Pay it Forward, misfortune can happen to good people!

   A year ago, in December, I became an advocate for the Connect2Complete program at Miami Hamilton. I selected C2C for employment, involvement with other students and faculty, and community engagement/volunteerism. This past semester (Fall 2014), the class I worked with took on a Pay-It-Forward project, focusing on philanthropy.

           

            The goal of the Pay-It-Forward project was to raise awareness of the issues of at-risk youth, addiction, hunger, and homelessness, especially in the local community. The end goal was for each group to present on their topic. They had to research a certain issue throughout the semester, gain insight and first-hand experience from the civic engagement project, and compile all the information into a ten to fifteen minute presentation for a panel of judges. Rachael Lange, the Ohio Campus Compact Connect2Complete AmeriCorps VISTA, and Lois Brown, the instructor and Reading Specialist, received a $2,700 grant for three semesters, to award to the organization of the winning presentation ($900 each semester). The class that I worked with, ENG 151, had about 20 students. Each of the students were assigned a group. In total, there were four groups. They worked on the project as a team and as individuals. They composed research questions that related to their group topic (issue). One part of the project entailed volunteering at local sites. The at-risk youth group went to Booker T. Washington Community Center, the addiction group went to Sojourner Recovery Services, the hunger group went to Open Door Food Pantry, and the homelessness group went to Serve City. The civic engagement took place during regular class time. The goal of the trip was to gain first-hand experience of the issue researched and develop philanthropy. Several community partners were  involved in the project.

My role as the class advocate was to attend all class sessions, inform the students of upcoming deadlines, facilitate in-class group activities and discussions, hold weekly office hours, coordinate the civic engagement trip with the instructor and VISTA, and give presentations to the class on various topics. To pursue this project, I organized times to meet with each team outside of class in order to help them research their topics and compose PowerPoints. In class, I facilitated team building activities and demonstrated how to give a speech and good vs. bad presentations/PowerPoints. I also went with the hunger group to Open Door Food Pantry on the volunteer day. In addition, when students asked for help, I arranged meetings with them. I connected students from the addiction group to the volunteer coordinator of Sojourner in order to get more information for their presentation. I assisted the students from the hunger group by filming their tour of Open Door Food Pantry and interview with the director.

Through my engagement in the Pay-It-Forward program, I was able to gain knowledge of the issues of at-risk youth, addiction, hunger, and homelessness. I volunteered at each location associated with relieving these problems. I became more comfortable as a leader through my experience in facilitating group discussions and activities. I spent hours of my own time researching ways to improve public speaking and give professional presentations, and relayed that information to the students. I saw these issues first-hand. I talked with the residents of the homeless shelter. I worked beside two men struggling with addiction. I saw at-risk youth playing at the community center. I witnessed the hungry go through the process to get food. I saw a different lifestyle that exists next door to me. Since then, I have returned to each site to volunteer and plan to continue volunteering and donate as much as I can.

The final presentations took place on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Each team delivered their presentations to the judges and others present. The hunger group won and the grant was given to Open Door Food Pantry. I was pleased with the hard work these students put into the project. They were mostly freshman. Never before has a freshman class performed a project like this. Their presentations clearly indicated a deep level of research and understanding. They were phenomenal and many faculty members told me that they were extremely impressed with them. I realized that together, we can accomplish amazing things. Several students told me they learned so much from the project and had already looked into volunteering again at the organization. One student said he was going to apply to become a lifeguard at Booker T. Washington. I was surprised that they were eager, willing, and excited. I thought they would have seen the project as burdensome and something mandatory in order to pass the class. I was impressed with their zeal. This project definitely impacted my personal life. I had never taken part in civic engagement before becoming an advocate and I had certainly never voluntarily entered a community in such poverty. In the past year, I have placed on the bronze and gold level of the service honor roll and am in the process of being placed in a committed volunteer position for the spring 2015 semester. As I stated above, this experience helped me gain skills that I will be able to transfer to my professional career in the future and will help me understand my fellow humans on a non-judgmental level.

As a middle class person, I never experienced extreme suffering from lack of proper clothing, food, or employment. Seeing people suffer from these basic, daily necessities disturbed me. Many researchers, scientists, and other professionals have studied causes of these issues and possible solutions. However, after seeing people in these predicaments (such as homelessness) I cannot say, “it’s their own fault,” or “they need to just get a job” anymore. I have seen that ‘life’ and misfortune happen to good people. Sometimes the answers in the books don’t apply to every situation. I have learned that my good fortune shouldn’t become commonplace, but appreciated and valued. 

This blog was written by Emily Cole, Connect2Complete Advocate. To learn more about Pay it Forward at Miami University Hamilton, contact Lori Bledsoe at Bledsonl@miamioh.edu. 

To learn more about Pay it Forward in Ohio contact, Brenna Limbrick, Ohio Campus Compact Program Director, at blimbrick@ohiocampuscompact.org or 740-587-6366. 

Everyone has a story and everyone is human

When you see the words “Spring Break”, what are your first thoughts? Most likely, you would think of “vacation” or something positive. My first day of break was a tough one. I was a participant at C.O.P.E. According to Think Tank, the operator of this program, “C.O.P.E. (Cost Of Poverty Experience) has been used to help many organizations and communities across the nation work more effectively with low-income families and understand and address the issues of poverty more comprehensively.” By participating in this event, I was able to understand the culture of those living in poverty.

            When I arrived, I was placed in a seat and given a packet. The packet had all of the details about what role I would be playing. The simulation was based off the real stories of 25 families. My family consisted of a single mom with two sons. My partner decided to play the role of the mother and I was the oldest son. There was a doll to represent the baby. All other participants in the room had similar roles depending on the situation of the family. Each family had to learn to survive in their situations.

            The simulation was one month long. Each week was 15 minutes with short breaks in between. There were tables set up around the room representing services such as daycare, school, work, food stamps, pawn shops, jail, faith and healing center, homeless shelter, etc. Each family had to follow the rules in their packet and go from table to table obtaining services and paying utilities. It didn’t take long to notice how hard this was to do.

            They typical stereotype of poverty is negative. Those living in poverty are looked upon as lazy. This simulation helped me to see the other side of the story. I was so frustrated in the situation I was role playing. There were long lines at the common services tables and waiting in line for those meant wasting precious time needed at other tables. Sacrifices had to be made in every decision. There were no win-win’s. In my family, the mom spent half of the “week” waiting in line to get her pay check. When it was almost her turn, the whistle would blow, signaling the end of the week. Then she would have to go “home” and try again the next week. In the meantime, the bills were not getting paid, and she didn’t have the time or money to get food. At the end of the experience, we did a group discussion.       

            The feeling of frustration was felt by everyone. Those in the role of children felt that they were responsible for helping their parents and this took away from their lives as kids. A lot of time was wasted waiting in lines. All were so busy living in the tyranny of the moment that they missed out on opportunities and services. Many tables had services that no one knew about because they didn’t have the time to go and find out. For example, a few tables offered jobs but no one thought to inquire about any services other than advertised. Only three families paid their utilities on time and many went weeks without proper nourishment. Some didn’t have the time to cash or collect their checks. Kids were neglected by not receiving enough attention from their parents and suffered in school because their parents didn’t have time to help them with homework. There were barriers everywhere!

            This was an eye opening simulation. Just because someone is living in poverty does not mean they are lazy. We were exhausted in the two hours we spent imitation poverty. I can’t imagine how taxing that life must be in reality. They worked harder than most middle class people and for minimum wage. People in poverty may be trying to get out of it but circumstances and fate prevent that from happening. I believe that this helped my stereotype of those living in poverty. I realized that everyone has a story and everyone is a human. I don’t know the reasons why but I can put myself in their shoes and understand their situation. The key is understanding!

http://www.thinktank-inc.org/#!cope/c4xl

This was written by Emily Cole, a former Connect2Complete Advocate at Miami Hamilton, about her experience at the Cost of Poverty Experience (C.O.P.E.), poverty simulation, put on every March by the Center for Civic Engagement. This is also the kick off event for STAYcation, the poverty immersion alternative spring break program. To learn about C.O.P.E. or STAYcation please contact the Center for Civic Engagement at MUHCCE@miamioh.edu 

Meet Amy: Connect2Complete & CCAMPIS Spotlight!

 Meet Amy Michael!!

Amy is a junior Special Education major with a minor in disability studies. Amy joined our team in Spring 2014, after she heard about the program at Fall Fest in 2013. Amy and her husband have four children, the youngest attends Campus Kids on Miami Hamilton's campus.

Fun Fact: All of Amy's children have names that are 6 letters long and begin with the letter H!

Amy's career goals are to make a positive change in education. Her favorite thing about being an Advocate is meeting diverse groups of students, learning their strengths and challenges, and helping them to problem solve and connect to what they need to succeed!

Amy loves sushi and payday candy bars. Her favorite color is orange and her favorite pie is apple. When Amy was asked "Who is your hero and why?" she responded with: "My kids! They have overcome so much and have no idea the battles they have fought." 

E-cards always make her laugh and her favorite joke is: "Why are lattes called lattes? Because they cost a-lot-tae".

If Amy could change one thing in the world, she would eliminate stereotypes. Her advice to incoming students is: "Be empathetic. Try to understand why people are different and face the challenges they do. Be respect, don't judge, help!".

Connect2Complete!

In Spring 2014, Amy served in Karen Blount's ABLE Writing class. Her class volunteered at the Animal Adoption Foundation participating in their "Walk a Hound" program and socializing with cats. Amy wrote a great blog about her experience titled "Animal Adoption Foundation Experience"!


We were ecstatic when Amy was able to continue her work with us in Fall 2014 in Becky Richard's ENG007, Fundamentals of Writing course.  On Wednesday September 10, 2014 Amy and her class volunteered at Shared Harvest Food Bank for their Civic Engagement project.

Shared Harvest was preparing for Panerathon, one of their largest fundraisers throughout the year. A substantial portion of the proceeds benefit the backpack program which provides weekend meals for kids. The Miami Hamilton Connect2Complete volunteers helped to pack "swag bags" for those participating in the Panerathon. The backs were stuffed full of goodies and important community information.  The students learned that volunteering at a food bank doesn't always mean working with food. They learned the power of volunteers bu stuffing 350 bags in just under an hour. Three classes visited that day, stuffing a total of 1050 "swag bags" for the Panerathon.
Click here to view more pictures on our flickr! 

CCAMPIS!

During the last semester, Amy has been serving as our CCAMPIS Peer Advocate in Campus Kids, Miami University Hamilton's on campus childcare center. CCAMPIS stands for "Childcare access means parents in school". CCAMPIS is a federal program that "supports the participation of low-income parents in postsecondary education through the provision of campus-based child care services."  

Amy & her family

This is our first semester partnering with Campus Kids, Traci Anders (Director of Campus Kids), and the CCAMPIS grant to provide student parents with continued support throughout the semester. Amy has done an amazing job forging the program and connecting with student parents on and off campus. During the school week, Amy works in the Child Care center meeting with parents or finding resources to support their education and success. During Spring Break Amy organized a play date picnic at a near by playground!   

We're excited that Amy will be working with us again next semester on the CCAMPIS program! She's an amazing mother, student and Advocate! We cannot wait to see how the CCAMPIS-Advocate program grows with her on board! 

Connect2Complete Advocate Spotlight #2!

Meet Paula Chantana! 

Paula is a senior Integrated Studies major with a concentration in Early Childhood Education. Paula has been a Connect2Complete Advocate at Miami Hamilton since our first semester, Fall 2013. Which means this is Paula's 4th semester as C2CA!! 

Her desired career is as a school social worker or sign language interpreter. She chose to become an advocate to be able to interact with new students and to help them feel welcome. Her favorite things about being an Advocate are meeting people in her community and helping students with the resources available at Miami.

Her advice to an incoming student is: "When you feel overwhelmed just take a deep breath and count backwards from 10 while saying to yourself 'I can do this because I am a successful student'. "

Paula's favorite foods are seafood and pizza and her favorite sweets are ice cream, brownies, and cookies! She often brings cookies to our Advocate meetings on Fridays.Her favorite colors are blue and pink and her favorite quote is from John F. Kennedy "Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country.

In the community Paula volunteers with YWCA's Girls Inc. program and works with Kindercare, Child Day Care center!

Paula is currently serving as a Connect2Complete Advocate in Laura Metz's Art181 Concepts in Art class on Tuesday nights. She has previously served in Karen Blount's ABLE Writing class (Fall 2013 & Spring 2014) and Lois Brown's EDT002 (Fall 2014) College Reading.

Civic Engagement Projects: 
During the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 semesters, Paula's classes volunteered at Animal Adoption Foundation (AAF)! At the shelter students had an opportunity to social with cats or walk dogs in their "Walk a Hound" program. Students also learned about adoption policies and that AAF is a no-kill shelter. You can read more about their trips in these blogs: AAF & Fundamentals of Writing and Animal Adoption Foundation!

During our third semester of the Connect2Complete program Paula served in EDT002, College Reading with Lois Brown. This class volunteered at Booker T. Washington Community Center. The class reorganized the books in the library and moved one of the shelves to create more study space in the room!  Pictures below!!

This semester, Spring 2015, Paula's class will be engaging with the community by sponsoring an art show! Art181 is a Miami Plan art class and while most of the students are not artist they do create art pieces throughout the semester. We're excited for the students to have an opportunity to share their art with the community!

Pictures from Booker T. Washington, Fall 2014

Taking all of the books off the shelves 

Organizing the books in the hallway by size

Moving the shelf across the room. 

Fixing the shelf that broke in the move! 

Class picture! 

Connect2Complete at Miami Hamilton wants to give Paula a huge THANK YOU for serving with our program of the past 2 years!! 

Meet Lori, Connect2Complete Advocate!!

Meet Lori!!

Lori Bledsoe is a Junior Integrated Studies major in Drama Analysis and History and Society. On campus she is a Community Assistant and Ohio Benefit Bank Counselor in the Center for Civic Engagement and a stage manager with the Theatre department. This is her first semester as a Connect2Complete Advocate! 

When Lori grows up she wants to work in the community to help people receive the assistance they need and deserve. Lori wants to help others find ways to get themselves back on their feet and learn how to help others achieve the same. She chose to become a C2C Advocate because it allows her to assist students in utilizing the resources they have available to them, to make their day better and reduce the stress of being a first time college student.  Lori's advice for incoming students is "To get involved! No matter if it is a club or a service project. Enjoy the college experience!"

Her favorite joke is: "Why did the flea cross the road? To get to the flea market!". Lori admitted to eating paste a child but we still love her just the same! Her favorite holiday is Halloween and her proudest moment was the day her daughter was born. 

When asked "What is poverty and what causes or perpetuates it?" Lori replied with "Poverty to me is when an individual or family do not earn enough income to provide for themselves. I feel the causes are broad but sometimes it is because of unemployment, past criminal record with no second chance, death of a loved one (supporter) and/or drug addiction." 

"If I could change one thing in the world it would be the way government assistance is received and applied for. I believe those who need it have it hard enough not being able to eat or take their child to the doctor. They should not have to be on hold or stand in line for 45 minutes to ask a question." 

Lori is a Connect2Complete Advocate in Becky Richards' English 007, fundamentals of writing class. Her class completed their Civic Engagement project at Shared Harvest on Wednesday September 10th. 

Shared Harvest is a food bank located on Route 4, about 15 minutes from the Miami Hamilton campus. Shared Harvest is not government funded which means they have to find alternative funding sources and participate in fundraising. One of their large fundraisers is a 5K Walk/Run called Panera-Thon! We assisted Ben Powers, Volunteer Coordinator & Backpack program facilitator, in preparing for the race by packing "Swag bags" that are given to the participants at registration. Ben likes to experiment with 'best practices' for packing and sorting which meant as the first group there that day we were the guinea pigs! 

The swag bags were reusable fabric shopping bags stuffed with pamphlets, flyers, bandaids, crayons, tattoos and more! This first group had one person at each 'station' (station managers) and then several people that worked as 'walkers'. The walkers would pick up a bag and stop at each 'station' where a goodie was placed in the bag by the station manager. The 'walker' would then hand off the bag to the 'box-managers' for stacking. We figured out after about 100 bags that they must be stacked in an alternating pattern, similar to stacking binders, or else they would slide and tumble and create a great mess. Half way through the stacking we had to re-stack most of a the bags to reduce sliding. 

Overall the team stuffed about 250 bags!! 

Here are a couple pictures! The rest can be found on Flikr! 

Ben showing the process

Packing of the bags! 

In the spirit of 9/11, September Day of Service

Original blog posted September 30, 2014. View here!

On the last Friday of every month, Miami University Hamilton's Center for Civic Engagement sponsors an event called Day of Service. This month the service was completed in remembrance and spirit of September 11th!

On Friday September 26th Miami Hamilton staff, and students gathered at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park to prepare for the 12th Annual Pyramid Hill Art Fair for September 27th & September 28th. We had an outstanding 27 volunteers show up! Some of the student groups represented include: Connect2Complete, Rotaract, and Campus Activities Committee!

There were two shifts for volunteers 9-12pm and 1-4pm  with lunch from 12-1pm. Volunteers prepared for the fair by: preparing pamphlets, mulching, weeding and picking up trash. Everyone had a great time, as you can see by the smiles and team work in the pictures below!

Benefits of being a Connect2Complete Advocate!

Original blog posted September 15, 2014. View here

The below blog was writing by Miami University Hamilton's Connect2Complete Advocate, Emily Cole. This is her second semester as an Advocate at MUH. 

I'm Emily and I am a Family Studies major. I'm currently a Junior. I became involved in campus activities last semester. It all started with my job as a Connect2Complete (C2C) Advocate. Through this program, I was able to help students solve problems they had with finding resources on campus. Another aspect of the program that helped me get involved on campus was the Civic Engagement project.  As a part of the C2C program, each class in the program ties together class material with a civic engagement "field trip" project. Through the C2C program, I was able to meet many people on campus which lead to my involvement on campus such as the Center for Civic Engagement Director, student affairs executives, and many other important faculty/staff members that were able to help me with networking inside and outside of the university.

On the first day of classes this semester, I was excited to meet the students I would be paired with for the next 14 weeks. When I walked in the room, I found 25 quiet students quickly observing me. The silence was disturbing and I quickly became nervous. I decided to break the awkward barrier by initiating an ice breaker. Soon the class was passing a soccer ball, with dozens of questions written on it, around the room. Each person answered the question that lied beneath the spot their thumb landed when they caught the ball. It took a while to complete but it helped break the first day jitters. I was glad there were so many students in this class because I only had 6 that lasted in the class I worked with the previous semester. I did not like having a small class because oftentimes, at least one student would be absent, making it hard to keep everyone on the same page, and connect with all of the students individually. I look forward to being able to help the students more this semester since they have all been attending class regularly, and are all willing to participate in the class discussions/activities I propose.

As an advocate, I have learned how to access many resources on campus. I have had many opportunities to attend informative luncheons, lectures, and trainings that I would not have necessarily had access to otherwise. I have met many students that I am now friends with, especially the other advocates. I have come to know certain faculty members that have helped me by writing reference letters and recommending me for other jobs. I plan to work in student affairs someday and I have learned many skills that have given me experience and confirmed my desire to pursue a career as an adviser/counselor at a university. Most of all, I have become comfortable as a student on campus. I love coming to school and staying for hours, even if I don't have class. I know many more people than I did before I was an advocate and I am a familiar face for others. 

If you are a people person and desire to help other students succeed, being an advocate in the Connect to Complete program is a dream come true!