E-Term 2021: Internships in Community and Social Change

Something that I have found a connection in my internship to my studies I have done was my research on the Alabama Interfaith Refugee Partnership. In one of my classes last semester we often discussed the refugee crisis that has been occurring in Europe for the past several years. We studied how the massive influx of these refugees have affected the global economy and possible ways to fix this problem. When researching the Alabama Interfaith Refugee Partnership I was often reminded just how nuanced this issue is. In many situations, refugees don’t want to have to leave their home country. It is a last resort decision because they know that it can endanger their life and the lives of their children or any other family members that come with them. The refugees that come through this organization are often coming from Central America, East Africa, and the Middle East. What I’m really excited for is using everything I’ve learned is when I take my religion course on religion and poverty and my class on the politics of Central America next semester. 

This internship at CCDN researching the resources for special needs and underprivileged children in Birmingham City schools closely correlates to a class I’ve taken called Survey of Exceptional Children. In this class we learned about the different components of learning disabilities and mood disorders, while also visiting organizations across Birmingham that serve special needs children. This class sparked my interest in working with children with developmental disabilities, and the fundamental information that I learned has been incredibly beneficial throughout my research for CCDN. It has helped me navigate the Birmingham City and Jefferson County school websites seeking information for parents of children with special needs because I’ve been educated on the rights and resources that these individuals have and need. I’m less educated about how the school system lacks in areas regarding underprivileged children, which has been interesting to dive into during research. There seem to be numerous resources for parents to use with their children outside of school to help them catch up. But the real question is why so many children are coming to CCDN for tutoring in core subjects? In what areas are city schools lacking so much that many children are forced to use non-profit tutoring to simply catch up to the baseline for their age? Home life is also a huge factor in the value of children’s education. I would love to take a poverty studies class to become more educated about the various situations of children that are a part of the city school system, and to see how this impacts their academic performance.

For the past several months, the news has constantly discussed the economic impacts of Covid-19. I obviously have not taken a course that directly studies Covid-19, but since it has been affecting every part of our lives for the past year, I believe I could include it as a part of my academic experience. In just the short time I have been interning at the Community Care Development Network, I have witnessed the economic impacts of Covid-19 affecting real individuals. For example, yesterday I worked with a client who reached out for financial assistance from the CCDN. This client is a self-employed photographer with a Master’s degree. This experience taught me that no level of education necessarily protects you from the economic impacts of Covid-19. I have many friends at BSC who are soon to graduate with theatre degrees. I have heard them discuss their fears about finding a job in the performing arts field during this pandemic. I hope these friends of mine do not hesitate to reach out to assistance organizations like the CCDN if they find themselves struggling to make ends meet as young adults facing the pandemic.

 So far, my experience with the CCDN has me wanting to take as many sociology classes as possible before I graduate. This upcoming semester I am taking a class called the Sociology of Race and Ethnic Relations. I am looking forward to connecting my experiences at the CCDN with what I learn in this class. I know the majority of the clients I help at the CCDN are minorities, and I strive to learn more about what is causing the widening equality gap in America. I hope this internship and this class help teach me what I can do as an individual to help address racial issues in the US. Our readings in Getting to Maybe have already taught me so much. From this book, I have learned that to address issues in society I must connect with individuals who share similar goals, take time to stand still and analyze social issues, and recognize that social problems are everchanging and will never be fully solved. 

The courses I have taken related to poverty have given me the opportunity to find many connections between our reading, my internship, and my academic experiences. For example, in Getting to Maybe, it discussed the importance of practicing empathy. This reminded me of discussions I have had in my poverty courses about the us vs. them dichotomy, in which people with privilege mentally separate themselves from those without it. This creates a savior complex within privileged people and then any help they might provide through volunteer work is actually more harmful than helpful. This idea of saviorism has been one that has stuck with me in my internship so far, as I have to consider the presence of this complex within religion in general. Furthermore, while this idea is harmful in any context, it seems even more problematic, and somewhat ironic, for people from a church to adopt this complex when the sole purpose of a church is to worship their one true savior. This made me aware of the extra lengths church communities must take to ethically serve as failure to do so often leads to driving people away from faith altogether. Making these connections has made me all the more thankful for churches like Beloved, who have created safe spaces for their communities, and devoted so much effort to tolerating nothing but love, equality, and acceptance. 

   This experience has made me more aware of the poverty happening around Birmingham and the organizations that serve to bring not only arts education into local school districts but opportunities for growth and exploration for children. This experience has made me more curious about involving myself with local opportunities that serve the poor community and the impact I could leave. 

Internship: McCoy Adult Day Care- Social Media Marketing 

My internship is a bit different than the others in this class. I really haven’t had the opportunity to meet or visit with any clients. Since the daycare isn’t open due them having at-risk clients for covid. I have only connected with my supervisor over text, and an occasional phone call. Luckily, last year I was able to volunteer with McCoy before covid, so that is how I will be basing my reflection on. I never had heard of an adult day care until I came to Birmingham-Southern. Where I am from the older adults usually stay in fancy nursing/retirement homes. In my Intro to Sociology class, we talked about social inequality. Most of the caregivers that take care of the adults that come to McCoy are their children, who have working jobs. I noticed that the social inequality in lower income neighborhood’s often leaves the children become caretakers of their loved ones. Due to how much money it would cost to send them to a retirement home, so they bring them to McCoy as a cheaper option. 

My internship involves crafting an online presence for a church, where the members of the church can find resources on LGBTQ+ issues. This involves a variety of things. Firstly, i am working on the Open Table Project, which involves me finding resources on different concepts within the community, crafting a calendar for different LGBTQ+ holidays, finding different resources related to more specific topics, and gathering stories from LGBTQ+ christains so that members of the church can learn from the experiences of others. The second aspect of the internship is focused on reaching out to other people, and getting a feel for who they are and what they need.

I took a leadership studies class last Fall, and I plan on getting a distinction in the subject. Understanding different theories and means of practicing leadership has really helped me throughout this process, but more specifically, the class I took in the Fall reminds me of what I am doing, research wise, in my internship. My Leadership Studies class focused on the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. MLK dedicated his life to inclusivity, and he wanted this type of inclusivity through love. In almost every speech he did, he spoke about the importance of loving one another.

During one of King’s last speeches, he described how there were three different words for love in the Greek language, one of them being the word “agape”. This is a deep, unending love that does not judge or hurt others. This type of love is not withheld from people because of who they are, and it is the type of love that we, as humans, should always show each other.

This is something I thought of while I was doing work for my internship. Inclusivity is so important, being an ally is also beyond important; however, you cannot have these two ideas without demonstrating the idea of agape. You need to be willing to show people and communities the type of love that King often described in his speech.

For my internship, this love is easily shown. Such simple things as watching the videos and reading the articles provided to educate yourself, making sure you use someone’s pronouns correctly, and taking the time to understand a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation are just a few ways that people can show the type of love that King talked about. It is extremely interesting to me that something King spoke so highly of can still be applied to something so different.

The resources that Claire and I are compiling are going to be put on a facebook page for easy access for church members. I highly doubt when King gave his speeches, and spoke of agape in general, he thought that the concept could be applied to a facebook group for a methodist church in alabama, but his speeches are perfect backing for why the church does what it does. Highlands UMC prides itself on showing this deep, unending love to everyone that walks through its doors.

My internship with Community Care Development Network so far has taught me that there are many more people in poverty than we might think. When looking at the database with all the client files, it was overwhelming because there are so many people that have started/finished applications to receive assistance in the areas of food, life services or even financial assistance. I knew that there were many people who needed resources, but seeing the actual names of people just changed it all. It has made it into something real, even though I had prior knowledge that poorer communities lack the resources they need from taking intro to poverty studies. In intro to poverty studies we analyze how poverty affects people and I am able to see that now with the clients I am given. Having this background on poverty has helped me to understand the position that these people are in and just drives me to keep helping connect them to the resources they need.

 From class readings I know that change is difficult, but these words make me want to connect it to the pandemic. I did this because over the course of this past year change has been the central theme for us all and it in fact has been difficult to manage it all. I can't imagine what people have gone through especially communities with a large minority presence. This has led me to want to focus more on the experience of minority families as an area of interest because most of the clients I am working with are minorities that live in the Birmingham area. This is something I want to keep looking at for sure because they are impacted so differently compared to other groups.

Internship: Highlands United Methodist Church

Looking over my time partnering with Highlands so far, I have gotten to connect a lot of dots between what I am experiencing in the internship to what I have learned academically. In my poverty studies courses, Intro to Education and Developing Child in the 21st Century, we studied various cases of minorities in learning situations, how humans are created, and how one's environment alters their life. 

I am seeing a slightly different dynamic from the ones I studied in those courses, simply due to the fact that I am working on LGBTQIAP+ social media representation for a church and not focusing on how children transition from Kindergarten to 1st grade. However, my experience does relate to my time in Intro to Ed when we read novels about students and teachers using code-switching to get through their days appropriately. The novels pointed out the importance of talking to kids differently than your employer. 

That relates to my internship because my adviser has shared that they have felt like they could not comfortably be themselves in a church congregation, as a genderqueer pansexual, before working at the church they are currently located at. All of this is definitely prompting me to study queer theology more thoroughly and to continue taking more Religion classes.

This organization has licensed mental health and substance abuse counselors and specialists who do a great job with individual counseling and therapy sessions. The victims feel supported and as a result maintain their overall health and wellbeing and are even more determined to get a life. Majority of these victims are Black females and I wonder why. However, I see a connection between all this and a poverty class I took where we read a book called "Living on less than $2 a day." In this book, many people (especially Black women) tell their stories of how they are barely surviving on less than $2 a day because they cannot get jobs or education due to the same reasons as the victims of my internship.

This experience is prompting me to take a psychology and sociology class because I now want to learn and further understand how to help not only such individuals, but any one I encounter who is dealing with with mental and emotional problems.