Final Service Project Reflection

As I have always said, I have thoroughly enjoyed my volunteering experience with Dubuque Regional Humane Society. What has been surprising about my experience is probably this; just how much I have enjoyed my volunteering experience. I won't lie, when I first heard about how much service we had to do this semester I was slightly horrified and not looking forward to it at all. However, now that I am nearing the end of my service hours, I continue to realize just how great of an experience I have had at DRHS. Side note: I am not meaning to sound over enthusiastic or cheesy, I am being very truthful. That could come off an ingenuine, but I am not trying to have it be.

What has been rewarding about my service has been the knowledge that I am giving the animals at the shelter a better life, just by giving them the love and attention each and every one of them deserve. One of the high point is when one of the dogs that had been at the shelter for the longest and the workers were afraid would never be adopted WAS adopted. His name was slug, and he was the sweetest dog. The most difficult part of my service was finding the time, as I am quite busy with track, work, homework, etc. I believe this was the case for everyone, but in the end, it is all working out with hours, etc. 

Although I have volunteered before, the longevity and consistency of this individual service project has shown me that volunteering long-term and at the same place is a lot more rewarding than volunteering every so often. You get to meet new people and become friends as you see them a lot more often, and you notice more just how much your help is appreciated and needed. I plan on continuing my volunteering at the Humane Society next semester as well. 

On Charity

One of my favorite Thomas Merton quotes I have found thus far in "No Man is an Island" is:

 “One who is content with what he has, and who accepts the fact that he inevitably misses very much in life, is far better off than one who has much more but who worries about all he may be missing . . . the relative perfection which we must attain to in this life if we are to live as sons of God is not the twenty-four-hour-a-day production of perfect acts of virtue, but a life from which practically all the obstacles to God's love have been removed or overcome. One of the chief obstacles to this perfection of selfless charity is the selfish anxiety to get the most out of everything, to be a brilliant success in our own eyes and in the eyes of other men."

From this quote, I gather that one of the main concepts behind charity for Thomas Merton is not the perfect charity-driven life, but rather a life in which one seeks to live in perfect love and communion with God. For Merton, it seems to be more personal, at least in his definition of "selfless" charity. Merton seems to speak about charity more in terms of love, which contrasts to Massaro who seems to refer to charity more from the viewpoint of Catholic social teaching. However, both seem to get at the same point with what charity is, although they define it a bit differently. My own definition of charity is giving back to others, not necessarily always others in need but also to one's friends, family, etc., and doing so out of love. I would define the relationship between charity and contemplation to be that contemplation is something one must do before or after performing an act of charity-in this way, one has the ability to learn and grow more from the experience. Not only are you physically helping, but through contemplation, you are helping yourself grow emotionally and spiritually. 

Final Service Reflection

*Note-I initially thought the blog prompt was asking about our individual project, so that's what I wrote it on. After commenting on someone else's blog I realized my mistake. Therefore, instead of deleting my reflections on my individual project I am simply going to add a paragraph below commenting on my group service project.

In our group project, we went to Stone Hill where we first were set up with elderly people in their rooms to visit and talk with them. Austin, Coleman and I met with an elderly woman who repeatedly told us to travel as much as we can and that the "good life" was to have a family. We then helped out with bingo night, and then helped out with crafts and played some cards afterwards. Overall, the reception was positive as multiple elderly people told me how happy they were to see some young people around, and the workers told us how grateful they were for us to join in. Although when we were playing euchre the game got a little intense (the elderly mean business on their card games) overall they all had a good time. My contribution to the project just helping out with visiting with the elderly, and during bingo I sat by a woman hard of hearing and let her know when her numbers were called. I also helped with cleaning up during the craft portion of the night and overall helped with planning on where we were going for the project.

It is without a doubt that I love my decision on where I am doing my service this semester. Animals are always something I have had a passion for, and so this service opportunity lined up exactly to something I looked forward to doing every time I showed up to do service. Although sometimes I do admit getting in the car to go do service seemed like a pain, once I showed up I would switch gears from being lazy and selfish to excited and grateful. I love the time I have had with the Humane Society thus far, enough to continue on into next semester.
Again, what I do at the humane society is to give dogs a playmate and to take them out on walks outside. If it weren't for people like me, then the dogs would stay in their kennels the whole day. Also, as I have volunteered for more than 10 hours I became a certified pet handler which means I am allowed to take the dogs out myself from their cages and can also help other volunteers or prospective animal buyers take the dog/cat out they so desire. The reception I have had with the animals and people who work at the shelter is definitely positive. The Humane Society is an underserved population, as they are CONSTANTLY in need of people to take the dogs out, as the people working there have other duties they need to handle such as feeding the dogs and cleaning their cages, working the front desk, handling all documentations, etc. The list is endless. The reception I get there is always positive as my service there is constantly needed.
My experience in this individual service project is different from the group one as it is just that, individual. The responsibility is up to me to ensure I get the hours done, and that I am handling myself well at the shelter. With the group project, the responsibility is shared. Honestly I liked the individual project better so far because 1. I get to work with animals and this is one of my passions and 2. it is my own responsibility; I don't need to rely on others to get the job done.
If anyone reading this gets the chance, go to the Humane Society. :)

Catholic School Reflection

To be quite honest, majority of my education on Catholicism took place during high school, which was also catholic. Every semester we were required to take classes on topics such as the history of the church, classes that broke down the different parts of the mass, etc. At Loras I have only taken one class, The Religious Imagination, where we did talk about the Catholic faith and identity but not to the extent I was taught in high school. Again, this just might be due to the volume and quantity of catholic classes I took in high school. However, Honors Service Learning has served to teach me new elements of the Catholic faith and created much discussion that has furthered my own Catholic faith and identity. I have found the discussions on values and what it means to live the good life to be awesome in terms of making me think what it means to live a good life, and a good life that is tied into Catholicism.
Besides the obvious differences between catholic and noncatholic college education experiences such as mandatory catholic identity classes, etc., I actually do not think there is too big of a difference between the two. Yes, there is an abundance of more opportunities to be involved in Catholic experiences such as Campus ministry, more religious groups, etc. but I dont think the different is too massive. Again, my whole life I have only been to Catholic schools (exempting one year) and so I do not know the other way. I try to keep away from arguments on religion, so I can't truly say I have ever had an in-depth argument on religion. However, if I were to, I feel like knowing more on Dorothy Day and the worker movement would have been beneficial.

Service Reflection

Thus far with my service experience working at the Humane Society, I can honestly say it is something I have come to love and look forward to. Whenever catching up with family or friends, when talking about what's new in our lives I always mention volunteering at the Humane Society as something new and exciting for me. With everything from one of the dogs, Slug (what a name right?) finally being adopted after spending months at the shelter to realizing just how much of an impact one can have with something as simply as walking and playing with dogs, this service opportunity has been nothing but amazing for me. Although there is some challenges, I know they are also a good learning opportunity. For example, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, with about any volunteering experience, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of help that is needed or work that needs to be done in a certain area, and the subsequent feeling that you wish you could do it all, but knowing you can't. For me specifically, when I first started volunteering, I had this feeling quite a bit, with knowing that I could only walk so many dogs and give them the much-needed outside time in my time at the shelter. I know that there are some dogs that may not even get to go outside every day, and this did (and still does) make me sad and feel a bit hopeless. However, I've realized you need to rather focus on the impact you are having on your service. For me, I am giving dogs the opportunity to play, and giving them the attention and love they deserve. What people don't realize is that if dogs are not let outside to play, they develop a serious mental condition in which they get too used to being in a kennel, and they lose the urge/desire to be outside, engage with people, etc. When this happens, the dog becomes unadoptable, and the shelter has to put the dog down. So it is indeed a much-needed need for the people to come engage with the dogs and let them be dogs, and play outside, etc. I have also realized just how much of an impact Humane Society can have-not only is it merely a place for homeless animals to stay, and give another chance at living with a happy family, but also a place where dogs and cats get needed vaccinations, spayed/neutered, among other things. It really is a safe haven for animals that have nowhere else to go, and without animal shelters like the Humane Society, the world would be a much scarier and desperate place for animals who are lost or do not have a home.

Voluntary Poverty

In reflection to Peter Maurin's quote on voluntary poverty, I believe that, yes, voluntary poverty is maybe ONE answer to the evil forces in the world today, but not THE answer. Not enough people would choose to put themselves in poverty, so this force field battling poverty is not the whole solution, but the part of a solution. In my opinion, I had a fairly surface-level understanding of voluntary poverty before our visit to the Catholic Worker Farm. I thought that maybe it meant, yes, one chooses to live in poverty, yet I did not understand how exactly one would do so. The visit gave me a greater understanding of voluntary poverty-the people living and working at the farm could have lived a life where they gathered and accumulated wealth over time, yet no-they chose to live closer to poverty. This is what voluntary poverty seems to be to me. Honestly, I believe majority of my understanding of voluntary poverty has come from this class, and the visit to the farm. I also believe this is a life that not all are called, just as the woman at the farm told us. As the couple at the farm seemed to project, it seems to be more of a calling to live that way. Not everyone has the vocation, patience, or desire to live that way. I also believe this extends to Christians-we all have our own way in which we can help; living in voluntary poverty is not for everyone. We all have our ways we can help serve our community and the world.

Pete: Exemplary Character

The person whom I wish to talk about is a man named Pete. Pete is one of the main guys at the Dubuque Regional Humane Society- every time I am there, so is he. He is a passionate guy who I can easily tell has a lot of passion- passion not only for the animals that he serves every day but for the customers who come in, the people he talks to on the phone, his coworkers, everyone. A story that helps demonstrate his passion and good character is when I was being trained as a Certified Pet Handler, which means I now have the ability to take the animals out of their cages by myself, and assist customers in this process as well. Pete is the guy who trained me, and during the session, he made sure to give me detailed instructions on how to handle the animals in a way that did not hurt them, and in a way that would not hurt the person I would give the animal to. He spent a lengthy amount of time describing different behaviors the animals might be showing, and to avoid the animals that are showing bad behavior as that could potentially put the animal in a bad situation, as well as myself. I could tell he took his job seriously and really cared for the safety of not only me, but the animals as well. I believe this shows good character as the job Pete has is one that someone could not take seriously and only do half the work, but in Pete's case, his compassion showed through.

I believe virtues that are necessary for someone serving in my particular project are love, charity, and courage. Love because not only are you demonstrating love for your neighbor by taking care of an animal that somebody had to give up due to a variety of reasons, but also love for ALL of God's creations, including animals, a category that a lot of the time gets thrown to the side in my opinion. Charity is an important virtue in my opinion for those who work for the Humane Society because they realize they are doing a job that is indeed part service, for the Humane Society cannot afford to pay high wages. As everyone who works at this animal shelter clearly loves the animals they work with, charity I can see present because the vets, etc. who work there could be getting paid higher wages elsewhere. Lastly, courage is important because I believe I need to be courageous in my work, for it's quite easy to succumb to feelings of sadness when leaving the animals and realizing that if an animal is kept in the cages long enough, they have to be put down.

Some habits that people might want to engage in to cultivate these virtues is gauging their emotions towards all of God's creatures, not just their fellow human beings. It is important for people to realize all of God's creation is just as important. Another way to cultivate charity is to, again, keep aware of one's emotions and by realizing there is a greater need. If someone has a lot in life, or even a little- they should give help to those who need it. Courage is a bit harder in my opinion, and to work on this, one needs to be proactive by attempting to do things that scare them, such as in my case, letting myself get attached to an animal that I know one day might be adopted.

Service Project Reflection

For the past couple weeks, I have been putting hours in at the Dubuque Regional Humane Society, a place that I can honestly say I get excited to go volunteer at. Although sometimes it is just me being lazy and not wanting to get up and go somewhere, when I'm on my way to go volunteer I always feel myself getting pumped up about getting to make some animals happy- the energy and extreme, pure happiness they seem to experience whenever I take one out to go for a walk makes me wish I could feel that happy every day about something so simple such as walking around in nature. At the Humane Society, I primarily take dogs out of their kennels (where they would otherwise be all day) and give them exercise, be it walking around the property or playing with them in an enclosed play pen. I also assist in any jobs that need to be done around the shelter, such as cleaning, helping with deliveries, etc. I have also started to become involved in such activities such as birthday parties for kids, with assisting with the animals that are at the party and childcare games.

This encounter provides a challenge to me in that I have to accept I cannot help all of the animals. As weird and bleeding-heart as that sounds, I always feel guilty leaving because I know there will be dogs that did not get to go outside and just be a dog as other dogs. It really does make me sad when I think about it. This experience with volunteering has made me decide that in the future, I plan on rescuing a dog from a shelter and give it a home. I also want it to be a dog that might not otherwise be adopted--for the dogs that dont get adopted will live a life locked up all day, and that seriously breaks my heart. Or maybe I'll just live alone and adopt every single animal I come across and they can give me company- a less mainstream version of a cat lady, I guess. Either way, I have taken a lot out of these experiences, if not mainly just to try and appreciate the little things in life and realize how happy they can make me, just as a dog gets so excited about the chance to go for a walk.

Morris Dees

I thought the Morris Dees talk was pretty dece. Lame joke alert! Let's start over.

To begin with, I did not expect Morris Dees' talk to be what it was. When he began with the joke about for all of us who were required to be there we should close our notebooks and just listen because we were about to have some fun, he immediately captured my attention and held on to it until his closing words. He incorporated stories into his speech that captivated what was at the heart of his work- standing up for those who do not have the collective strong voice, and who need the legal help as well. This corresponds exactly to what we have been talking about in a lot of our discussion, in my opinion. For what better way to serve others than by using your talents, doing it wholeheartedly and to serve those who need it most? Morris Dees seemed to encapsulate these ideals fully, aspects to service that are indeed important and go along with many of our discussions on service to other.

In our talks in class, it has been mentioned/discussed that in order to develop as a person, the development of one's virtues is a process that comes along with work and patience. Through working on your virtues, it can be easily said they are also developing as a person. In Morris Dees case, some virtues he has devoted his life to, in my opinion. Love is one that comes to mind--love that brings him to desire everyone to have a "seat at the table" equally and without prevention. This is what he sees as justice, justice which he works for in his job every day and which he wishes upon us as a younger generation, which is what he alluded to in his closing words. I believe Morris Dees is a good example of what to look up to as an example of true service to others.

One particular social issue that i find to be quite interesting is the welfare system, and who qualifies/who does not. This is a topic that has been thoroughly discussed both in my sociology as well as my politics classes. Anytime the welfare system is brought up, mentioned, or debated on, there is always a great divide in who supports the system, who thinks it should be abolished, and who thinks it needs reform. I believe this is one of the reasons this social issue in particular is of most interest to me- it does not have such a clear divide as other social issues, and it isn't an issue such as poverty that has more agreement to it. 

In my research on Catholic Social Teaching and the church's opinion on welfare, there seems to be a divide there as well. It does not seem to be a clear-cut opinion. One article I found mentioned that to begin with, the church has a lot of support for the welfare system (or, in its initial stages, mainly just assistance to the poor not what the welfare system has grown into today). The church's opinion on welfare has altered over the ages, with its present opinion to be slightly wary and less in favor of the system. John Paul II was especially critical of the welfare system, though he made sure to clarify it was not the whole system, but certain policies he did not approve of. Perhaps I was looking in the wrong place, but I could not find a solid answer on Catholic Social Teachings' opinion on welfare, other than it does believe in support for the poor--in the specific case of welfare, it is not as definitive (reference: http://www.catholicity.com/commentary/hargrave/05601.html).

I believe my perspective on the welfare system has greatly changed while being here at Loras. My view of the welfare system pre-Loras was the stereotypical view of the welfare system, with its envisioning of "welfare queens," or African-American single mothers who have children just to get money, and lazy people who choose to be on welfare and not work. After taking an Intro to Sociology course, my mind was opened to the complexity behind the welfare system and its truth. Although there are indeed people who choose to take advantage of the welfare system, overall this is not the case. Although not 100% sure on where I stand with the welfare system, I do have less of a stereotypical view of it after coming to Loras. 

Catholic Identity & Education

When pondering the question of how Loras' Catholic identity helps students to cultivate justice and charity in today's world, one thing that immediately came to mind is the student involvement in these areas on campus through organizations. And not just merely the fact that these organizations exist, as I am sure there is some semblance of them at most every college, but the prevalence of them specifically at Loras. A couple that come to mind is Invisible Children, DuBuddies, Breaking the Silence, Dance Marathon, Hope 4 Africa; the list continues. The reason there are so many student organizations on campus that cultivate and promote justice and charity in today's world is without a doubt in my mind Loras' Catholic identity-an identity which promotes helping those who are in need and that of justice and charity. It also gives the abilitiy, being a Catholic college, for religious organizations such as Campus Ministry to be so big on campus, with its own office and paid job positions. This only serves to further cultivate the Catholic identity on campus, an identity that, as I previously stated, promotes such values as justice and charity.

One way I could think of the Catholic identity hindering student development has to do with close-mindedness. I obviously understand that there are other instances of this on campus--for example, hardcore Democrats on campus may be thus--but due to Loras' Catholic identity, this may prevent some from being open-minded to certain issues, as they stand by whatever the church says to stay true to aforementioned Catholic identity. In this way, student development may be hindered as they are more close-minded to such issues as gay marriage, and are not willing to hear the other side out.

Some tools that Loras has given me that I think will be helpful as I serve my community in my service project is a proficient sense of problem-solving, and due to my liberal arts education, the ability to see all sides of an issue and fully consider it to overcome any obstacles I experience in my service. Furthermore, a main part of many classes I have taken in oral presentations- in majority of my classes, they have been required. In this way, I feel I will have be well prepared to present myself at the service site as well as when I meet people with doing pet therapy.

Service and the Liberal Arts

Hello and Welcome to the Hundreds of People Who I'm Sure Will Read This Daily! :)

Alright, let's do this. Blog post number one.

The majority of the service experience I have ocurred when I was in highschool, though I do have some college involvement. For about 5 years, I was involved in Operation Christmas Child, where our family would host an event for people to come to and fill shoe boxes with presents for children overseas. Majority of my service experience has been with the Salvation Army, with volunteering as a bell ringer, volunteering for coat drives, among other events. In college, I have volunteered my time at the Swiss Valley Nature Center as a part of another class, and went on the Loras SOA trip last year, which wasn't exactly service-based but as part of the experience, we volunteered our time to help set up for the event, and took shifts at night watch over the site as well. So, although I so have a background in service and volunteer work, I have never consistently and on a weekly basis volunteered at a service center or with an organization, and so I am excited to see what this experience will be like.

Very generally, I believe Loras has greatly prepared me to connect with the world outside the classroom, if not just by giving me a location to mature and grow as a person. A lot of growing up occurs when one lives away from home for an extended period of time, and this experience has done this for me. What we get out of our college experience is what we put into it. Loras has also helped me prepare for the outside world through having multiple ways to get involved around campus and gain responsibility with leadership positions, as it is a smaller school. Loras has helped me grow intellectually and academically through its academics and the chance to interact with people from varying degrees of backgrounds, has helped me grow into a mature person through the responsibilities of living away from home, as well as multiple other ways which I probably do not even realize.

Through this course, I hope to achieve a better understanding of what my college experience has meant for me, where my specialities lies, etc.--and I think a lot of this will happen through the aspect of reflection in this class and the final portfolio. I am excited to see what I will come up with.

In terms of how a liberal arts education contributes to the development of a good character, I believe this depends on what deems "good character." In my definition of good character, I believe open-mindedness and development of the whole person (kind of like the "Renaissance man" of old, but more modern) is important. At a liberal arts college, I would hope that people would become more open-minded in the first place due to the variety of opinion and the diverse student body that one usually finds at a liberal arts college, let alone any college. I also believe that discussion in class, classes that do not always have just majors for that academic work but others due to the academic requirements present at aforementioned college, would be more diverse and interesting. A person will become more wholly developed overall through taking a plethora of different classes, not just classes for their specific major.

I believe some virtues the liberal arts is good at helping students cultivate are: tolerance, open-mindedness, respect, and independence. Aspects of my character I believe Loras has helped me to develop include is my aforementioned maturity, fairness, openmindedness, and individualism, just off the top of my head.