I wanted to take this final entry to just express my feelings on the entire journey of researching, coming to understand the challenges of my voice, and developing an appreciation for the life of someone different from me. I chose to take on the voice of a Jewish male student because I thought it would be a challenge to learn about a culture and student population that is so different from my own. This process has taught me that although there may be differences on the surface, we as students are not as different as we like to think we are, especially at an institution like BGSU.
I did not have a good experience doing the voice project in 602 and it made me very apprehensive about doing another one. I still did not think I understood what I was supposed to be accomplishing with this project. Because I still had no clue how to approach the project, I started to document my thoughts in the same fashion as my previous journal. Essentially, it was more narrative than anything. I was taking what I read and putting into narrative form. Fortunately, the more we talked about the project the better I understood how I needed to form my thoughts. While I still do not feel I have completely gotten the idea of the project, I have a much better grasp than I previously did.
This project showed me how to perceive the college environment through the eyes of a different student. It helped me to understand how the college environment affects the development of someone else. I think I initially got caught up in the belief that White students, regardless of their cultural background, had a much easier experience navigating the college environment. This thought, while unfounded, was my naive thinking. Developing Caleb and interpreting what his experience would be like with various parts of the college environment has definitely changed my view. Even though I was not able to successfully put a face to what I was writing, I believe that all of the reading has helped enhance my view on a Jewish student's college interaction. It would be absolutely wrong of me to assume that all of their experiences are the same.
Thinking about the cultural challenges Caleb faced when it came to food (finding kosher foods or going without), the lack of place for worship on campus (and having to go away from campus to find it), meeting other Jewish students (are they the same type of Jew? will they understand him? will he understand them? what kind of differences will there be?), meeting other students in general, helped me to give Caleb a life and be able to talk about it without feeling awkward. The more time I spent finding about Caleb the more real I could see him being. I could see my self having met him or meeting him at some point in my career. I can never say that I know what it is like to live as another student or experience their struggles, but this project has made me feel better about being able to empathize with students and help them navigate the campus to find the resources they need. I am more confident now in my ability to ask critical questions and look at a college environment and see how it could be manipulated to help students.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Finding Community
Reading the safety & inclusion, participation & involvement, and community sections of our text, I think I have a better understanding of these components and how vital they are to a student's success in college. A community is so much more than just having a place to hang out and people who think and act like you do. I understand even more so for the fact that the challenges a Jewish student would face in trying to find that sense of community I experienced as well. Whether it was making friends, enhancing my cultural experience, or just finding something to eat, the journey to find a sense of community takes the same path for many different types of students. Depending on what is being sought out to help build that sense of community, this journey can be more difficult for some than others. Caleb, as an involved and practicing Jewish student would, in my opinion, not be able to function properly without building a community for himself that reflected and supported his beliefs and practices and allowed him to congregate with others who feel the same. While I have never thought that BGSU would be an ideal place for Caleb to be, there are other students here that are searching for a similar experience. I think that amongst those students Caleb could find that community and help enhance the experience of his peers at the same time.
In my search for census information on Bowling Green, I found no information on a Jewish population in the Bowling Green area outside of college students for the most part. From what I have gathered, the Hillel seems to be the closest semblance of a Jewish community at BGSU. The facebook group had a membership count of 38. The national Hillel website reports an undergraduate Jewish student population of 200 and graduate student population of 100 at BGSU. The Hillel community at BGSU is described on the site as a "small and mighty" community, which is how they describe a small, emerging Jewish community on a college campus. I think this "small and mighty" description presents an optimistic approach to helping the students find the motivation and potential to expand into a stronger organization on the BGSU campus. However, obtaining information about the Jewish students that attend Caleb's institution was not as easy. BGSU Hillel's website is no longer active and the facebook group I found had not been updated in about two years (another facebook group has been established with more recent information; other than shabbat dinners there were no other events help by the Hillel and there was a Passover celebration recently). The information I found lets me know that while the Jewish community is small here, they find time to meet and support each other and to celebrate their culture. I think joining this tight-knit, committed community would be beneficial for Caleb's experience. This is a good place for Caleb to build on the safety & inclusion aspect of his community building. The better he gets to know the other students, the more likely he will be to participate in activities and take them up on offers to socialize and study.
While the aggregate is clear and present in this student population, the physical aspect is lacking. In the local are there are no places of worship. The nearest places of worship are in the Toledo/Sylvania area. The Bowling Green is majority Protestant, followed by Catholic and Lutheran. The lack of representation by the Jewish population is apparent in this case. For a student like my voice, that regularly attends temple, this would prove to be a challenge. It would be in a case like this where these students would need to depends on each other to get out of Bowling Green to attend temple since there is not any way out of here otherwise. Any events the students hold are done in the Union, which means that, unfortunately, it is only their space temporarily. In the case of the Hillel at BGSU, there is no physical component to complement the student group. This forces the student to be innovative in using the resources available to them on campus.
Finding community on a campus can be a great challenge but the reward is well worth the strife. Being a part of a small group of Jewish students and gradually expanding his circle will make it so Caleb is able to make real friends and not just acquaintances. The various hoops that the Jewish students have to overcome to provide themselves with a sense of community will only have to contribute to the closeness of the group and make the time they spend together truly gratifying.
Resources
http://www.hillel.org/HillelApps/JLOC/Campus.aspx?AgencyId=17236
http://www.bestplaces.net/city/Bowling_Green-Ohio.aspx
In my search for census information on Bowling Green, I found no information on a Jewish population in the Bowling Green area outside of college students for the most part. From what I have gathered, the Hillel seems to be the closest semblance of a Jewish community at BGSU. The facebook group had a membership count of 38. The national Hillel website reports an undergraduate Jewish student population of 200 and graduate student population of 100 at BGSU. The Hillel community at BGSU is described on the site as a "small and mighty" community, which is how they describe a small, emerging Jewish community on a college campus. I think this "small and mighty" description presents an optimistic approach to helping the students find the motivation and potential to expand into a stronger organization on the BGSU campus. However, obtaining information about the Jewish students that attend Caleb's institution was not as easy. BGSU Hillel's website is no longer active and the facebook group I found had not been updated in about two years (another facebook group has been established with more recent information; other than shabbat dinners there were no other events help by the Hillel and there was a Passover celebration recently). The information I found lets me know that while the Jewish community is small here, they find time to meet and support each other and to celebrate their culture. I think joining this tight-knit, committed community would be beneficial for Caleb's experience. This is a good place for Caleb to build on the safety & inclusion aspect of his community building. The better he gets to know the other students, the more likely he will be to participate in activities and take them up on offers to socialize and study.
While the aggregate is clear and present in this student population, the physical aspect is lacking. In the local are there are no places of worship. The nearest places of worship are in the Toledo/Sylvania area. The Bowling Green is majority Protestant, followed by Catholic and Lutheran. The lack of representation by the Jewish population is apparent in this case. For a student like my voice, that regularly attends temple, this would prove to be a challenge. It would be in a case like this where these students would need to depends on each other to get out of Bowling Green to attend temple since there is not any way out of here otherwise. Any events the students hold are done in the Union, which means that, unfortunately, it is only their space temporarily. In the case of the Hillel at BGSU, there is no physical component to complement the student group. This forces the student to be innovative in using the resources available to them on campus.
Finding community on a campus can be a great challenge but the reward is well worth the strife. Being a part of a small group of Jewish students and gradually expanding his circle will make it so Caleb is able to make real friends and not just acquaintances. The various hoops that the Jewish students have to overcome to provide themselves with a sense of community will only have to contribute to the closeness of the group and make the time they spend together truly gratifying.
Resources
http://www.hillel.org/HillelApps/JLOC/Campus.aspx?AgencyId=17236
http://www.bestplaces.net/city/Bowling_Green-Ohio.aspx
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Broken Language
I decided to dedicate this post to how I feel language within an aggregate or an environment can help develop a person's perception of the entire environment. For instance, my freshman year of college was the first time I had heard any non-Black person (outside of television) say the n-word. Personally, to hear anyone or any color say that word is annoying to me now. However, back then it was a word I used pretty commonly and believed that only other Black people should be able to say it. I hated how it seemed like other people were trying to "flip" the word and make it mean something positive when it is not. Initially, it made me very withdrawn and reluctant to talk to many White people on my campus outside of the people I already knew. I eventually grew to understand the ignorance that made people think saying the word was alright as long as it wasn't said maliciously. Now, the entire concept is dumb to me. This same line of thinking helpoed me get over how people often use stereotypes to help them "understand" why some people do what they do without ever asking them.
Applying this to Caleb's experience, I can understand why people become offended when a person uses something about you to describe an intangible concept. For example, there are times when the word Jewish is used to describe someone who is perceived as being frugal. Why not just call the person cheap? This reminds me of when I hear people use the term "ghetto" to describe something that does not work properly, looks old, or something of the like, without even knowing the root of the word. Calling something "ghetto" or "hood" is often associated with aspects of the Black community. However, ghettoes had their origin in the German word Judengasse, or "Jew's Lane" which was used to describe the areas Jewish people inhabited before being taken to concetration camps.
Statements and views like these can be perceived as part of a hostile environment. When certain actions and statements are allowed to happen without consequence, it can reinforce that the environment is not receptive to students who are different. Not only does it present a negative view of the aggregate, it makes the entire environment appear just as responsible. For Caleb, I think dealing with misconceptions and attacks on his religion would cause him to withdraw or seek out others who he feels can relate to his experiences. What other choice would he have when he is put in a position of powerlessness? No person would allow themselves to be degraded and disrespected if it was within their power to change the situation.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the language used by a population on a campus, more specifically the population with the strongest press, can set the tone for how outsiders perceive the institution. The more differentiate the population of an institution is, the harder it is for those outside of that circle to find acceptance without conforming. No person on a college campus should be made to feel so alienated that they cannot express who they are for fear of ridicule and judgment. it is the responsibility of the institution to create a sense of safety and inclusion for all of its students despite their differences. The acceptance of behavior that that is abusive to any population needs to be addressed in order to create such an environment.
Applying this to Caleb's experience, I can understand why people become offended when a person uses something about you to describe an intangible concept. For example, there are times when the word Jewish is used to describe someone who is perceived as being frugal. Why not just call the person cheap? This reminds me of when I hear people use the term "ghetto" to describe something that does not work properly, looks old, or something of the like, without even knowing the root of the word. Calling something "ghetto" or "hood" is often associated with aspects of the Black community. However, ghettoes had their origin in the German word Judengasse, or "Jew's Lane" which was used to describe the areas Jewish people inhabited before being taken to concetration camps.
Statements and views like these can be perceived as part of a hostile environment. When certain actions and statements are allowed to happen without consequence, it can reinforce that the environment is not receptive to students who are different. Not only does it present a negative view of the aggregate, it makes the entire environment appear just as responsible. For Caleb, I think dealing with misconceptions and attacks on his religion would cause him to withdraw or seek out others who he feels can relate to his experiences. What other choice would he have when he is put in a position of powerlessness? No person would allow themselves to be degraded and disrespected if it was within their power to change the situation.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the language used by a population on a campus, more specifically the population with the strongest press, can set the tone for how outsiders perceive the institution. The more differentiate the population of an institution is, the harder it is for those outside of that circle to find acceptance without conforming. No person on a college campus should be made to feel so alienated that they cannot express who they are for fear of ridicule and judgment. it is the responsibility of the institution to create a sense of safety and inclusion for all of its students despite their differences. The acceptance of behavior that that is abusive to any population needs to be addressed in order to create such an environment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)