Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Inter-tribal stuff

As Bonners some of us see a lot of hardship through our volunteer works. We see people in poverty, people disabled and such, I often wonder how everyone deals with this. For me, I get so down seeing people suffering so much. And yeh, I feel a little better knowing that I did something to help but peoples' suffering tends to stay with me. I'm doing a lot of research for my non profit, one of the subjects is American Indian women. Well I am one and I am obviously related to others. I was very lucky when my parents decided to raise my brother and I off the reservation. We maybe 1500 miles away but we still saw and felt the effects of reservation life. As I'm doing my research, I notice how much this topic makes me depressed. One book not only went into the statistics but actually retold women's stories of rape. We do service because its the right thing to do, we do service because we love it, but how do we deal with these depressing issues?  

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Adventures of week 4

Adventures of week 4. This past week seemed to go by the fastest; we visited the splash pad on Monday, ice cream truck Tuesday, movies on Wednesday, and Deleon Springs on Friday. In between the trips we introduced several new activities such as sharks and minos, pac man, and capture the flag. All the kids were fully engaged with the new games making for a fun experience both for the kids and counselors. This may explain why this week went by fastest thus far. This was accomplished with an increased amount of planning and scheduling. Next week should play out in a similar fashion as we have increased our counselor meetings from 1 to 2 a week. This simple act has made a world of a difference.

Through percussive planning and goal setting an organization can accomplish great things; I have seen this concept first hand through my summer of service with DTA. At first we struggled coming up with activities to keep the kids engaged, but after sitting down and ironing out a plan, it was nothing but smooth sailing. I hope to continue this mind set through my entire Bonner career, using it to reinforce my service and expand Bonner as a whole.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

A day of learning

Last Saturday we had one of our public meetings in a county park. (The county sponsors us to do educational events). We try to have a meeting once a month and we tend to have a great turn out. Its mostly families with small children. At this meeting we were putting up a teepee. Of course we explained the historical and cultural significances of the teepee. The teepee is plains Indian home. It is probably the very first mobile home. The Lakota were consider nomadic but they carried their homes with them. After we gave background information we had volunteers come up and help us raise it. Let me tell you, its hard. I'm a Lakota and traditionally it was the women's job to assemble the teepees. I am 100% sure I would not have been able to do that. It was extremely hard and this was not my first time doing it. I can't image it being over 100 degrees and having to build this thing or worse it being freezing and having to build this thing.
In the past we built a long house, which is a structure that the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) used. We've also done lectures on boarding schools and mascots, we've invited Indian dancers to perform, and done arts and crafts. We also had professors from Kean University come out and talk about American Indian Genocide. Our programs can range from very fun topics and events to very serious ones. One issue as an organization we've always faced, when educating the public, is how serious do we go? We want people to keep coming therefore we don't want things to be a complete downer. But at the same time issue of racism, wrong information given out at schools, and native identity are real issues that Indians face today. As an organization I often wonder if we are turning into commodities, something to entrain people. Are they really walking away with a new found knowledge or does this just feed into the “romanticized” image of American Indians?

Enjoy the one picture! My camera decided to die on me. =(

Pieces of the Movement

So, pretty much completely forgot about the blogging. But I am going to make up for it! I wrote this reflection paper after SLI literally on the airplane.. Enjoy!


SLI 2011 
Pieces of the Movement

SLI for me has been one of the most influential things I’ve ever done in my life.  I can’t even begin to describe the impact the conference has made on myself.  Three central themes we enlightened during my short 3 days. One a day isn’t that bad I guess. There is a revolution in the undertaking and I can see that clearly now. 
The first theme passion will allow for impact.  This has been the case for many generations but until SLI I didn’t really understand this truth. Just has the American Revolution or the civil rights movement, passion was the drive behind change. Obviously we can’t just go around starting wars since we live in the 21st century; but we can inflict change through movements and policy changes. This is what us as a national Bonner network are trying to do.  Emotions are the driving force in our lives, whether it be the feeling of hunger or love, they are at the root of any action taken at any time 24/7 365 days a year till we die. Now that I’ve stated that; how are we supposed to harness these emotions to impact our own goals, instead of that of others?  The solution I think is to be fearless. At any time of any day you need to be able to step outside of your comfort zone to truly see the kind of person you are, away from the façade used to fool others. Once this true passion is ignited, an explosive force will be at your disposal. 
With passion comes the potential to do anything. With enough passion and charisma anyone has the power to do anything they want.  We have  also seen this in the history books for various reasons. However, there is a problem, us as a generation has become jaded.  Passion is a dying part of our lives as witnessed in the lack of intimacy in relationships
Now what it comes down to making significant impacts, really making changes and getting results; the solution is always, who you know and not what you know. Networking has been revealed to me on an entirely different level as I have orchestrated and witnessed complete strangers bond on a deeper level in 3 day than I have with some of my fraternity brothers that I have known for 3 years day in and day out.  This passionate networking has the power to inflict the next great big change for a better America. 
In order to increase this power, we need to do more! Yes local service is vital to our community; we need to keep doing this. However, we still need to do more. Bonner is transforming into a national network that will eventually be completely united to combat central issues as one massive movement.  We need to work like a colony of ants.  Every ant has its own duty, all of them are doing completely different seemingly meaningless tasks. Even though it seems that way, the ants have a trick up their ant sleeves, because while each individual ant is working diligently on their own tasks, they are aware of the other all goal, which is to protect and serve the colony. Every ant is aware of what each other is doing and is doing his delegated part towards the over all well being of the ant network. 
This is what we need to focus on in the next coming years, local service with national awareness of what the rest of the Bonner nation…the Bonner network is doing all around us. We need to be more aware of the central issues that we are working on as an overall Bonner Program to really create a driving force in this scary world we live in. Individually we are pieces of the movement, but when combined into one focal picture… we are the movement. 
So, pretty much completely forgot about the blogging. But I am going to make up for it! I wrote this reflection paper after SLI literally on the airplane.. Enjoy!


SLI 2011 
Pieces of the Movement

SLI for me has been one of the most influential things I’ve ever done in my life.  I can’t even begin to describe the impact the conference has made on myself.  Three central themes we enlightened during my short 3 days. One a day isn’t that bad I guess. There is a revolution in the undertaking and I can see that clearly now. 
The first theme passion will allow for impact.  This has been the case for many generations but until SLI I didn’t really understand this truth. Just has the American Revolution or the civil rights movement, passion was the drive behind change. Obviously we can’t just go around starting wars since we live in the 21st century; but we can inflict change through movements and policy changes. This is what us as a national Bonner network are trying to do.  Emotions are the driving force in our lives, whether it be the feeling of hunger or love, they are at the root of any action taken at any time 24/7 365 days a year till we die. Now that I’ve stated that; how are we supposed to harness these emotions to impact our own goals, instead of that of others?  The solution I think is to be fearless. At any time of any day you need to be able to step outside of your comfort zone to truly see the kind of person you are, away from the façade used to fool others. Once this true passion is ignited, an explosive force will be at your disposal. 
With passion comes the potential to do anything. With enough passion and charisma anyone has the power to do anything they want.  We have  also seen this in the history books for various reasons. However, there is a problem, us as a generation has become jaded.  Passion is a dying part of our lives as witnessed in the lack of intimacy in relationships
Now what it comes down to making significant impacts, really making changes and getting results; the solution is always, who you know and not what you know. Networking has been revealed to me on an entirely different level as I have orchestrated and witnessed complete strangers bond on a deeper level in 3 day than I have with some of my fraternity brothers that I have known for 3 years day in and day out.  This passionate networking has the power to inflict the next great big change for a better America. 
In order to increase this power, we need to do more! Yes local service is vital to our community; we need to keep doing this. However, we still need to do more. Bonner is transforming into a national network that will eventually be completely united to combat central issues as one massive movement.  We need to work like a colony of ants.  Every ant has its own duty, all of them are doing completely different seemingly meaningless tasks. Even though it seems that way, the ants have a trick up their ant sleeves, because while each individual ant is working diligently on their own tasks, they are aware of the other all goal, which is to protect and serve the colony. Every ant is aware of what each other is doing and is doing his delegated part towards the over all well being of the ant network. 
This is what we need to focus on in the next coming years, local service with national awareness of what the rest of the Bonner nation…the Bonner network is doing all around us. We need to be more aware of the central issues that we are working on as an overall Bonner Program to really create a driving force in this scary world we live in. Individually we are pieces of the movement, but when combined into one focal picture… we are the movement. 

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Kids will be kids

Kids will be kids. In order to keep the kids excited about attending the summer program we introduced many new games activities during week three. These ranged from three pin dodge ball, knock out tournaments, freeze dance, and many others. Needless to say most if not all the kids had a blast during the entire week. This week’s field trips included the splash, Dairy of a Wimpy Kid, and Cici’s Pizza, all which went very smoothly. In other news the Daytona Beach News Journal featured an article detailing our camp activities, check it out-
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/west-volusia/2011/06/15/summer-camps-funnel-kids-energy-into-endless-activities.html

Week three, also brought about realization that no matter how rough a child’s background currently or may have been; at heart they are still kids. This concept has been brought about after building a strong counselor/ camper bond. Thus, leading many of kids to share stories of the past and present, many happy and many sad. In either case, during they daily activities they smile and laugh beyond the stories they hold. This weeks experience has made my time here all the worth while. With about a month and half left I look forward to helping these kids be kids, allowing them to forget for a moment.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Weeks One and Two: Congressional Fellows Program

Hello there everyone!


So I started my Summer of Service last week here in DC. I'm participating in the Congressional Fellows Program under National Student Leadership. It sounds a lot fancier than it is, but so far it has been an incredible experience.



Here's a typical week:



  • Monday: Volunteer at a local private school in one of the most impoverished areas in DC. House meeting at night.

  • Tuesday: Intern in the office of a Senator's wife (for privacy reasons I'm not allowed to use her name on this blog!). She is highly involved with international humanitarian issues, particularly with respect to women empowerment and healthcare. I was updating her "People to Meet With" list (friends with whom she will visit while "in town" - read: in state or in country) last week, and she has relationships with people all over the world. Seriously. From Florida to DC to California to England to Nigeria. It's crazy. Being around her will in and of itself be an incredible opportunity to peek into the kind of life I'm considering for my future career. So we'll see how that goes. Anyway. Tuesday afternoons we meet at the house of one of the people more or less in charge of the program and discuss big life topics, like purpose and leadership.

  • Wednesday: Intern again. Wednesday nights a speaker comes to our house, and usually expands on the topics discussed Tuesday nights.

  • Thursday: Intern again.

  • Friday: Group breakfast, an optional Bible study (the program is faith-based [which I actually didn't know when signing up for it], but not in an indoctrination way whatsoever - more like exploring what you believe and why, and how that affects the way you live your life and make life decisions and lead and serve, etc. etc.), and chill time.

I'm really excited to have the opportunity to work on the issues that she works with. One of her main things right now is trying to find a way to connect women artisans in poorer countries with markets in the US to help them earn a living and remove themselves from poverty. I've done a bit of independent research on that, and I'm excited to show her what I've found.



The people living in the house (we're living in a sorority house on the University of Maryland's campus) are great people. Not everyone is into politics, but everyone is looking for a way to serve other people and are exploring this opportunity to build relationships with people in DC and with the numerous contacts associated with this program. We'll see what comes of that. My roommate is from Germany - she's wonderful - and the other girl interning with me is passionate about a lot of the same issues as I am, though she definitely has more of a focus than I do. I have a lot to learn from her.



I'm really expecting a lot from this summer: to figure out what it is I want to do after graduation (grad school, which grad school, what I want to study, where to go and what to do if I want to instead enter the workforce or maybe the PeaceCorps), to decide whether or not I want to pursue politics, to understand myself better, to build relationships with the people around me, and most importantly: to serve both this local community and the international community in a myriad of ways. We'll see how much of this actually gets accomplished :)



Until next week!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Inter-Tribal Indians of NJ take 2

I've spend the last few weeks reading dozens of books before I head off to Canada in July. My original plan was to spend the entire summer there but of course that did not work out. But I will still be doing tons of research for Inter-Tribal. I've come up with a lot of great ideas for presentations through my research and I've started creating power point presentations. I've also come up with great ideas for articles to write. A professor of mine has always encouraged me to write an article in the school newspaper about the political correctness of Native American VS American Indian. Because of this research that I am doing, I will be writing that article. I also hope to send to an American Indian magazine or newspaper. I am doing a lot of research and at times it is very tedious, especially, since for the benefit of the organization I have to take detail notes that other people are going to find useful. Also, I am finding that this research is allowing me to find ways to improve my non-profit and it is giving me the opportunity to reach out to other organizations like Inter-Tribal in different states and different communities.

One thing that I am having a lot of trouble is how to find ways to connect with other American Indians in New Jersey. We want to promote our organization but are Indians in NJ really going to stumble across a FB page or a twitter post? I have my doubts but I am working on some ideas.

Inter-Tribal Indians of NJ

Well my summer of service is probably a little bit different from everyone elses. I am the Vice President of a non profit organization called inter-Tribal Indians of new jersey. Originally this organization was created for social purposes. It was a way of Indians in NJ to gather, meet, and talk about issues. There are not a lot of American Indians in New Jersey, we could be described as being the minority of the minorities. Over time it has developed and grown. It is still an organization that encourages American Indians to meet up, however, we have dedicated a lot of our time in educating people about American Indians. In the past we have done presentations to boy/girl scout troops, schools, and nursing homes, about stereotypes, boarding schools, and traditions. However, we have been stuck in the past.

I have the unique opportunity to combine my summer of service with the per-research to my senior research project. I will be doing a ton of reading, researching the role of women in American Indian communities. However, while I am doing this, I am going to be revamping our presentations and trying to bring in a social media role into the organization. For example, FB page, twitter, etc. I also plan to put a lot of our presentations on power points. Because I am doing a heavy amount of research, I will be able to update our presentations. I also plan to put together a larger speakers bureau binder, where we will have access to academic articles about American Indians and their role in the media.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Week 2

So, I'm slowly but surely progressing on the list of projects. One thing I've been trying to work the details out for is a Parent Dinner for Orientation so that parents can feel free to ask questions while the incoming students are doing something a little more fun than Q&A. I'll also be working on getting together grocery lists and menus for the week so that we can either cook for them or plan nights out. I've also been working on the Service in Sports lecture idea. So far, I'm thinking we can have the DeLand Little League, someone from the Y, and make it a panel discussion about the different places and opportunities in DeLand for sports-minded people to volunteer. Also, I want to include someone from a professional organization to hopefully broaden the minds and see that service can be intertwined with work while not exactly leaving you strapped for cash all the time. Mary Kathryn and I also discussed having the other 2 lecture series' be government and environment this semester. Hopefully they'll turn out well!

Week 1

Well, even after months of planning and double-checking there are still things you can't account for. My housing has now fallen through and with no A/C it's looking like a bad week. However, I will just finish my work pool-side in Naples instead of in DeLand, who can complain?

This summer I'm working on program development for Bonner. Sounds fancy, right? Actually, I've got a few ideas for projects for Bonner in the fall that I'd like to work on before we all get back to school.

First, I am going through different literature to present to Bonners for either Friday reflections or just as other sources for meetings. I have a few interesting books, Outcasts United and Stones Into Schools, that I'd like to work in some way and also a few books that offer short reflections or essays that really make you think about why we do what we do. This aspect is a lot of fun because essentially I can log hours for reading books I've always wanted to read while taking notes so we can hopefully use them later on.
Next, I am working on ideas and planning for the new student orientation and the Fall retreat. I have a great ICEBREAKER for us to play (I know everyone hates that word!). I'm also working on some B-Love projects for the summer and Fall. One of my major goals is keeping everyone connected in whatever way that may be.
Also, I'm working on an idea that would allow Bonner to be featured in the newspaper every week. If anyone wants to write articles, please let me know! Hopefully we can feature service sites, issue areas, and opportunities for other students. This is all part of my master plan that incorporates Bonner into Stetson more.
Finally, I'm working on 2 academic projects: the first is a book feast that will feature the book Outcasts United, which is an amazing story of a refugee soccer team in Georgia and a series of lectures throughout the year that Mary Kathryn and I are working on. The first one will be Service in Sports, hosted with the help of SMA (Sports Management Assoc.).

So those are my projects, can't wait to keep you updated.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Two Weeks In

Two Weeks In. These past two weeks have been a roller coaster of ups and downs. This was our first week of activities that involved leaving the camp site. Monday the kids enjoyed the cool water of the Wes Crile Splash Park, Wednesday we saw Gulliver’s Travels on the big screen, topping the week off with a trip to Deleon Springs on Friday. Most all of the kids had a great time on these outing; there was only a couple of discipline problems on the trips that were correct right away. Nonetheless, the week was not with out its bumps; on Tuesday there was a series of behavior issues that required some restructuring, after which everything has been smooth sailing since.

So far my favorite part of this S.O.S is the bonding relationships me and the other counselors are forming with the campers. My volunteer experience at Woodward Elementary helped in this sometime difficult process, the main concepts being listening skills, never labeling, and realizing it can take time for a child to open up. I look forward to week three, which includes a trip to the Deland Skating Center and the movies. Not to mention a feature article in the News Journal, will posted the link as soon as it is up.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

First Week Excitement

First week excitement. Over 100 kids of all ages, races, and social economic class attended the first week of summer camp at DTA. This unique blend of children made this weeks experience very humbling on several levels. First, as a counselor of the 9-13 age group, the task of keeping and getting them involved in camp activities proved to be difficult at times; however, as the week went on this become easier and easier. I contribute this to the numerous ice breaking activities along with learning about their unique backgrounds and daily life. During this process flash backs of There Are No Children Here discussions from Dr.Sapps class; give me a strong foundation of realizing not all children come from a nice home environment. Thus, their behavior and attitude in some cases is a result of the community in which they have been raised not of choice. Knowing and accepting these differences on day one made for a smooth week, filled with classic games such as dodge ball, kickball, and rally races. It’s hard to believe one 40 hour week is completed; next week should go by even faster.

Monday we will be visiting the splash pad, Wednesday a field trip to the movies and Friday Deleon Springs. Monday is also the start of the summer food program, because more then half of the campers receive free and reduced lunch during the school year it is continued through the summer. If any one else is doing an S.O.S with a summer camp and needs game ideas let me know, would love to trade ideas.