Difference, January part 2

Round 2...

Christmastime in New Orleans
by James McDermott

On the outside, it probably looked as though we were just painting, just scraping rust, just installing drywall, or just gutting the inside of a house. However, I found a much deeper meaning to carrying out these works of service in New Orleans. In fact, what our group really accomplished was that we helped a woman’s house look nice again, brought hope to another man who had lost everything, and brought joy to a family that otherwise had little to be joyful about. This is a realization that I had not fully grasped until I had a conversation with my fellow UD friends, a religious Sister, and students from universities in New York and Kansas, who were all visiting New Orleans for service. One of the most important lessons I learned was that we really did much more than just physical labor; we made a huge impact on the lives of others, people we don’t even know. This aspect of the New Orleans experience was the most rewarding, and it really stuck with me.
During our stay in New Orleans, we resided at the now-closed Marian Central Catholic Junior High School, a place where one could see the remnants of a waterline on the walls and windows where the floodwaters had once peaked at about 8-9 feet. Personally, this sent chills down my spine. Our “home base” for the beginning of each day of service started at the also-closed St. Raymond Catholic School, not far from Marian Central Catholic. Inside of what used to be classrooms were ladders, brooms, caulking guns, shovels, paint, screwdrivers, buckets, power saws, and other work supplies.
When some of my fellow UD students and I explored the second floor of St. Raymond’s, what we found was basically everything the school could manage to cram up there just before Hurricane Katrina struck. Classrooms were jam-packed with desks, books, photo albums, religious statues, and other school supplies. After noticing the date of August 29, 2005 written on one of the chalkboards, and seeing an “August 2005” calendar in a student’s locker, I became deeply saddened. I tried to imagine the school as a once thriving place where students could go to learn and have fun. But now its classrooms are supply rooms, and there are no little kids around any more. Being an education major, this is the last thing I would ever want to see.
In all of this trouble, I feel our group accomplished a great amount. We witnessed acts of faith, hope, and love many times from many people over the course of the trip. The locals driving past our worksites would honk their horns as their way of recognizing and thanking us for our work. At our end-of-the-day trips to Walgreens, wearing our dirt and paint-covered work clothes, people would randomly stop us and say “thank you” because they could tell we were volunteers. One of the most breathtaking moments occurred on our first day in New Orleans when the priest at St. Leo’s Catholic Church acknowledged us during mass. When he asked us where we were from, I responded “We’re from the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio.” Immediately the entire congregation burst into a thunderous applause that I will never forget. At that moment I truly felt welcome to New Orleans.
Throughout the entire journey, I could see how the faith and perseverance of the citizens of New Orleans was tested through all of the flooding and destruction. Many of these people have moved on to new lives in new cities. Some have returned, willing to try to build back up what once was. New Orleans is a beautiful city, a place I plan on returning to for more service soon in my life. By noticing how grateful many people were, I understand how grateful I would be if others came to my rescue in a time of need. I strongly encourage everyone to explore service possibilities and BreakOut trips. I felt that I accomplished so much more during my time off, and was blessed to have these chances to meet wonderful people and serve others. The joy of helping others has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my college life. I believe fulfilling the call to service is a direct outreach of faith. Ultimately I could see resilience and hope for New Orleans when I read a chalkboard in another St. Raymond’s classroom that said, “August 26, 2005: Today is Friday. The weather is warm. The sun is shining. God is good.”

Activist Interview – Clare Zlatic

1. How did you become active in social justice?

I was real active in high school as the president of Community Outreach, and I spent my freshman year exploring the new freedom and opportunities. My brothers had gone to UD, but I was excited to pave my own way. Freshman retreats were a part of that, and they helped me to discern the importance of faith and social action in my collegiate life. Then, the Center for Social Concern’s former director of Community Outreach, Selena Hilemon, reached out to me at the end of the year and asked me to become the leader of P.A.G.E.S (). I accepted and became very involved with prison ministry, and my involvement has evolved from there, as I have transitioned the organization’s leadership and taken on a mentorship role while becoming active with the United Way.

2. Why do you think service and student involvement clubs and organizations are important to the UD community?

Service experiences show you the needs that persist as challenges for us as servant-leaders. Prison ministry opened my eyes to the lack of social services for inmates and its impact on rehabilitation. I was nervous and anxious to meet the Montgomery County prison chaplain who I worked with, but through this experience I developed confidence in myself and formed relationships with inmates as more than criminals. They are people with hopes, dreams, and needs that are often ignored and neglected. Seeing that and connecting with them also helps me to be open in every aspect of life.

3. What on-campus event are you looking forward to the most this year and why?

I would say Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. It is an event that helps us reflect on the progress made on race relations, but also provides an opportunity to examine what is being and still must be done to bring people together despite our differences. That weekend we promote unity and focus on the common ground upon which we all stand.

4. What can we do to get more students involved in community service?

The job of student-leaders, the Center for Social Concern, and the administration is to promote awareness of issues within social justice, and to spread the word that there is a service activity or club for everyone. Whatever their interests and no matter their schedule, there is an opportunity for each member of the UD community to serve.

5. What is one way that you think the UD community can improve in its living out of the Marianist charism and "Learn, Lead, and Serve" motto?

We need to emphasize learning first. To serve effectively, we must know who we are serving, how we will lead an effort to help, and why the problem occurs. This does not only include academic learning, as practical knowledge of societal problems is also needed. We need to make sure that our servant-leaders are educated and informed in their topic, and better integrate learning and awareness into well-attended events. It is not acceptable for awareness weeks to be poorly attended while action-oriented events draw crowds but could do more to enhance understanding.

The New Face of HIV
by Tyler Andrew TerMeer

I think that at some point in each of our lives we make the realization that we aren’t as invincible as we once had thought in our youth. This is a hard realization to make, but a barrier that must be broken at some point in our journey to adulthood. For some it takes years to discover, for others it’s within the blink of an eye. I’ve lived for 25 years without knowing a world devoid of HIV for even a moment of that time, even though I wasn’t aware of its reality until my diagnosis almost four years ago.

I come from “The New Face of HIV.”

Today's young people are the “AIDS Generation.” While millions have died, the HIV/AIDS epidemic among young people remains largely invisible to adults and to young people themselves. As part of “The New Face of HIV,” I am fortunate to be living in a time in this epidemic where my diagnosis was not given to me as a death sentence, but as a new reality and a new responsibility to manage the HIV Virus in my life. I come from the “AIDS Generation,” a generation that doesn’t remember the realities of the early days of the epidemic where Gay Activists and Hemophiliacs fought together for their rights and for their lives. This new generation lives in a different world that is silent about the Virus. HIV is a vocabulary word in their Health course if they are lucky enough to be taught about sexually transmitted diseases and their realities. To many, HIV is not something that is happening within their communities and could never impact their world.

I was diagnosed HIV-positive at the age of 21 and since that time have begun to immerse myself into the epidemic. I considered myself an educated person, I went to a nice school, and was on track to graduate with my college degree, but why was I so blinded to the realities of this epidemic? Where was society? Who was to be held accountable for my lack of knowledge surrounding HIV/AIDS?

I quickly became pro-active and began my research. I was utterly shocked at how much I had not been taught about this disease, but even more terrified of the stigma I began to encounter as I spoke passionately about what I was learning amongst my friends.

Of the over 60 million people who have been infected with HIV in the past 20 years, about half became infected between the ages of 15 and 24. Today, nearly 12 million young people are living with HIV/AIDS. Young women are several times more likely than young men to be infected with HIV. Such statistics underscore the urgent need to address HIV/AIDS among young people.

I believe that stopping HIV/AIDS requires comprehensive strategies that focus on young adults. With half of new infection being amongst my peers, those of us under the age of 25, I’m deeply concerned about the future of this epidemic. I have great respect for the early years of this disease and those who have fought so hard, but the time has come to grasp the reality that time has passed and we are facing a whole new generation of this pandemic. With this development has come the emergence of a generation gap in the HIV/AIDS community. The long-time survivors are living with the belief that they were infected in a time where they had no warning, no education or knowledge of this disease, and that the youth of today should have known the reality of the epidemic. This gap must be bridged so that we speak with one voice to empower other young HIV-positive persons.

For the last three years I have been working as the Director of Programming at the Ohio AIDS Coalition, a non-profit organization providing education, leadership training, advocacy, and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. I feel that the work we do and the lives we impact only empowers me more to travel around the state as well as nationally to share my own experiences of living with HIV as a young adult and to address the stigma, treatment, and barriers that are often associated with HIV/AIDS.

I come from “The New Face of HIV,” and I feel by using my voice and personal story with HIV to educate and to advocate I am able to bring a “Social Vaccine” to Ohio communities. My fear is that down the road our children or grandchildren will be sitting in their history classes reading that small paragraph about what was once the Great AIDS Epidemic and they will be ashamed of how long it took us to stop it in its tracks. Growing up we hear that” knowledge is power,” but I believe that knowledge is only that, unless we take action with what we have learned. We have had the power to stop this Epidemic for many years and that is the power of education, prevention, and access to care and treatment for ALL those who need it.

Now is the time to act. Now you have the knowledge. Now, I ask, what are we going to do with it?