Los Angeles Urban Immersion

What are your plans for the glorious upcoming week off in February? How about going to Los Angeles? No, not Disneyland. Instead, Pres hosts an immersion trip where six students, one teacher and Community Involvement Director Ms. McCullough will learn the dynamics of the greatest struggles LA faces every day. Homelessness, gang activity and immigration are just some of the key issues students and teachers touch on while in LA.

To apply, students had to write a short essay about their motivations, experiences and aspirations for the trip. They must also get their parent’s permission. The blessed students going on the trip this year are Brittany Ricketts (’12), Christine Tran (’12), Julia Gallo (‘13), Sarah Magana (’14), Angela Nguyen (’14) and Sana Chadd (’14).

Everyone thinks Los Angles is all about the celebrities and the glitz and glamour. After all, last year we saw Brooke Shields and David Arquette on the trip. However, Tiffanie Obilor (‘13) , Bianka Maries (‘13), Melissa Portillo (‘12), Katie Trinh (‘12), Maryam Qamar (‘11), Kennedy Chelberg (‘11), Athena Moguel (‘11), Señora Perryman and I got to see the other parts of town while working with amazing people. Just some of the many adventures we went on last year included The Museum of Tolerance, Watt’s Towers, Homegirl Cafe, the Griffith Observatory, Plaza Olvera and The Staples Center.

Katie Trinh said, “The trip was simply amazing. There were so many fun and meaningful experiences such as morning Yoga with the sisters and a karaoke night with the homeless! Through those fun activities, we got to listen to personal stories and understand more about homelessness, gangs, and poverty as we bonded with the people we met on the trip.”

The main place students will be visiting, however are Skid Row and many shelters such as the St. Francis Center and Midnight Mission. The second half of the trip is working with the Sister of Presentation in their ESL, GED, computer and citizenship classes. “I enjoyed being a part of the community and school that the Presentation Sisters in LA have established because all of the people were very welcoming and it was a really positive environment,” said Melissa Portillo.

The places you go aren’t nearly as memorable as the people you’ll meet. Not only is it nice to stay with the sisters and see how much of an impact they were making in Watts, but we also had personable conversations with immigrants who had gone through struggles and triumphs most people would not live to tell. These survivors who are there to learn English, graduate high school and become a citizen are unforgettable.

Bianka Mariles said, “I will never forget talking with two immigrants who we made dinner for at Mission Dolores. They were so grateful and kind. They told us, in Spanish, ‘You guys are angels, you’re going to heaven”.

Rosa, who had gone through the sewers to come to the United States, is another inspiring woman who amazed us all. She was helping babysit kids during the day and at night we saw her in classes at the Learning Center. She was just one of the many sweet and grateful friends of the sisters.

If you’re taking Spanish, the trip also gives good use to those skills. “It takes your Spanish out of the classroom — suddenly it matters! You can use your Spanish without anyone judging you and you feel really good about it,” said Modern Language Department Chair Señora Perryman, who also went on the trip.

Another great outcome of the trip is the bound between the students and teachers who go on the trip. Suddenly Pres girls who are older and younger than you that you meet not have known become your family for the week. During the trip, we become each other’s support system and even now when we see each other in the hall way we say “hi.”

Mr. Schmuck, the teacher going on the trip this year, is very excited for the week. “I decided to go on this trip because I had gone on the San Francisco Urban Plunge. Having lived in Los Angles, I’m interested to see another part of the area.” His only concern is not being able to sleep. Last year, we slept on the floor of a soup kitchen on the first night, so his worries are understandable. However, he is most excited about going to Homeboy Industries, a non-profit that helps former gang members get back on their feet with jobs, and meeting Father Greg Boyle, the man who start the movement.

“I’m aware of the diversity of Los Angeles and there’s probably few places in the world that has got such wealth and such poverty in the same place,” he also said. This is evident in LA because Skid Row is just a few blocks away from downtown, where no one seems to notice the thousands of people without a decent home or enough food. “People say if you want to see the future of our country go to Los Angeles- and that’s not necessarily all good.”

The trip is such a blessing for those go. You can still apply next year if you’re not a senior! Ask anyone who has been on it and they will encourage you to apply. Tiffanie Obilor said, “The LA immersion trip changed my life and I am forever grateful that I went on that trip. Go!”

Evening of Awareness

“Things are to be used and people are to be loved, but the problem in today’s world is that people are used and things are loved.”

At Evening of Awareness on January 27, I reflected on this quote while watching a fabulous presentation by senior Regina Chau about the Presentation CI trip to Zambia last summer. Seven different speakers put on presentations about trips they had gone on or programs they had participated in that made a difference in the world, which was appropriate as the evening’s theme was “the power of students to affect change.”

The evening was put on by CI and was hosted by junior Katja Kane-Foempe and seniors Anne Marie Tran and Kerynne Tejada. The night ran smoothly with seven different presenters, each representing a different trip or program that had worked to make a difference. These included the San Jose and San Francisco Urban Plunges, the trip to Zambia, the Casa de Clara program, the sophomore service trip to West Oakland/SF, the Global Women’s Issues class members talking about issues facing women around world, and the SOA trip to Georgia.

The presentations were impressive, well put together and, most of all, very thought-provoking. The night started out with a fantastic speech by Sacred Heart representative Todd Banks. He spoke of freedom fighters and how we all have the power and call to change someone’s life, if not change the world. “Tomorrow, if not today, you’re going to change the world,” he said. Banks also talked about how these programs and trips were the first steps in doing just that. These were the programs that changed people’s lives, and the trips that brought awareness to injustices in the world.

Banks also noted that social injustices can be changed with small steps. “Sometimes the answer is simple,” he said, “so listen and they’ll tell you what they need.” Sometimes it is not a large-scale food drive that is necessary, but just a loaf of bread out of your own kitchen, or a jacket out of your closet. He closed by encouraging the audience to “be the freedom fighter God has created you to be.”

After such inspiration from Banks, we split up into different classrooms to watch different presentations we had signed up for. Senior Mary Clare Bernal shared her experience in the San Francisco Urban Plunge in one of these first presentations, with an outstanding PowerPoint on the different places her group had visited. She spoke of visiting with the poor in a soup kitchen the first day, and how it changed her whole perspective on poverty and social issues such as this.

“They’re just like us,” she said, “but with different circumstances.” Her group stayed with the Presentation sisters in San Francisco and spent the trip visiting and working in many different places in San Francisco. They visited the Tenderloin Children’s playground, which is a safe place for the children of the area to hang out rather than just being on the streets, and a place called The Lantern, where they taught ESL classes. When Bernal finished her presentation, we made valentines to be sent to the children at the Tenderloin.

After a juice and cookies break, the next presentation I visited was about Zambia, which was put on by senior Regina Chau. She spoke of the incredible poverty in the areas she visited, and how impressive it was that these people still had hope. The group visited an orphanage, and she talked about how, even there, all the children were very happy with hopes for the future and were glad to see her group. They had “the biggest smiles on their faces,” she said. Even in such difficult positions, people worked hard to get by and live well.

The group visited schools that had been put together for kids whose parents had been lost to AIDS, where the whole school was run by volunteers. They had to raise their own money, and worked hard to do so. The group stayed with Presentation sisters and visited several schools, a community center, an orphanage, a hospice, and many other places during their visit.

After the second presentation, everyone returned to the theater and broke up into groups to decorate a piece of fabric for a patchwork quilt and to reflect on the real meaning of the presentations of the evening. We talked about the different presentations we had gone to and the different places or programs they had worked with, and how all of these things work to bring hope to such difficult situations. Sometimes all that is needed is a ray of hope to give someone the courage to help a situation, and all of us have the power to bring about that ray of hope.