Closing the Semester

As we close the semester and I think back at everything that has been said, everything that has been done and that will be accomplished I find it amazing how much I have grown and how I believe many of others in our classroom have grown. I started off the semester in this class pretty rough. The structure of the class startled me; from the blogs, to the observations to our projects down to all the FREEDOM we had! I have always been a person to plan ahead, have a set deadline, like to have clear-cut instructions and like to know that at the end of the process I will have an output I can measure. Well guess what this class was, the complete OPPOSITE from all that I have described above. It was a struggle but I managed to maintain my composure and not completely break down…

To the cohort I was a part of this semester; what a pleasure! The thought that I could possibly have you again next semester in some of my classes is very rewarding. Each and every one of you has shared something this semester that I took away from and learned. Yes, everyone had their different personalities and yes I sometimes believed that our class was going to be a fighting ring but never did I feel there was animosity after our discussions. We all had different perspectives and it was a great experience to hear them all.

To Professor G, what a pleasure to have experienced a classroom setting with you! You’re knowledge over social justice issues is immense and I’m sure if this class could go on forever you would still not run out of great things to inform us of. I have developed an insightful way of thinking about these issues through your many examples and great stories. Thank you once again for the pool of new knowledge that you have shared with us and of course, thank you for your oh so delicious cookies that I will try and stop by your next semester classes and steal lol

It has truly been a blessing this semester with all of my classes and all of the new people I had the privilege to meet. Hope to see you all around the school next semester if I don’t get to have classes with you. And of course, hope to see walk the stage in the spring of 2013! We are getting closer to the prize ya’ll!


I leave you with your thoughts...  

End of the Semester but Why not!

Here's a video a friend posted on facebook over "feminist" thought it would be interesting to share even though we did this section at the very beginning of the semester...

I leave you with your thoughts...

Project H

First and foremost, I want to make a HUGE shout out to my Project H members =D It was a blast working with you all and I am glad we were a team. We've learned, we've bonded and each and every one of learned took away something from this experience =) AND now we have classes together next semester! lol

Now on to my reflection on this amazing project that I honestly didn't expect much out of at the very beginning. We went from only wanting to break the stigma that the homeless population carried and making a video and calling it quits to these concise action steps and visions! I believe the ideas we came up with were great and could possibly lead to a better future for the homeless population... I can definitely see why UT prides itself in a place were changing the world starts here <3 But I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we mostly grew from our experiences "taking on the streets."

I personally did not write down an interview like the other 3 members did but I did have the privilege of meeting and interacting with Larry the man that Veronica interviewed. This man was full of "street knowledge" and that my people is crucial when you are part of this population. Knowing about theories and solving equations is not going to get you anywhere if you are sleeping outside an abandoned building.

 One of my first notions was "how are we going to go up to these people and just ask them questions?" Well there's the problem, I should have gone into this project with the mentality that I was going to go up to a person and just have conversation with them. No need to treat them like subjects, no need to feel pitty for them and definitely no need to be scared. Yes mind you that they're people that sometimes you cannot trust but trust your instinct. Now i remind myself to think "remember Irene, they are also people with a story..."

Overall this was a GREAT experience and took so much more than what I put into it (I believe, even though we put A LOT). I am extremely thankful that I picked this population and that I stuck it through. Many life lessons learned and more to ponder...

I leave you with your thoughts...

Ageism and Privacy...

With the class discussion over ageism and how we shared all of our experiences really got me thinking. First of all, this whole idea of privacy wasn't a question in my household. As a child I had no choice but to share a room with somebody. If it wasn't my sisters it was my mom and if it wasn't in my mom's room it was staying in the living room. I never had much trouble with this because it happened from the day I was born to about 13. By the time I was 13 all my siblings had moved out and only left me, my mom and her boyfriend. I of course, was left with a room of my own. Since then I continued to have a room for myself. I was always very independent as soon as my father left. I was left to do "my own thing". Hardly any questions were asked, I followed what I believed were "rules" but in reality there was none. I had my own car that I payed gas for and my insurance. I payed my own cellphone bill; all this at the age of 16. And then at 18 I was on my own at The University of Texas at Austin.

Well enough about my personal monologue. During our class discussion Maijah brought up a very interesting idea. Shen mentioned this cycle that we all go through. The idea that when we are kids we have our parents to enforce rules and make decisions for us. Then we get into our teen years where as teenagers we believe we can make our own decisions and rebel and it's a constant fight with our parents. That occurs until we get older and we can finally make our own decisions. We get a taste of what freedom really is!! After we have continued our life and probably have our own family we take on the role of provider and care taker to our parents. Our parents as elders have our role of when we were kids and would want to rebel. After we go through that we find ourselves in our parents position having our kids take our "freedom" and they become our care takers.

I found this whole cycle I hadn't even thought of extremely interesting!

I leave you with your thoughts....

Being A Nerd

I watched this movie last night and I was being a complete nerd while watching it. Why? Because while watching it I kept thinking like a social worker! lol The movie is based around society depending on time as their currency and has the basic idea that the United States has about money. I also believe the movie illustrates the conflict theory at its best lol So below is the trailer and if you are interested the movie is in Redbox =) 

I leave you with your thoughts... 

Therapy Through the Heart of Art

I was honestly not able to read the text because I somehow misplaced my book and cannot find it. I've been trying to get copies but I know many people use their text for reading and writing their blogs so I would hate to keep someone from writing. So I'll be talking a bit about the video we watched on Wednesday and a bit about what I have found over ableism through my own mini-research.

The video from Wednesday, I can't recall the name of it right now (sorry). At first I was a bit confused with the beginning. Not only because of the TV show it started with but just the movie itself. I was wondering "who is this?" "what is he trying to get at?" and so forth and so forth. As the movie went on I began to grasp it some more. This famous artist was back in his homeland of Brazil with the goal of giving back to his community, specifically, those who lived in the slums and worked as recyclable material pickers. I also thought that he was just going to take the pictures and sell them but the film surprised me a whole lot when they showed the Brazil citizens contributing to the art and re-making their pictures with recyclable material! The final pieces were incredible and if I had the money and a place to put such great art I would definitely do so. The recyclable material pickers grew so much with this art project and the artist himself grew as well. He confessed that he didn't expect getting close to those people who he would photograph but he did. You can tell through the video the wonderful bond they built and the hope he gave each and every one of those members. I was extremely touched by the video.

On to ableism... First of all I didn't think that was a word! I figured it was something that the social work community or other communities "made up" for educational purposes. But sure enough this is indeed a word (sorry for my ignorance). After reading some things online and articles I can see where this is a problem. A problem that is sometimes deliberate and sometimes accidental. A deliberate occasion could be that person that makes fun of a person who isn't able to walk right, talk right or use certain things. An accidental occasion (still not okay) can be a business owner forgetting to have builders place in a ramp for those who need one or like in Google's case that I read about.

Google has made it increasingly difficult for people who can't for what ever reason read their CATCHA when wanting to make a google mail account. CATCHA is the device at the end of making an account of what ever type to ensure that you are a person and not spam creating the account. Even though google has added a speaker for those not able to read the text this device does not work on the web browser Chrome, which by the way this is their web browser! Some research has been shown by Blind Bargains that showed that 73% of blind users failed at their attempt with the CATCHA challenge.

Example of CATCHA:

Things like the example given above brings worry to not only myself but to others (well, at least it should). I am able and therefore, I am able to voice my opinion and will continue to voice my opinion in what ever ways I possibly can to make this an issue of importance for our nation to address...

That is all I have for now and I apologize for not touching base on readings.

P.S- while watching the documentary of Wednesday I couldn't help but to relate it back to the Mart project that Professor G has taken on =)



I leave you with your thoughts...

Might be of interest...

I wanted to post this on my last blog but forgot so here it is.
Many of you if not all of you might have seen this Lifetime movie "Prayers for Bobby" but if you haven't I highly recommend it!