From High School to UMBC

by Katie Cano

Check out my last blog "Going Back to High School" before you read this! Check out Phase 1 of the Apple Project.

Phase 2 of our project involved the students of the Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents (RICA) coming to UMBC for an entire day. RICA is a small school; there are only 30 residential students and 50 day-time students. So the senior class is quite small. There are only about 13 senior students at RICA. So only there were only 8 students who attended the field trip to UMBC. 

The students arrived in the morning and were greeted with bagels and fruit for breakfast. While they ate we took them on an in-depth tour around campus. The students then had a series of workshops throughout the day, including an activities fair where some student organizations talked to the RICA students. And of course, we fed them pizza for lunch. 

More residents from Susquehanna were able to participate in this day too. They were able to get to know the students, provide them with information, and show them what a day in the life of a 4-year college student is like. 

Eight students had a whole day at UMBC where over 25 people planned and helped their day. These kids have normally had pretty negative experiences in life, and they have hardly ever been given anything just out of kindness. To have a whole day devoted to just their understanding of college and to support their future is almost unimaginable to these kids. 

I think one of the biggest benefits that I got out of this project was extending my love to RICA to other people at UMBC. I love having people interact with these kids and hearing, "Man I love those kids. We should go back." There's no greater music to my ears. 

Going Back to High School

by Katie Cano

For the first phase of our project the staff of Susquehanna Hall visited the Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents (RICA)–a level 5 special education school for children with emotional disturbance disorders that we decided to work with. We went to RICA to help these kids with their dreams of higher education.

We arrived at RICA with a group of 5 UMBC students, a Residential Life Community Director, and lots of information at 9:30 am. After showing everyone around and giving an in-depth tour to the other members of the UMBC community, I was able to introduce everyone to the senior class and some juniors of RICA.

We had a couple different sessions with the kids where we answered questions and talked abut college experience. Then we were able to sit down and eat lunch will all of the kids.

There were three big things that came out of that day:
1. This project required a lot of flexibility. We actually came prepared that day to host many different workshops and we actually didn’t get to conduct any of them. However, we informed the students to our best ability in the time and setting that we were given.

2. These kids needed our help and they got a lot out of that day. So many people are not able to go to college and pursue higher education, but these kids especially are starting farther back from the starting line. Many are in foster care and group homes. Many of those kids were not properly education within their schools and now at 16 and 17 are practically illiterate. Many of these kids have been abused and given a bad hand in life. They were asking us questions that may seem self-explanatory to many of us here at UMBC, but to them it’s all new.

3. It’s amazing how much you can connect with someone in just a couple of hours. I volunteer at RICA each week so I know these kids. However, by the end of the day, everyone else from UMBC were receiving pictures from the kids, getting hugs, and many thank yous.

I love those kids at RICA. They are so brave, so intelligent, and so courageous. I’m glad that we were able to teach them very different things about higher education and portray the message that everyone can receive some kind of higher education and take control of their future.

Food for Thought

I volunteer at a site called College Gardens, it is a YMCA affiliated after school program for kids in grades K-12 that live in Baltimore City. 

I volunteer alongside others and for our reflection session, I had the group of volunteers read an article on the difference between helping and serving and write a response on how it relates to what we do at College Gardens and here is a quote from one of the responses:

"At College Gardens we do not volunteer to help kids, because they are not broken, we volunteer in order to get to know the kids."- Jonah Kracke-Bock

This quote to me was just a reminder that at our service site we don't do things to help "a lost cause" or those "lesser" than us, we serve to form relationships that can transforms lives, those of the kids and of ourselves. 

For this Apple/Social Change Effort working with the kids from RICA I think it is important for us to remember that the kids aren't defined by one aspect of there lives. We are not "fixing" anyone rather supplying an opportunity for growth in both ourselves and the students.

#foodforthought #servicelearning #civicengagement #whatareyourthoughts? 

-Kathy

The Apple Project

by Katie Cano

I wrote a couple blogs early titled “Light in a Dark Cave”. I have updated everyone in a while with what is going on with that project, but it now has a name and it’s ready to launch. The Apple Project will be allowing Susquehanna Hall’s residents to impact students of the Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents (RICA) in just a few short weeks.

Although I’ve been in charge of the committee for UMBC students going to RICA onApril 25th and helping the RICA students with preparing for college, I am really proud of the other committees.

We don’t have a huge group planning this project, and the other two committees–Marketing/Education and a committee for RICA students coming to UMBC for a day–have worked so hard to assure that this project comes to fruition.

The Marketing/Education committee has made an adorable video based on Frozen’s, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” to advertise for the event.They are taking care of all the educational posters and ads that will go around SUS. They’re also taking care of all the sign-ups for the event. Basically, the Marketing/Education committee is ensuring that SUS residents will actually participate in this project.

The other committee, for RICA students coming to UMBC, has an amazing day for RICA students. They’ve planned an interaction scavenger hunt and tour, a mock lecture with an awesome professor, and an activities fair.

I’m a shameless plugger for RICA and I know in part that’s why we’re doing this project. But despite all my blathering on about this Level 5 Special Education school that I love, this project would never have been able to happen without all the hard work of the SUS staff.

I know that I’m sometimes a very bossy, loud, and I stick my nose in other peoples’ committees constantly, I could not be more proud of the SUS staff. I know that when we finish the project we’ll all have affected the kids at RICA and allow them to change us as well. I couldn’t ask to work with a better bunch of people.

RICA

Before spring break, I had the pleasure to going to the school that we are hosting for our Apple project, the Residential Institution for Childhood Adolescents, RICA. RICA is a school for children who suffer from severe emotional trauma from a previous event. Each of the 80 students enrolled have a personal clinician that is there for counseling and guidance. I went with Katie Cano, and she introduced me to the head advisor of RICA, Ms. Kathy Kelly. Ms. Kelly told us the stories and obstacles that are faced by her students. Some were survivors of human trafficking or lost their parents in a very short period of time. The emotional trauma from these experiences has disrupted their education and as put them at a severe disadvantage. Hearing the stories about the student of RICA, makes you think how lucky one has to be in a stable environment I look forward to this project and learning more about kids like the students at RICA.

Living out your values

"Service is love made visible.

If you love your friends, you will serve your friends.

If you love community, you will serve your community

If you love money, you will serve your money.

And if you only love yourself,  you will only serve yourself, and you will only have yourself"

-Stephen Colbert, Northwestern University Commencement Speech, 2011

At our staff meeting last Thursday, the Resident Assistants, Desk Manager, and Community Director of Suss got together to talk about our journey toward and through education. For me, this was an opportunity to share my beliefs about what service means. If service is love made visible, then we will always serve what we love. 

It was also an opportunity to talk about how we can serve. As undergraduates, we occupy a particular space--one fraught with opportunity, confusion, and dotted with individuals who are working to fully understand disciplines and them-selves. 

It is from this perspective that I look at service. Many hear that word and think of volunteering--going to a soup kitchen, for example, and working with those in need. That service has profound importance, but as students we can contribute even more. 

Our journey through UMBC is gifting us with skills and knowledge that others will never get the chance to have. If you're here to study biological sciences, then you are working to master the discipline of biology. Use that. If you are here to study mechanical engineering, how can social value be created through that process? Who's lives can be bettered, and how can you contribute to that?

Because that's what it comes down to. We're all here to allow people to become healthier and happier, to breathe more easily, to live more fully, and to love without restraint. If that's not the purpose, then why are we really here? Well,like every decision, coming here is a product of serving what we love. If we love money, then we are here to learn how to better serve our money.

But if we love others, if we are here to serve others, then we chose to go to college so that we may learn how to better serve others. And if that's true, then we are becoming better Biology students, better Engineering students, better Political Science students in order to better serve others through the skills that a degree symbolizes. The very process of getting that degree can be service, too. We can serve others through the very means of getting that education if only we choose to. Because service is not an act, it is a choice to be made every day. 

Creating Paths

This past week I was blessed with the opportunity to hear from a group of people; their personal stories on how they got to where they are in their educational career. More specifically, I heard about their challenges, victories, and if possible what they would change in their journey to an undergraduate degree. From the discussion we had one thing that became increasingly clear is that no two college journey's are the same, we all took different paths to get to where we are, and no path is lesser or greater.

Another thing that I was reminded of is that many students in the United States are not aware or unable to create the path that leads to college. In elementary schools in certain places, the idea of growing up to become whatever a child wants to be whether that be a teacher, artist, lawyer, or doctor is instilled at a young age. Students are taught that despite their circumstance they can overcome and become who they want to be, college is something attainable. Other schools however, students are not given this same hope and support, they in turn begin to see there situation over the opportunity of a college degree. This social change project provides us with the opportunity to show all students that upon graduation there are many paths a student could take work, military, etc, but the college path that is also attainable.