New BCSL website!

We've gone live with the new BCSL website! Same url (www.oberlin.edu/bcsl), updated graphics and info.

Happy Thanksgiving

The BCSL is quiet today---the majority of the staff are off enjoying the holiday, traveling, and prepping the kitchen. I hope to get some emails, reports, and a grant taken care of before I head home to curl up with my blankets, knitting, laptop, comics, and to-do list (I know, I know...but it's stuff I've wanted to get done for a while). It is a good day for posting a list, because they are quick, easy, and delightfully to-the-point.

Things I am Thankful For
1. I work in a job I love.
2. The job I love makes a positive difference in the world.
3. The job I love lets me live in a town I love.
4. The town I love contains people that I love.
5. Today, all my basic needs are met.
6. I will be sharing a hearty Thanksgiving meal with good company.
7. The air coming out of the BCSL vent is warm and not cold. (or at least it is room temperature)
8. I get to make lists like these as part of my job.
9. I have hot tea.
10. The chair I am going to be sitting in all day is comfortable and has back support.

Take the Campus Wide Community Engagement Survey!

This might be your Winter Term project

Project title:

Dr. Seuss Day Coordinator 

                       

Number of Students: 

1-2 students, half or full credit

           

Location: 

Bonner Center for Service and Learning

Supervisor: 

Andy Frantz, Education Outreach Programs Director

andy.frantz @ oberlin.edu / 440-775-5386

Description:

If you take on this project, you will plan the Dr. Seuss Day family literacy celebration.  This is an annual event held at the Oberlin Public Library in early March and draws about 200 youngsters and their families.  Planning the project involves lining up special guests to read books aloud, other guests such as musicians, clowns, sports figures, etc.  It also involves planning the specific literacy-based activities for the youngsters, and organizing publicity for the event.  Someone who is organized and outgoing is ideal for this position.  Although this has been an annual event for several years and therefore has certain elements that are pretty much fixed, there is room for plenty of creativity in shaping this year’s celebration to be whatever you envision it to be.

Special note: 

Hours during Winter Term are flexible.  While this is a January project, the Coordinator must be available during the weekend of March 5-6 when the event actually takes place.

Calling all you angels

Yesterday I drove up to Cleveland's Channel 3 to man a phone a an Ohio Benefit Bank phone bank. It looked a lot like this picture from Wikimedia Commons, only we had two rows of tables (sorry, forgot to grab my own picture):

"Ohio Benefit Bank, this is Ondrea speaking. How can I help you today?"

Starting at 10 a.m., the phone bank number was scrolled across the bottom of the screen to encourage people who were watching tv at home to call in and check their eligibility. The calls went to one of 14 phones manned by volunteers, and they were ringing off the hook. Any calls we didn't get to before 8 p.m. were told to leave messages that the awesome Benefit Bank Mobile Express team will return today.


I talked to about 20 people over the course of three hours. Some were well connected to the public benefits system, and some were delighted to learn they qualified for several hundred a month in extra benefits (most common: food assistance). It is always sad to realize how many people out there need help, and many stories were heartbreaking. Yet at events like these it's gratifying to power through call after call and hand out phone numbers and resources of people who can help put things right.

In Other News:

Leadership in an Interfaith World: A Workshop with Interfaith Youth Core
Wednesday, November 17, 4:30-6 pm
Wilder 211

The ability to understand, communicate with, and mobilize diverse groups--including religiously and philosophically diverse groups--is a critical leadership skill in the 21st century. In this workshop, a trainer from Interfaith Youth Core will help participants sharpen their skills in telling their stories, engaging diverse others, and building sustainable interfaith movements. Primarily for students but open to all. Sponsored by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.

Good Things To Read

Part of my OBB initiative here at Oberlin College is to get OBB incorporated into the College curriculum so students can do OBB work and get academic credit for it.  As a recent grad, I understand that when you can get academic credit for something, it's a lot easier to fit it into your schedule.  To this end, I plan on leading a private reading (2nd class meets tonight!), a WT project (2 students confirmed!), and an ExCo next semester (interview with the ExCo office today!).  For all these academic initiatives, I've had to try my hand at writing syllabi chock-full of informative readings.  

Here are some of the good books/articles I have come across or had recommended to me exploring the issue of poverty (and I have OhioLinked to read in the next few weeks).  Some are more academic than others, but if read with a critical eye all should give you something to think about:

• The Working Poor by David Shipler
• Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. How the Working Poor Became Big Business by Gary Rivlin
• The State of Poverty in OH 2010
• All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America? by Joel Berg
• Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Bridges Out of Poverty by Ruby Payne  (to be read in conjunction with Paul Gorski)
• Articles by Paul Gorski critiquing Payne's work (to be read in conjunction with Ruby Payne)

Winter Term

If you are in the market for a Winter Term project, there are still community service ones available!  I've still got slots open for people to work with the Benefit Bank fighting poverty, Avi is looking for local foods people (description of the project on his blog) and Andy would like a Dr. Suess Day Coordinator.  Look us up on Obie Opps or drop by the BCSL if you are interested!

Have I told you lately I love where I work?

Slow week

Programs the BCSL has:

Community Service Work-Study Program

America Reads

Community-Based Learning

Bonner Scholars Program

Bonner Leaders Program

Leadership for Engagement, Activism and Direct Service

Community Service Resource Center

Day of Service

Training Support for the Ohio Benefit Bank

Policy Options Project

Ninde Scholars Program 

5th / 6th grade Mentoring Program

Winter Term community-service opportunities

Things I am working on:

• The fall semester campus-wide survey on student community service
• Working with Sam on a logo and blogspot for the Lorain County EITC Coalition:  http://loraincountyeitc.blogspot.com
• Fun fact: the EITC Coalition is a group of non-profit agencies working together to help people fill out their taxes to get the refunds they are eligible for but might not be aware of or know how to access.  The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a credit that may low-wage working people are eligible for, and it can result in a tax refund of several thousand dollars
• A 1-module, 1-credit private reading on poverty--the first class was Monday and I think it went well.  Good people, good discussion!
• Winter Term (come by the BCSL to find a community service WT project!)
• Attending webinars on taxes, Honor Roll applications, and more taxes

Policy

Cool Courses:

Want your research to be used by someone? Want to help choose the recipient of a $3000 cash award for most innovative techniques in non profit management? Interested in taking an Oberlin College Spring Semester class that (since 1999) is a consulting group doing work for city, state, and federal officials, as well as for non-profits and for-profits? Want training in how to be a project manager? Want to learn the difference between start-ups that incorporate as non-profits as opposed to for-profits?

POLT 411 is open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors of all majors. In POLT 411 Oberlin Students conduct research and produce consultancy reports under the name of the Oberlin Research Group and under the supervision of Dr. Eve Sandberg in the Politics Department of Oberlin College.

Course by consent of the instructor: You can find an application in the Politics Dept (Rice 216), outside Rice 207, or email Prof Sandberg at Eve.Sandberg@Oberlin.edu

Cool Podcast:
http://ofbf.org/media-and-publications/listen/4/542/

Events!

For the first 3 months of my job, I was often out of the office traveling.  Now that I have traveled enough to be sufficiently trained in all my tasks.....I'm in the office all the time.  It takes some re-adjusting.  I used to be thrilled at the chance to stay in the office and get work done.  Now I'm experiencing a bit of cabin fever, so I'm starting to look around for things to do on campus.  Here are some events to get out and say hello to people!


Education Discussion Lunch:  Apollo Outreach Initiative
Monday, Nov. 8th at noon in Wilder 112
Lunch provided!  Email Andy.Frantz @ oberlin.edu to RSVP


Community Forces, Social Capital, and Educational Achievement: The Case of Suppleentary Education in the Chinese and Korean Immigrant Communities in the US
Presented by D. Min Zhou, Professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies at University of California, Los Angelos
Monday, Nov. 8th at noon in King 306


Brown Bag Lunch with Sam Weller, writer and biographer of Ray Bradbury
Wed, November 10 at noon in Wilder 101
Cookies and Cider provided as part of the community-wide BIG READ.  Bring your copy of Fahrenheit 451 with you for a fun door prize. 


It Gets Better:  A discussion of problems and possibilities for LGBTQ youth
Thursday, November 11th, at 4:30 p.m. in Wilder 101
MRC sponsored event for My Name is My Own 2010

Hallowed Rutabaga for Thought

Here is an online Food Quiz by Kraft Foods.  Every correct question donates $1 to the fight against hunger.  My favorite question is the one about the Hallowed Rutabaga.

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There is a volunteer opportunity with the Oberlin Schools Farm Cooperative behind the Pleasant Road School (Boys and Girls Club).  This Saturday from 8:00AM to Noon is a work day in the newly plowed garden.  If you have anyone that is interested in locally grown foods, or is just looking for some volunteer hours, everyone is welcome.  You can read the press release HERE.
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I've been doing a lot of reading about poverty for the syllabi I am writing.  The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David Shipler.  Bridges Out of Poverty by Ruby Payne.  Savage Unrealities:Uncovering Classism in Ruby Payne's Framework by Paul Gorski.  Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich.  Underlying all of it seems to be the question "How can poverty exist when the American Dream dictates that hard work should pull people up through the economic ladder?"  There is no simple answer.  Some of the stories had hardworking people that just didn't make enough money per hour to cover all their costs.  Some people just had bad luck.  Some people got caught in the system.  Some people made controversial lifestyle choices. 

The more I read, the more I realize I'm looking at life through a Southern, middle-class, moderate 20th C. Christian, academic lens.  On some level, people are universal and seek out the same things; physical needs and belonging somewhere might be a good place to start.  Yet the outlooks they have on life are not universal; it's that random human element that guarantees there is someone with a different way of looking at things out there no matter what I think.  When I was little, I was convinced there had been so many humans who had come before me that surely every single experience had been experienced, every emotion felt, and every human problem confronted.  If only, I thought, we could see what they did and learn from their experience and not repeat their mistakes.  Looking back was where the answer was.  World peace would come from learning from others who have come before, not necessarily from any new idea.  It fell into line with that snazzy quote: "Those who don't read history are doomed to repeat it."

Now that I've gotten older and lived life a bit more, I see holes in my hypothesis.  One major oversight I made is forgetting that everybody has to grow up and live; everybody takes their own path.  Another major hole is that I assumed everybody thought like me.  I assumed everyone would come out at the same mental place after growing up--my world peace depended on everyone looking back on humanity's collective experience together.  I assumed everyone wanted world peace and that they would be willing to learn and be introspective.  Once you start getting down to it, to truly walk in another person's shoes takes significantly more dismantling of my own assumptions, morals, and beliefs that I had previously thought.  It's one thing to try and look at somebody's perspective through your lens, and a completely other one to drop your lens and see what they see.

The other day someone suggested to me the golden rule of Treat others as you want to be treated isn't all it's cracked up to be, and that I should try Treat others as they wish to be treated.

It's an exercise not only in walking in somebody else's shoes, which is based on the assumption we all have similar experiences put in the same place, but also recognizing the difference between what you want, what they want, and what you think they want.

Tricky stuff.

Winter Term and candy

Welcome back from fall break!  Today is November 1st, which boggles my mind.  So much to do, so little time; it is time to break out the post-its, to-do lists, timelines, and tea.  Can't forget the tea that warms me up enough to type, especially when I forgot my blanket at home today.  My office at the BCSL holds heat about as well as you can nail jello to the wall.....which is to say, not at all.

Important Things of Note:

The Bonner Center sponsors Winter Term projects!  Several staff will be at the Winter Term Fair tonight 7:15 p.m. until 9 p.m. in Philips gym.  I'm sponsoring a Benefit Bank themed project, Sarah is sponsoring public relations and media projects, Andy is looking for a Dr. Suess Day Coordinator, and there are many other projects waiting to be claimed.

I'm still accepting students for a Benefit Bank themed 1-module, 1-credit private reading. And I just added more readings to the syllabus, which I'm very excited about.

There is Halloween candy at the BCSL.  Chocolate, Starbursts, Skittles, and gummy bears!  Look for it in the awesome leopard skinned basket on loan to the BCSL.