Member Bio: Yesenia

AN INTERVIEW BY STAFF WRITER JOANNA JUNGERMAN

Site: Commitment to Community

Hometown: Walla Walla, WA.

Reasons for joining the team:

My first year I joined because I needed something where I would be generating some kind of income and the position I was applying to sounded interesting to me. I decided to join for a second term because I really enjoyed my site and the opportunity to continue doing service in my community.

What has been the best thing about your experience with AmeriCorps so far?

The relationships I have built with certain families in the communities C2C works in.

What is a typical day like at your site?

Usually the mornings are spent doing typical office work; paperwork, emails, work on specific projects. Then I'll go and do outreach, which consists of visiting neighbors and chatting with them about different things that are going on or helping them with various things. The evenings are spent at various after school programs throughout the week.

Any Hobbies/ passions/ goals/ hopes that you would like to tell us about?

I enjoy spending time with my family, playing various games, and being outdoors. One of my most pressing goals is to decide what grad program I would like to enter and complete my schooling.

If you had a time machine and you could go back in time OR into the future, which direction would you choose to go? Why?

I would go back in time for sure. I would love to witness certain historical events and relive certain childhood memories.

How to Address MLK Jr. Day in Public Schools

When I was in elementary school, I had no idea what Columbus Day. This is because my school district (in Berkeley, CA) referred to it as “Indigenous Peoples” Day. Although I can appreciate the politically correct, anti-imperialist liberal sensitivities that inspired such a name change, it really didn’t help me understand why we had that day off. So I was curious about and pleased to observe how the fifth grade teachers at my site chose to address Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The classes watched a documentary (not historical fiction thank goodness) about Rosa Parks, which featured interviews with her family members, friends and others who had known her and could comment on her role in the civil rights movement. Then we had a class discussion about segregated schools. I was impressed by what the kids had to say and by how the discussion was structured. Instead of simply relaying historical information, the students were given the opportunity to say how they felt. And while the discussion was more about civil rights in general than about Dr. King’s role in it (we didn’t even listen to any of his speeches), I was happy with the way the discussion urged kids to really think about how much has changed over the last 50 years. One fifth-grade girl told me after class: “Ms. Jo, I’m glad white and black kids can go to school together now.” So cute.

I began to wonder how other schools in the district chose to deal with the holiday, so I asked around. It seems that although most schools made well-meaning efforts to address the foundations of the holiday, not all did so successfully.

On AmeriCorps member commented that, at his site, ensuing discussions were shallow, vague, and unoriginal. His response was so eloquent that I am going to quote him:

Unfortunately, the multi-age classroom addressed MLK Jr. Day in much the same way I remember it being taught to me. We memorialized the character traits we felt the students would most benefit from internalizing, and we also broadly situated MLK within the context of racial politics, which we only discussed in terms of a black-and-white binary. His historical connection to any social movement was signified once via reference to Rosa Parks, who apparently refused to give up her seat only because she was old and her feet were tired and not because she was a trained activist seeking to challenge segregation law in the courts. The other means of connecting MLK to a social movement was through pure inference; by watching his "I Have A Dream" speech, we expected the students to just figure out that the crowd had marched in protest to the Lincoln Memorial on the 100th anniversary of that very President's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and that this event was coordinated by many cooperating civil rights groups, not by MLK himself. In general, the approach reflected a failure to engage in any meaningful conversation about racial oppression, or the historicity of race and race relations, or even about the role of political participation in a democracy. I can't presume to know what occurred in other classrooms, but I'd guess that these failures are fairly typical, especially with regards to what we consider our students capable of talking about and learning from.

After reading this, I began to re-analyze my initial reactions to my fifth-graders’ class discussion at Berney. What are our students capable of understanding as far as the topics of segregation and racism are concerned? Should we discuss lynching and the KKK? (We did talk about these in my class, actually.) Or should we limit talk to triumphs and victories, to the Rosa Parks and the Dr. Kings of the civil rights movement? Why do we teach and re-teach Martin Luther King Jr. the same way, year after year, in our elementary schools, as JJ pointed out? While we’re at it, couldn’t MLK day represent a jumping-off point for significant discussions about other forms of civil rights, gay rights, for example? When will Harvey Milk get the same sort of recognition as Dr. King? Just some things to think about, if you happened to read this far.

How BMAC AmeriCorps Spent MLK Jr. Day

As our service day for Monday, January 17, 2011 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day - approached, members of our team were greeted by email with the sentiments that we wanted to spend our day of service honoring the man and his life actively rather than in any indoor reflection - say watching a film.

It was decided that we would assist the Meza family in clearing the debris from the house that had burned. On a beautiful sunny day, we took wheelbarrows and shovels and buckets and worked to fill trucks with the ashes and debris as the back-hoe continued to level the charred structure. We could not change the tragedy that befell the Meza family. It made us proud to give what help we could, however.

With the AmeriCorps crew of over 30 members and volunteers including a large group from Whitman College, it was many hands on task. After a good and solemn speech by Stephanie, and a moment of silence, we went to work. I was grateful that while at other times we might gripe about the worker to work ratio, this was not-at-all the tone today.

There was a spirit of cooperation as some stepped up on the dumpsters to take buckets from others. D gladly said she had had one of the best jobs, when for an earlier time during the day, she got to watch the youngest one present at the scene. Towards the end, Jacqueline finished distributing the homemade muffins someone had brought. As dusk approached and we turned back, I know we felt the day's service was meaningful even though it could not embody the true condolence we wish for the Meza family.

Reflections on Dr. King

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. actively spent his life in work that leaves him to be a legacy for this country and I see him, in both reality and metaphor, as a powerful staff that changed the future course of the surging river that is our country's history - creating new channels and direction for the water as it courses on. A person of political, religious and cultural clout in a time where he was not in the privledge of the law and civil rights, he wrote, spoke and organized for racial equality, economic justice, and peace and changed the world through word and action.

What if all those Greats who were shot and killed approximately half a century ago had lived? Where would the rest of their lives have taken us? I have not the answers. Yet we are here. One of them suggested being the change we seek to see in this world. Our world still needs changed - we can be the promise-seekers - we can change what wrongs through our words and actions.

Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

From Michael Espinoza


I had the great privilege of attending the MLK Day speaker at Whitman on Jan. 19. Cordiner hall was packed but I got a good seat. Dr. Gates spoke for just over an hour about his project with PBS, a fascinating investigation of geneology and genetics which uncover a complex story about race in America.

While I found the speach very engaging, I was worried towards the end that Dr. Gates was promoting some sort of genetic or even geneological determinism. Luckily, one of the questions from the audience regarded the issue. Dr. Gates was certain to point out that we are all a product of our environment and culture. Ancestry can enrich a narrative about family and bring us a deeper understanding of and connection to our shared experience.

What follows is the Whitman College press release from Jan. 21 by Ashley Coetzee:

Capping Whitman College’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. presented a lecture titled “Roots: Genealogy, Genetics and African American History” to a packed crowd in Cordiner Hall. Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, is a prominent researcher of African and African American studies and genealogy. Along with a number of published books, Gates has written, produced and hosted an acclaimed PBS documentary series detailing the genealogy of famous African Americans, titled African American Lives.

But he also has a direct link to Whitman College. One of his former students from Harvard is Nadine Knight, a Whitman assistant professor of English. She introduced him, saying: “Few scholars in African American studies have done more to uncover and to revive the deep cultural and artistic links that unite African American culture with roots in Africa and beyond.” Knight shared a story from when she was a new graduate student at Harvard, nervous to meet with the famous Gates for the first time, not ever imagining that about 10 years later she would be at the Whitman lectern introducing her mentor.

Upon taking the stage, Gates said about his former student: “There is nothing like being a professor and having a student who turns out to be more brilliant that you are. And this is a school that is smart enough to hire her and keep her,” said Gates. During the lecture, Gates recounted the day he become interested in learning about his roots, when as a boy he first learned that his great-grandmother had been a slave. Since then he has “never lost that passion for genealogy.” That passion has followed him through the decades on his mission to find his own roots, a work in progress, and to help others discover their own genealogy.

His vision is to use genealogy as a way to interest inner-city youth in studying history and science, saying “our favorite subject is ourselves,” so getting kids involved in learning by starting with themselves offers great possibility. Gates lively and humorous speaking style gave listeners the feeling of “hearing a story from an old friend. I could have listened to him for hours,” said Whitman staff member Lynn Lunden, associate vice president for development. “I found it very impressive that so many local community members and Whitman people came out to hear him, and he seemed able to connect with all of us. The event gave me an additional sense of pride about Whitman College.”

“I would come here anytime you invite me. It is great to be here, it is just so beautiful, such a fantastically pretty place,” said Gates about Walla Walla. During his visit he also met with a group of Whitman students, drawn from different campus
disciplines for a more intimate discussion about his work.

The lecture was funded by the Whitman College Office of the President, Mabel Groseclose Endowed Lectures, the Whitman Events Board and the Intercultural Center.

The original article can be found here.

Member Bio: Julie Rochelle Nordgren

an interview by staff writer Jo Jungerman

Hometown: Graham, WA

Reasons for joining AmeriCorps:

I didn’t have a chance to do much community service in college because I was focused on my studies at Walla Walla University. I decided I wanted to be less selfish after college and focus less on school.

What is a typical day at your site?

I pick up two kids from the special ed bus. Then I have groups of Kindergarteners and 1^st graders for direct instruction. Then math facts with fourth graders as well as in-class support. After school, I have a homework club where I tutor reading and math, We do this using a reward system, which keeps the kids motivated. On Fridays, we let the kids have free time.

If you had a super-power what would it be?

Time travel, for sure. It would be nice to be able to travel back in time but be invisible, to observe historical events just to see what really happened.

What is one thing you really want to do at some point in your life?

Become great at writing and publish something: essays, poems, or creative non-fiction.

What is your best attribute?

Introspection, but this can easily turn into a fault; I tend to overanalyze.

Upcoming: MLK Day

MLK Day is Monday, Jan 17

Reports have it that we will have the important task of helping the Meza family clean up the rest of their home which was tragically burned to the ground on October 19th. For those of us who were able to attend, Mari Meza was our Red Cross First Aid/CPR trainer who became a the victim of this disaster shortly after we took her course. This will be a great way to help a family in need and help a woman who has dedicated her life to saving the lives of others. More details to come.

Parade of Lights

by staff writer Jo Jungerman

Parade of Lights 2010

It was cold. It was more than cold, it was a mind-numbing, nail-biting cold.
Our float had a trailer, bales of hay, a Christmas tree covered with tinsel that was a b#$% to disentangle, and AmeriCorps members dressed as reindeer, and one (Jesse) dressed as an elf (yes he was wearing shorts). The parade was very loooong, kind of like this song, which was the only way I could think to describe it. Don’t hate me.

On the first day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
One artificial Christmas tree.

On the second day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the third day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Five golden hay-bales
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Six reindeer riding,
Five golden hay-bales
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Seven frostbit faces,
Six reindeer riding,
Five golden hay-bales
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Eight mittens waving,
Seven faces freezing,
Six reindeer riding,
Five golden hay-bales
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Nine candycanes crunching,
Eight mittens waving,
Seven faces freezing,
Six reindeer riding,
Five golden hay-bales
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Ten lungs a-heaving,
Nine candycanes crunching,
Eight mittens waving,
Seven faces freezing,
Six reindeer riding,
Five golden hay-bales
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Eleven lukewarm cocoas,
Ten lungs a-heaving,
Nine candycanes crunching,
Eight mittens waving,
Seven faces freezing,
Six reindeer riding,
Five golden hay-bales
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
AmeriCorps gave to me
Twelve blocks of parading,
Eleven lukewarm cocoas,
Ten lungs a-heaving,
Nine candycanes crunching,
Eight mittens waving,
Seven faces freezing,
Six reindeer riding,
Five golden hay-bales
Four frozen limbs,
Three Fuzzy hats,
Two tinseled truckers,
And one artificial Christmas tree.