Page 5 – The Waltonian

Now half-way into the semester, first-year students are beginning to work on their service learning projects within their Introduction to Faith, Reason and Justice classes. Service learning kicked-off early this semester with a day spent at UrbanPromise, but now students get to choose where and how they in particular would like to serve. Areas of service vary from student to student, but each one of them is required to meet a minimum of 20 hours of volunteering in the community. Now that these students have chosen and begun their projects, they reflect on what drew them to their respective organizations and how God is using this practice of service in their lives

Hailey Kline, an eighteen-year-old nursing major, volunteers as a tutor at Aclamo, an after-school program for children with English as their second language. “I just love connecting with the kids and getting to know them better,” said Kline. “I love the challenge. I just think that they’re so smart, I could not be learning in anything that’s not my native language and working through math and things like that.”

Through tutoring children, Kline has learned a bit herself. “It’s just really made me contemplate my patience and my heart for children, and my lack of knowledge on the Hispanic community and what’s going on there, especially in the political climate right now” said Kline.

Other organizations are involved with service learning, such as St Edmond’s Home for Children. St Edmond’s works to serve children with profound disabilities with both practical and emotional care. According to their mission statement, St Edmond’s view each child in their care as “a reflection of God’s love,” and says “lives are immeasurably enriched by the tender and compassionate care of all of the St Edmond’s family.”

Carley Bobst, a first-year worship arts student visits St. Edmund’s Home for Children once a week. “St. Edmond’s is really focused on just providing the love and care that these people really need,” said Bobst. “A lot of these places aren’t really loving or attentive to what people are actually looking for or needing, and they can disregard a lot of their actual needs. However, at this place they definitely build those relationships whether they’re a nurse or a volunteer. It’s a really loving and welcoming place.”

Through service learning, Bobst is building those same relationships she described. “I love the people,” she said. “They’re so sweet, everyone is very open to welcoming you and the kids are all so excited to see you every single week, they just like to hang out with some new people.”

While their areas of service have changed, first-years remember their first weekend of service at UrbanPromise. “This work feels a lot more impactful on individual people, it feels a lot more like I’m actually serving,” said Kline. “Maybe it was because I just painted lines on the road at UrbanPromise, and in a cumulative sense it serves God, but in an individual way it doesn’t really feel like it does. Encouraging children is great because God really loves kids, and I do too.”

Service learning provides for a whole multitude of groups, including the sick. Victoria Kramer, a freshman biology major looking forward to a career as a veterinarian, spends her service learning hours at MANNA. MANNA, or Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance, works to provide meals for people with debilitating or life-threatening diseases. People can choose from a multitude of dietary plans, with up to twelve different specifications available. Kramer spends her time at the organization providing meal preparation for the outgoing shipment of meals.

“I like that most of the people working there all talk to each other and it’s really fun to get to know their story and why they’re there, and what they’re doing,” said Kramer. “It ranges from Eastern students, high school students and adults, too.”

Though every student has a different experience with their service learning, the benefit is undeniable. Students learn about the community around them and are able to live out their faith in tangible ways and organizations get regular volunteers. Serving is foundational to the Christian faith and living this out as a student can shape one’s perspective and habits for years to come.

In my opinion, there’s no form of expression that allows someone to be as transparent and honest as journaling does. Journaling allows the writer to unapologetically express their true thoughts, feelings and experiences more genuinely than they ever could when talking to another person. For me, a journal is a place to deposit how I’m actually feeling about any given thing, clarify my emotions, and create something beautiful. I first started journaling when I was around six and there was a lot of change going on in my life. I wrote letters to my mom and to God, asking them questions about my circumstances. Since then, I’ve found solace in putting my uncertainties onto a page and leaving them there. Instead of carrying them around in my mind, I can deposit them into my private notebook and move on.

I’ve kept lots of journals since I was six, and I keep them in piles on my bedroom bookshelves. I love looking back at them, rereading what I once wrote and being able to fully submerge myself into who I was when I wrote it. Even though I never wrote out specific situations, reading old entries gives me free passage to the person I used to be.

However, if you’re new to the world of journaling, it can be kind of scary to start. You’re facing sifting through layers of thought and emotion that you probably didn’t have to look closely at before. All while it’s just floating around in your mind and you’re trying to express it in a way that’s somewhat coherent. However, when done with honesty and diligence, it can be incredibly freeing. I’ve found that by writing down everything I’m feeling, I’m not just able to get it out of my brain, but also create something I’m proud of. Some of my favorite pieces I’ve ever written have come from times where I’m confused and uncertain. Then as I write, I discover how I’m really feeling and create beauty from that.

The best part of journaling though is that it is completely judgement-free. No matter what you’re going through, thinking, or writing about, no one else in the world has to know unless you want them to. Unlike most other forms of expression, the art of journaling is entirely fulfilled simply by you writing. Your journal is a safe place to write whatever you want – grocery lists, crappy poetry, hour-by-hour accounts of your life, it’s all up to you. Some people choose to journal about their day-to-day lives, some incorporate art into their journals, some go for a bullet journal style, but no matter what, it’s all up to you. A journal is nothing more or less than what you make of it – it’s simply an amalgamation of your life.

Journaling has been an incredible asset to my life and my happiness, and I think that if it is utilized well, it could be beneficial for mostly everybody. Everyone could benefit from having a judgement free place to express themselves, their thoughts and their experiences. Journaling has helped me understand myself and the world better without the fear of judgement from others. I love the act of journaling and know that it is a practice I will carry with me long into the future.

Each year, freshmen and transfer students partake in service learning as a part of their first-year seminar “Faith, Reason and Justice” class. Megan Acedo, Coordinator of Student Ministries and Service Learning at Eastern of nearly six years explains the program as the lab or practicum section of a seminar, and says that it is “Designed to allow students to put into practice what they’re learning in the classroom and bring those experiences back to the classroom to sort of debrief them and discuss them so that it informs what happens in their learning experience.”

However, the program is more than a requirement for a course. According to Acedo, students provide around 720,000 hours of service in the greater Philadelphia region, which equates to an economic impact of over $170,000 a year. Students can serve in a multitude of ways throughout the semester, such as doing home repairs for low-income families, working in after school programs and serving the homeless.

This semester’s service-learning kick-off day took place on Saturday, September 15. Freshmen and transfer students filed into buses to volunteer at UrbanPromise, one of many service learning program partners, to help prepare for the school year by caring for practical needs on their campus.

UrbanPromise works to provide students in Camden with all the life skills, academic knowledge and Christian thought that they need to thrive. To do this, UrbanPromise hosts summer camps, after-school activities and opportunities for faith development. The ministry also operates their own elementary and middle school called CamdenForward, as well as UrbanPromise Academy, which is a private high school that focuses on students who may be falling behind.

Acedo started the day by explaining what UrbanPromise is, what their work does for the community and how the projects done that day would help the ministry. Other UrbanPromise workers also spoke, including Founder Dr. Bruce Wayne, Director of Children’s and Youth Ministry Siomara Wedderburn, Director of Operations, Tom Wayne and Eastern Alumni Tony and Albert Vega, Director of Camp Freedom and Program Director of Camp Joy & Creation respectively.

From there, students were released to begin their work. Some cleaned the kitchen, some worked in the gardens and others repainted the yellow paint on the curb. Some groups loaded back onto the bus to do at off-campus sites that UrbanPromise owns. Those groups did projects such as cleaning out buses, as well as working in the thrift store and intern housing.

“I really liked service learning,” said transfer student Colleen Miller. “It was nice to go into the thrift shop. I helped tag clothes and it was rewarding to see the progress we were making as we put more clothes out on the racks. As we tagged, the woman in charge of the store was able to interact with the customers and connect with the community more.”

My group was assigned to work on cleaning and tidying the basement, specifically a large closet bursting with costumes, games and toys. The group of six women worked together for two hours cleaning shelves, sorting through the closet’s contents and reorganizing everything into new, orderly spaces. The toys in the closet are used as prizes for the annual carnival UrbanPromise hosts and in a Christmas shop where families are given UrbanBucks to spend on gifts for the holiday.

Before bringing us into the basement, our group leader explained what we needed to do and told us to expect dust, mouse droppings and general disorganization. Though sorting a closet did not initially feel like ground-breaking service, I realized what kind of impact it could have on the staff there. Instead of spending time sorting or digging through to find what they may be looking for, they can spend their time doing the more important work of helping and loving the individuals that come to them.

UrbanPromise has a unique partnership with Eastern, based out of their similar ideals – to provide quality learning environments where students can grow both academically and spiritually. To help advance this mission, Eastern University guarantees students, faculty and staff of UrbanPromise a scholarship for half of the tuition costs, as well as 25% tuition grants for graduate students of Campolo College. UrbanPromise students are also invited to attend open houses and information sessions at the University to help prepare for college, while Eastern students are given the opportunity to practice their faith in service learning through UrbanPromise in Camden, NJ.

The E.N.D.U.R.E. mentorship program at Eastern University works to create relationships between students of color and Christian mentors such as alumni, faculty or staff at the college. Each week, students will meet with their mentors to discuss their goals for the semester, academic or otherwise. E.N.D.U.R.E believes that “Godly mentoring results in godly living, which greatly impacts the furthering of the Kingdom,” and encourages participants to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Freshmen and first-year transfer students are typically paired with an upperclassman as their mentor, while upperclassmen are paired with members of faculty or alumni around the university. These pairings are usually decided by similar interests, areas of study, or ethnic backgrounds. However, students may choose to have mentors of cross-cultural ethnic backgrounds or be a part of a group mentorship environment, some of which include cross-cultural interactions as well.

Mentors and mentees are expected to be in weekly communication, either in person or over the phone or email. Available events for participants include the annual Kickoff and Finale, as well as others, like the Art Exhibit.

Students have greatly benefited from this program as they believe that it has helped them to grow academically but most importantly spiritually. This program allows students to be able to hold each other accountable, bear one another’s joys and burdens as well as encourage each other in their walk with Christ. Students such as Malicka Encarnacion, a sophomore who is studying to be a doctor and a former mentee turned mentor, have attested to the program’s ability to cultivate and nourish the need for community. While upperclassmen are the mentors, there is a hope for mutuality in mentor-mentee relationship.

“I am hoping that I can have a mutual relationship as I hold them accountable, challenge them and [hope] that they will do the same for me and to build an authentic relationship with them” Encarnacion said.

She saw the benefits of approaching mentorship through this lens last year when she was a mentee.

“There was days she encouraged, challenged and held me accountable and other days the roles were switched and some days it was very much mutual. So I’m praying that every mentor and mentee can have a relationship that is mutual and receptive” Encarnacion said.

First-year mentees such as Maggie Adenusi are eager to meet with their mentors, get to know them, and to obtain wisdom from them that could help aid them during their first year at college. Maggie said that she is hoping to learn how to compromise as well as utilize her strengths to “make a better Maggie.”

Source: E.N.D.U.R.E page on eastern.edu

Eastern University’s Writing Center is now allowing for “they” to be used as a singular pronoun that refers to non-binary people. This change has come about as a result of a growing awareness of the many gender-identities in our world, and the ways that language in the classroom can be inclusive. By allowing students to use “they”, classrooms create the opportunity for all gender-identities to be recognized.

In a statement, the IWCA, International Writing Centers Association said, “It is time for professional organizations, especially those committed to teaching, to challenge the deep-rooted structures that have been used to uphold a binary that denies access for entire communities.”

The singular pronoun “they” is most often used by people who identify as nonbinary, or as neither male or female. According to a statement by transmediawatch.org that regards nonbinary media representation, “Non-binary is an umbrella term used to describe people who do not feel male or female.”

Transmediawatch.org also stated “They may feel that they embody elements of both, that they are somewhere in between or that they are something different.”

According to the community guidelines listed on Eastern University’s website, the school aims to “To use inclusive language when speaking about or addressing human beings in written and oral communication,” as well as “Treat all human beings with respect and dignity.” Therefore, it only makes sense that the on-campus writing center would permit broad pronoun usage in students’ written works. Allowing Eastern students to identify themselves the way that they truly are is a powerful step towards a more inclusive and accepting campus for all people.

In a Christian school, it is especially important that everybody feels welcome and valid, not just on campus, but in their classrooms and written work. The Christian church has a history and a reputation of being discriminatory towards those with LGBTQ+ identities, which can often make people who identify as such feel uncomfortable or unwanted by Christians, and in some cases, even Christ. However, this behavior does not accurately reflect thatofJesus, who loves all people unconditionally. Making Eastern University a welcoming community that loves as Jesus does could be a remarkable change not only in how Christians are viewed, but how the Christian faith is received by members of the LGBTQ+ community. The change will help create an accepting and safe environment for people of all backgrounds and identities on this campus.

Source: Trans Media Watch, The IWCA, Eastern University.