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.