmosphere. I’m sure that after the entire building is remodeled, it can attract even more families and youth to expand its size and outreach.

Hannah on the not-so-glamorous types of service

The annual Bonner winter retreat is a day of service where all Wofford Bonners spread out among different service sites. This year, we traveled to Charlotte, where I volunteered with many others at Joshua’s Farm. Joshua’s Farm is a therapeutic horse riding center. Patients visit for all types of needs. Horse riding stimulates tension spots all over the body and relaxes them. I had a hard time at first seeing how horse riding could relax anyone… I would imagine if one has never ridden a horse it would be a rather frightening experience. One of the instructors explained how patients enjoy riding the horses and use it as a place to escape and relieve stress. The coolest part (in my opinion) of the farm was where patients could come pet other farm animals. I love animals, so this is where I spent most of my time. To help out, a group of us scooped poop all day. As gross as it sounds, I loved every minute of it. The animals were, for the most part, so friendly and adorable. I could sit all day with the mule, or one of the goats, of both of the pigs. After we left the site and went to reflect, I realized my small deed of scooping poop went a long way. The instructors at Joshua’s farm do, and need to, spend all of their time helping the patients. If more people volunteered to do the dirty work, the farm could serve more of those in need and be cleaner at the same time. Turns out, scooping poop goes a long way!

Michael on the way things work out

I recently took the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). Early on, I had scored well on practice tests and it led me to a degree of complacency about preparation for the test. I took it in October and felt fairly good about the experience and the likelihood of my having a satisfactory score. I got my test scores back a few weeks later and they were significantly lower than what I had anticipated.

I can't say that I wasn't disappointed or that I didn't freak out. I spent the entire weekend pitying myself and questioning my future. After a few days of moping and blaming anything and everyone but myself, I owned up to my disappointment. I still had a score that would get me in to several places I had been looking at prior to the test, and I decided to look at others that were still possibilities.

Interestingly enough, I found law schools that were far more appealing to me than the schools I was looking at before. Although I got a lower score and may end up attending a law school with a slightly lower ranking than where I thought I might've gone, I was able to locate several programs that are perfectly suited to the type of career I hope to have. This experience was an excellent example of the ways in which failure, or the perception of failure, can sometimes lead to a larger success.

Michael on privilege

Academically and experientially, Wofford has taught me a great deal about what identity and identity politics mean. In the classroom, courses dealing with topics such such as feminist philosophy, postcolonial politics, American race relations, gender/queer theory, nationalism, and a variety of others have shown me how incredibly important social constructions of identity can be.

One of the toughest parts of having acquired an admittedly rudimentary understanding of these issues is the impossibility of refusing privilege. For example, I would never want to be privileged in any situation because of my race; however, I know that it happens every day, in countless invisible ways. I never want to be privileged because I am male, but it's hard to always see it happening. I never want to be privileged because of the assumption of "middleclassness," but I realize when I say that I go to Wofford what a loaded statement that is.

Service has bolstered my understanding of this problem as well, albeit in different ways. Texts about oppression based on identity are a far different matter than seeing that oppression firsthand. Bonner allowed me to study abroad in Africa, a continent fallen victim to identity-based disempowerment. Even within Uganda, certain groups (the Baganda being a strong example) experienced tremendous privilege due to ethnic identification - no matter how politically aware they were of that phenomena as a problem.

Rachel on the varieties of love

In one of my Spanish classes we have been reading the works of a famous Latin American writer named Carlos Fuentes. One of his books is called “En Esto Creo A/Z” this translates to “In This I Believe A-Z.” In this book he constructs a type of “dictionary for life” in which he alphabetically list different topics that are meaningful to his life and writes about them. One of my favorite topics is when he speaks of love and the many forms in which it can exist. One of the points in this section is what he calls the quality of attention, love as in the act of paying attention. He goes on to say to give someone your attention and to be open to receive their attention is a creative faculty and its condition is love. Perhaps my translation does not give it justice but in this quote he suggests that giving someone your undivided attention is the highest expression of love, in that time and better yet quality time is the best gift you could give someone as a representation of your love. If I could only pass down one bit of wisdom it would be that. The act of paying attention to another person is important whether it be to your family, friends, or random people you encounter throughout the day. The gift of time is the best present that a person can give so I suggest it be given wisely and with purpose. This is my nugget of knowledge that I still have to learn and practice myself…