Whitney on the presidential election

This year’s presidential election has been one of the most historical elections so far, and I’m glad that I was able to play some part in it. This year was my first time voting and not only was I excited about being able to vote, but I was also excited because the democratic candidate was a minority. Barack Obama is one of the strongest African American leaders since Martin Luther King Jr. His powerful words and influential speeches have touched the hearts of many (including myself) and have given hope to those who were in doubt of our government system. The fact that an African American man succeeded above other great democratic leaders and made it to the final stage of the election is amazing. His success and his goals to improve the government in a way that will benefit all classes of society made me even more excited to vote and influenced me to learn more about politics and our government system.

Therefore, on October 31, 2008 I stood in line at the polls in my home town for three hours so that I could vote. (I had planned to wait until Election Day but, after I found out that I could vote early, I took advantage of it.) Even though the process was terribly long, I felt a sense of accomplishment after I voted. On November 4, the night of Election Day, after I heard the final results that Barack Obama was voted the next president of the United States, I literally screamed! After a minute of yelling and jumping up and down in excitement, I called my mom to see if she had heard the news, and she was overjoyed also. I watched CNN show live footage of all the democrats that stood together at the Democratic Election Party yelling with pride, “Yes We Can”, as President Barack Obama ended his victory speech, giving them and the rest of the nation more assurance of a positive future for America. I personally believe that the new president, Barack Obama, can change this nation for the better so that everyone can share a part in the American dream.

Rachel on pitying those in need

October 29th, 2008 was a big day for me, because on that day I was privileged to have an awesome conversation with a man that was 98 years old! As I think about that I am blown away because this means he was born in 1910. Imagine what he has seen and been a part of; all of the things that I have only read and dreamt about. He was telling me that he served in WWII and he was showing me some newspaper clippings that he had hung up on his wall that commemorated his achievements. He currently lives in a nursing home and is in a wheel chair. Sometimes I go to these places and feel pity for the people that are there because I see there situation and it looks so hopeless and sad. It’s easy to get caught up in pity when you are looking at the outside circumstances or a person’s appearance. What I have come to realize is that the last thing these people need is pity. The beauty I have come to see lies in listening to their life story and through that celebrating the life they have lived. To pity them is to pity their life and that would be a true disgrace to who they are! My newfound friend turned out to be quite a chatterbox. He told me about some of his job experiences after the war and proceeded to give me advice on how I should NOT do drugs. Pretty sound advice if you ask me! He also suggested that if I get into a healthcare career I should make sure I know what I am doing so as to avoid making simple mistakes like some people he knew! He tended to repeat or should I say reinforce some of the things he said but that was fine by me since it helped me to remember it better, and I figure good advice should be remembered, right? I hope to visit my new friend soon and do a little more celebrating of his life by hearing all his amazing adventures!

Whitney on fair trade

This week a Building Better Community event was held on campus by the Wofford College Go Green initiative about the Fair Trade system. The speaker, P’Nok, a Thai community organizer, traveled and researched the Fair Trade system worldwide. P’Nok began her research as a representative for the villagers and farmers of Thailand who were not bringing in the proper amount of income due to the poor Fair Trading system. Thailand used to export a variety of produce however, since the Green Revolution, which was similar to the U.S.’s Industrial Revolution, Thailand was forced to shift to monoculture and began producing only rice. They also had to resort to adding chemicals to their produce. Their government was convinced that this strategy would help them earn a higher income. Instead it backfired due to the high cost of the chemicals. Also multi-national corporations, like Wal-Mart, gained control of the market systems and influenced the cycle of food production, causing grocery stores to earn more money and farmers to earn less money. These issues led to a cycle of debt for the farmers and many families had to send their children to other places to help earn more money. However, not only did these issues affect farmers, they also affected consumers. Most consumers do not know where their food comes from or what chemicals or hormones may have been added to them, which can also affect health. To keep these issues from getting worse, charities such as OXFAM (United States) work to improve the Fair Trade system. P’Nok spoke about Fair Market Capitalism, which helps to eliminate the middle man during the trading process in order to help small producers. She also mentioned attempts to maintain the Organic Certification System to meet USDA standards. Farmers in Thailand are now trying to produce a variety of crops by their culture’s traditional farming. By using these strategies, farmers can work to build a more sustainable agriculture and better security in the food system.

Hearing P’Nok address these issues raised my awareness of what I choose to consume. Many students and young adults are so busy getting fast food or buying low priced food from multi-national corporations that they do not think twice about what they may be eating or where it may come from. I think that more young adults should be more aware of these issues also because, not only will it affect them, but it may also affect later generations (their children). Since we have alternatives, such as organic food and food brands that support fair trade, the main concern now is whether or not we’ll choose to use them.

Jose on his future

As a child, I struggled to figure out what I would want to do when I grow up. I couldn’t think of a career that I was passionate about. It was pitiful. I would copy my younger brother on career day. I wanted to be somebody who truly enjoyed their job. As weird as it may sound, I actually wanted to be my mom for career day. I wanted to just cook in the kitchen like her, and make people happy with her delicious treats and different array of deserts. My brother would make fun of me, and call me a woman. It’s funny now, but it hurt back then. I wanted the “perfect job”, a job that would bring complete joy and happiness to my life. For a long time I remained without an answer when I was asked what I wanted to be when I’d grow up. I eventually put my desire for true happiness aside, and consequently the desperate search for the “perfect job” faded. As I matured, I learned how the world worked, and I became more realistic. I learned that in order to survive in this world you need money. I realized that in this world if you want to “live happy” and “comfortably” it’s crucial to have a job that pays well. However, living comfortably can bring happiness, but only to a certain extent. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing the ideal life of financial success and stability.

However, for myself, I feel that in order to find true happiness you have to go find it. It’s something that I am in search for, and has eaten me alive for years. It’s taken me till now to realize that the “perfect job” was what I originally wanted to do when I was younger. Not a housewife, but a job where I can makes others happy, and I’ve gotten a feel for that through serving others this past month. I really enjoy working at all my service sites. So far, it has rewarded me with the greatest feeling of satisfaction, which is all I have ever asked for. I haven’t found the “perfect job” yet, but ’m so blessed to have the opportunity to make others happy. Through my service sites I’m getting a feel for the career I’ve always been looking for: a career where I’m always ready to help others.

Hannah on her most audacious dreams

What are your most precious and perhaps most audacious dreams? What would it mean for you if you achieved these dreams? Develop a plan for doing so.

I have lived in six different houses located in 2 different towns/states and now I live on the second floor of Greene at Wofford College. Moving is hard, but I fully support the idea that the change of moving and being outside of your comfort zone is helpful to growth as a person. Of course, it took moving for me to learn this. It is the people you meet when you move, the troubles you are faced with, and the experiences that are brought to you that make the difference. By learning this I have discovered my most precious and perhaps most audacious dreams: to travel as much as possible and learn from the people around me.

I have been out of the country once, and I am so ashamed to admit that. Just from that one experience in Jamaica I could talk for hours on end about the culture, the poverty, the amazing people, and their lack of skills while driving a jet ski. I have to bite my tongue when I hear a naïve person say he or she has no desire to see the rest of the world. How can we be so small minded in the USA to think our culture is the most exciting? Please, I would much rather dance all night to a reggae band, see the Great Wall of China, stay with a family in Spain, and in doing so learn from the people that surround me.

Mark my word; my 4 years at Wofford will consist of multiple travels inside and outside of the United States. Then again, Wofford makes it extremely easy to travel abroad and we would be half crazy to pass up that opportunity. For me to achieve this goal of traveling the world would bring wisdom and memories that no one could take away from me.

Michael on doing what is right

When have you stood up to someone or something, even at risk to yourself, for what you knew was right? What was it? How did it make you feel? What would have happened if you hadn’t acted? How does it feel to acknowledge that?

I went to the Citgo close to Wofford a few weeks back to get gas. I parked and walked into the store, which was more crowded than it usually was. Two Latino men were in the store that looked like road workers – they were wearing blue jumpsuits and were covered in what looked like tar. One of them was being yelled at by the cashier at the register. It was clear that his spoken English was fairly limited and that she was unable to convey some kind of information to him. While several other customers and I waited, she berated him for not understanding the directions she was giving. They finally sorted out their problem and the two men went on their way.

As they started to walk out the door the woman at the register began speaking with the customers in line in front of me. “These damn illegals,” she opined in a deep southern drawl. “Can’t do nothing with them. Coming in here and don’t know how to pump gas. They takin’ people’s jobs and don’t know how to pump their own damn gas.” The people in front of me, several African-Americans, shifted and looked at the floor while she complained. Her monologue continued until I was at the counter. “Ten dollars in gas, please,” I asked, hoping that her tirade would cease as she punched the register. It didn’t. She began it anew, in fact – as if I hadn’t been able to hear her conversation with the people waiting in front of me. “Did you see them Mexicans? It is just ridiculous,” she asked. “I don’t even know what to do when the Mexicans come in. They never know anything.” I didn’t respond, swiped my card, and walked out without a word to her after that.

I went and sat in my car for a few moments without turning the car on. I thought about the things she had said – some in earshot of the Latino workers, and much more after they had gone. They were unable to defend themselves against her anger or her backbiting comments after they left. The people in the store, including myself, had sat idly by while she spewed a racist, elitist diatribe against them. I went back inside the store.

I opened the door and stood in the frame. All of the customers had gone and she was sitting on a stool behind the counter. “Excuse me,” I said. “I want to say to you that you are a bigot, and you have no right to talk about anyone in the way you just were.”

“Okay, okay, okay,” she responded defensively. “I didn’t mean no harm.”

“You’ve lost my business permanently,” I informed her. “Next time, think about who is listening before you start running your mouth.” I left the store in a hurry.

I immediately regretted losing my temper. That’s not the way to change anything or anyone. I couldn’t help but be filled with anger given the situation. It made me think about times in which I am defenseless against what people say. I know how I’d feel if I was in the position of those Latino men. And I know how much worse I’d feel if nobody else recognized it being wrong.

I doubt that the woman at Citgo has changed her attitudes towards Latin American immigrants. I don’t know that she ever will. What I hope she did realize is that if she disparages a group of people when no representatives of that group are near her, she still can get herself into trouble for it. I hope she sees now that it is possible to be offensive without offending someone on an individual basis. And, fundamentally, I hope she can learn to show tolerant attitudes in her public work place – no one should have to listen to hateful speech when trying to buy their gas.

Rachel on changing service sites this year

From my time with Hospice I have learned that the organization is not about death but the quality of life a patient should have while he or she still has life. Their goals are for the patient to be as pain free and comfortable as possible. They do these things by letting the patient stay at home and also by bringing the healthcare needs to them. They also provide medication that will alleviate the pain and yet make it possible for them to be cognitive to the outside world. They have a whole team of people that work with each individual patient and their families. They have social workers that make sure that the caretakers are treating the patient properly and also assess any outside help the family might need (food stamps, utility bills, etc). They have nurses that come twice to three times a week to assist the patient with any medical needs or complications. They have chaplains and volunteers who upon request will come and give spiritual support and companionship. This team of diverse people combines in unison to ensure that the patient feels loved and cared. As a volunteer it is really exciting to be part of the large picture that ensures people live an optimal life and die with dignity.

Since I plan to go into the medical profession and it would be in my best interest to be accustomed to the idea of death and to see if I am able to cope with it when it is happening around me, I chose this site at my Bonner work for the semester. Rarely do I think of dying or people in my family dying but the reality is that everyone will die eventually. In our society we rarely talk about it and therefore treat it as an unspoken disease, but the truth of the matter is that it is a natural part of life. We see it all around us in nature through the season every year as flowers blossom and wither after their time has ended. It makes me wonder why we avoid such an unavoidable part of life. I feel that we disregard it because of fear and uncertainty of what happens next. What I love about Hospice is that it is there to give you comfort in the hour of your highest need. It celebrates the life you have lived and allows you to live the rest of your life to a worthy ending like ending of the last chapter to a great book. Life should be cherished and celebrated; death should be seen as the end to a new beginning. It might be that through this experience I realize that I cannot cope well with people dying or that it takes too much of an emotional toll on me. If this is the case then it will give me a great insight in the type of career I should avoid and an understanding of my own limits. Regargless of the results, I will be glad for whatever the lesson might be.

A more personal reason I want to work at hospice is to perhaps get a better appreciation of life and what life truly means. Some days I get caught in the hustle and bustle of the day and forget to look at the beauty around me. I will at times get so engulfed in my work and my “to do list” that I miss time to spend with the people that matter most in my life (family and friends). Being there for people and sharing time with them is perhaps the noblest cause because time is the best resource we can give anybody. Either way this service site turns out I feel that I will have gained a lot more then I bargained for such a great experience.

Jose on what he's grateful for

I remember last night at my service site what Mabel, an elderly volunteer at St. Luke’s, said after we were talking about the places we’ve visited. I didn’t have much to say, but Mabel did. Her whole tale was exciting and certainly worthwhile. I don’t know if it was the small plane that she rode across the Venezuelan desert or her adventures in Peru, but somehow, shortly after she was done with her tales of the past, she blew me away and left me thinking about my own life. Mabel began describing the last couple of years of her widow’s life as a “blessing”. “Health is a one of the greatest blessings in this life” she explained. Just after these last few words came out of her small and perfectly wrinkled little mouth and before she went back to her corner, she said to me, “I don’t know what I did to deserve this.” The phrase stuck in my mind. I was simply left with a phrase that had so much meaning, and I related it to my own life. “What did Jose Reyes do to deserve such a good life?” What deserving deed did he do to become a Bonner Scholar? I just thought to myself, “I guess I’m just grateful.”

In the past month I’ve started working the front desk at St. Luke’s Free Medical Clinic where it has been quite the life experience. It has opened my eyes and allowed me to reach a whole new level of meaning and gratefulness. Far too often it is easier to forget how good one has it and not understand how important it is to be grateful, for all of the blessings of life. But seeing others in need and just simply looking around, I am reminded of the great blessings of my own life. For the question, “What am I grateful for”, for myself, cannot be summed up in a word. It’s an endless possibility of answers. I’m grateful for everything that God has blessed me with throughout my whole life. So in that aspect, I’m grateful for all his blessings. The blessing of coming to a great school, and being part of a phenomenal Bonner Scholars program that has begun to change myself as a person, is one that I am tremendously grateful for. Through serving others in the past month I’ve not only been appreciative of having good health and strength, but I have instead used this blessing to help others that are hungry or sick. Working at the soup kitchen, I try my best to be as friendly as possible. Even if people seem down and are probably going through the hardest of situations, I try my best to always bring a smile or laugh to others. Sharing that little bit of happiness can always make the difference between going through a rough time alone and going through a rough time with a helping hand. Even if I don’t have an important job yet, I’m grateful to have the opportunity to help others in need. Hopefully one day I can pass this positive energy I have acquired onto others. I hope to gain leadership skills along the way, but for right now I’m just beginning to learn the ropes of becoming a better Bonner Scholar. Serving others through this program is the least I can do to show my gratefulness in having the privilege of being put into the Bonner program.

Whitney on the creation of Wofford Women of Color

Last year a group of female minority students, including myself, noticed that there were not any organizations available that were strictly for minority women. We knew that there was the Association of Multicultural Students, but it included males, and there were four different sororities available also, but they were mostly predominantly white women and some of us did not want to be apart of a sorority. Most women at Wofford are predominantly Caucasian women and sometimes it was hard for us to relate to them. We wanted our own group, our own organization that we could be apart of. Most of all we wanted to be apart of a group of women that related to one another.

At the beginning of the year during January Interim, senior Ashleigh Wilson decided to be the first to step up and form a project to try to get the club started. Everyone found out by word of mouth about her effort to finally create an organization for minority women at Wofford. She emailed every minority woman at Wofford and set a date to meet and talk about her project. The meeting turned out to be successful. Ashleigh first allowed us to address any ideas, subjects, or concerns we had about creating our organization such as the times we would meet, any rules we may have wanted, events we would hold, and awareness we may have wanted to share. We then created the purpose for our organization. Our purpose was to promote a strong sisterhood between women of color. This then lead to creating the name of our group, Wofford Women of Color.
We decided for our first event to hold a mother-daughter tea for spring weekend. One of our members invited her aunt, Zonya Brewton, to be our speaker and share some inspiring words. Mrs. Brewton spoke about her college experience and how she was the first in her family to attend college. She also spoke about some of her set backs and how she overcame them. This reminded me of the set backs we overcame in creating our organization. I also realized that we all experience set backs in our lives, but what matters is how we overcome them. Wofford Women of Color remained determined in getting our organization started and to this day it is still a success.

At the end of her speech Mrs. Brewton shared a poem that she made for us and gave us copies of it to use as a little way to keep us motivated during the hard times we may experience during our years here at Wofford.

The Journey by Zonya Brewton
This is but a portion of your journey
That you’ll travel in this life
There’ll be tests and there’ll be trials
And some days there’ll be strife

You’ll experience the joy of success
And suffer the pain of failure too
Women of Color stand together
That’s how you’ll make it through

This is but a portion of your journey
Do not travel this road alone
Women of Color walk together
In numbers you’ll be strong

You made it to this point
Because of what’s inside of you
You are destined to succeed
As long as you believe it’s true

When doubt comes your way
And I promise you it will
Always remember that FEAR
Is False Evidence Appearing Real

For some you’ll make family history
As you walk across that stage
The first to complete college
And enter a new phase

Your Degree will say a lot
About the person that you are
It will say that you’re determined
It will say that you’re a STAR!

It says you can achieve
Whatever you set out to do
It says you’re unstoppable
No road blocks stopping you

The trials that you have gone through
Will all have been worth it
You’ll be so happy you continued
And decided not to quit

I want to take this opportunity
To congratulate you in advance
Well Done! you Women of Color
Against you, the world doesn’t stand a chance!

Hannah on the importance of home

To me, my home is a place of peace. I sit on the front porch with my family and dogs. We talk for hours, or sometimes we just sit and enjoy nature (that may sound lame, but it is true). I could literally sit there for hours on end and listen to the wind, the pond, people driving down the gravel road, or the frogs chirp. I walk inside and have dinner with my family and maybe some friends… we will grill out if I am lucky. Once it gets past dark we all finally go to bed. One can always tell the smell of another’s house. My house is my smell. I crave the feeling of my head hitting the pillow in my room where my windows are open and I hear nothing but country.

My country haven speaks to me because it is where I am welcomed and loved. I know whenever I want I can go home, and waiting for me will be my parents, my dogs, and a warm cooked meal. I feel so greedy when I go home every weekend and some of my friends are suck at Wofford because their home is in Baltimore; but at least they know their home is there. That is what brings me to the kids at the Cleveland Boys and Girls Club. The first time I went to work with the children I was utterly shocked at their excitement to be there. After school hours, doing homework, running around with a bunch of kids…when you could be home? Home?
While helping with homework, I asked some questions to individual kids who were having a hard time. When I wanted to know if he/she was getting help at home they looked at me aimlessly. “No, I get help at the Boys and Girls Club.” When I told a young boy he needed to practice writing his “5”s at home he looked at me and said he would not have time, he had to watch his brother.  

A day at the Boys and Girls Club begins with a snack, and these kids love it! I know it is really important to feed all of them because some will not get fed until much later in the night. What I find the most heart wrenching about the entire after school program is when the kids take a couple minutes to recite the pledge. It reads (something like), I believe in the Constitution, a better me, the Bill of Rights…etc. At the end a student stands up front and says, “No matter what (name) says…” They all yell back, “I AM SOMEBODY.” At the Club these kids get the attention and drive to succeed and become someone.