Hello dearest readers! After a significant hiatus from Blessings Blogging, I wanted to finally update you all in the midst of a few transitions. Long story short, in the last four days I...
... wrapped up three jobs in Northfield...
... set up my first art exhibit with some of my travel photography (if you're interested, head to the Northfield Arts Guild before mid-October!)...
... attempted to say "Goodbye for now and I'll see you sometime" to everyone who touched my life there...
... moved everything out of the room I was renting...
... moved everything to my parentals' home in suburbia to pack for my next year in Tucson...
... sorted/packed most of my belongings not coming for my service year and moved them to storage...
... said "Goodbye for now and I'll see you sometime" to my family...
... and hopped on a plane for the next adventure.

I have been so blessed by so many opportunities to learn and create relationships in Northfield, and I'm so thankful to have gotten to spend more time with current Carls as well as meet and work with so many wonderful students, mentors, and community partners. My time in Northfield was truly the perfect place to be for this second half of my gap year, and working with many Latino students and families helped me prepare for my upcoming year! This is where the leaving is difficult, though. I leave with the knowledge though that the reason is hard is that I invested my time and heart to the fullest extent, and that so many hearts and minds opened to me as well. I will dearly miss my core Zumba crews at each place I taught, my Carleton professor with whom I had been working since sophomore year, and above all my TORCH team who have inspired me, put up with all my questions, taken me under their wings, and let me fly.

I am also thankful for another thing that made my Northfield experience even more fulfilling - a new companion to process, ponder, and love life with. Reflecting on the little things and living life in the present drew me to quality time with him over reflecting through this blog, so I do apologize to my readers. I hope you understand that processing comes in waves and in different forms, and writing is something that goes in waves, especially as I default to one-on-one quality time with other human beings. I hope you have found ways to reflecta and fulfilled wherever you are and with whom you are as well!

As for other things I'm thankful for... I'm thankful to have been a guest at the long-awaited first lesbian wedding at my amazing home church! "Same Love" and "At Last" were the perfect music to affirm the love of this couple who has been waiting for this moment with their darling daughters for years!

I'm thankful for the wonderful blessings my home church gave me with a formal sendoff during Sunday's service with a laying on of hands and an outpouring of prayers, blessings, and love for my journey. This following a children's sermon about hands as tools to bless others with how you use them to touch and love and work, as well as the main sermon message deeper on the same topic and connecting with the Spirit. My two favorite quotes were: "It's one of the great paradoxes, that the more you let go of yourself and your desires, the more you find yourself," and "Whether you believe it or not, whether you want to believe it or not, the work you do with your hands is the presence of the Holy Spirit to another." I so strongly believe that. Even if you don't believe in a higher power or the Spirit or think what you believe in looks different than what someone else does, if you put good out into the world, that is the best you can do and hope that someone else will receive it as good. You may never know how you touch another soul, but you may as well try. My church community has poured so much soul into me, but I also had to intentionally open my heart to receive it. I was both shy and cynical for many years about faith and religion, but I'm so thankful that now I can see what a truly special, loving, creative, justice-driven community this is, and it is instilling the values of peace and justice for all in all it does. I hope I can be living proof of that investment.

I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to say goodbye to the house I grew up in, and for all my parents' help getting all the rest of my earthly possessions ready and into storage. And I'm thankful my parents have found their ideal place to downsize too, even if it's making their/our lives a little bit more hectic for the time-being.

I'm thankful to have gotten to thin down my key ring a little bit as I devolved my car key to my parents and their house key to probably never be used again. Wow.

I'm so thankful that I got to say goodbye to my family in transition - my momma at home, my dad as he brought me to work with him, and then I got to have one last breakfast date with my new amor before he drove me to the airport. Hasta pronto.

I'm thankful that despite how hard the leaving is, I can take heart that I know what is waiting on the other side is the right next step in my journey. I am to be a YAV (Young Adult Volunteer) and serve in Tucson, Arizona with BorderLinks on immigration justice issues!

And I'm so thankful for all the well-wishes from near and far for my year of service. At church I was invited to join a bluegrass group in Tucson with a couple who winters down there, hugged and kissed, and reminded to "keep us in your pocket." Another reminder was that "It's going to get hard. It will be wonderful and you will be wonderful but life is hard. But we can't do it alone, so know you can always draw on us whenever you need to."

And while I'm so amazed and overwhelmed with gratitude by the messages of support I've received from so many people, I think the most important message for me to hear was from someone dear to my heart who happens to be from Mexico and have a much closer relationship with immigration justice issues: "People like me need people like you to educate others like you." That hit me so clearly because as important as it is for groups who are in a racial/ethnic/cultural/gender/ideological/religious/political/etc. minority to advocate for themselves and their history and their rights and their dignity as fellow human beings, those of us who come from places of privilege also have a responsibility to learn from, better understand, and advocate for their human dignity as well. We need to make those connections and work in solidarity. It's tough, but we have to try.

And as I left for our program's week-long orientation in Stony Point, NY before we fly out to our sites, I received this message from my new site coordinator in Tucson:

"Happy 1st day as YAVs!
travel well.
Be blessed,
be a blessing to others."

I'll try my best, and may you be a blessing to others as well. Thank you to all who have supported me, believed in me, and invested in me. I hope to work with sacrificial love each and every day in the Tucson community, finding myself by letting go of my desires and serving others to hopefully make their days a little bit brighter.

With that, dear Blessing Blog readers, I do not know how often I will be updating this blog for the next year, if at all, because I will be reflecting on my year of YAV service mainly on my travel blog. So find me at kemstravels.blogspot.com, and may you be light and love to others!

Peace,
Kathryn

Today I want to focus on amazement.

I'm amazed at my energy throughout today given the fact that I went to bed just before the sun arose. I guess quality time is an energizer!

I'm amazed by how a red-winged blackbird, decidedly one of my favorite creatures, decided to race me for a spell while I was on my bike heading in the same direction.

I'm amazed by the good press the programs I have had the good fortune to work with are getting - I in no way expected or need to be featured so much (especially since I'm not the brains behind this operation - I'm just on the forefront as the site coordinator!), but here's a local article about the brand-new summer lunch program run through the Community Action Center: New Northfield program offering free lunches to kids throughout summer months The reporter had apparently seen a poster and come over to my site to check it out - hopefully more families hear about this program through this healthy publicity too! Even if it has been somewhat of a struggle sometimes to communicate to a few of my volunteers the necessity of this program (especially when they say "Well, I don't believe in government handouts" as one elderly woman did...), I firmly do believe in the importance of providing fresh nutrition to kids who may not get it at home. It is not a child's fault if their family cannot afford nutritious food for them, even if they work all the time. This is an investment in our youth so they can play better, run around better, focus better, think better, and transition back to school in the fall better so they can direct their energies constructively and dream rather than worrying about the empty feeling in their stomach or where their next meal is going to come from.

And speaking of dreaming, I'm still amazed immigration reform is actually looking like it's going to happen! And that a DREAM Act will be a part of it! The Senate has recently passed their version, and I'm thankful I had the time in the afternoons this week to make calls to my senators about certain provisions (see http://www.interfaithimmigration.org/ if you'd like to get more clued in on the action and learn more about what people of faith and conscience are advocating for in teh fight for just immigration reform). They heard from me about including the DREAM Act and extending it to the youngest DREAMers, and they heard from me to not pass the "border surge" amendment, which will further militarize the border, force immigrants to take on even riskier journeys, and cause even more turmoil in the borderlands. I'm disheartened that the "border surge" did pass, but I'm grateful the Senate does want to prioritize immigrant children's value in society and invest in their educational path for their dreams, as well as work towards supporting the "American Dream" for all undocumented who make this society richer and call this land their home.


And I'm amazed by the shout-out to the TORCH program by Senator Franken on the Senate floor! How cool is that! Senator Franken's Statement on Immigration Reform. Keep your eyes peeled for immigration reform updates with the House - could get interesting!

Today I'm thankful for having gotten to spend some good time with my parents lately - it worked out so perfectly to drive up to the Cities for folk group practice to sing with my papa on his birthday, to be followed by my baked birthday present and basement ping-pong.

I'm thankful to have money for gas to make a couple trips up to the Cities recently, which has been rare in the past, but I got to get to know one of my new housemates a little better by driving her to the airport on Friday afternoon, and I was also able to pop up to the Cities on Saturday, mainly for a chill folk group gig at night and then other adventures got added in to the first half of the day.

I'm thankful for intentionally meeting up with one of my fellow Carleton alums and randomly running into a couple other alums at the ILCM's (Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota) Citizenship Day event. It was great to catch up and spend that time watching a naturalization ceremony of over 50 people from 38 different countries with my friend who is a son of naturalized immigrants himself. I'm thankful for the free lunch and the choices of Venezuelan or Jamaican - chicken-avocado arepas all the way! And I'm thankful for the chance to hear Keith Ellison speak on the importance of individual duty as citizens to contribute to our communities and to our political system so that the system serves the people. He also affirmed how vital immigrants are to this land, making our society stronger. and the presiding judge also gave great remarks following the oath in which these new citizens of the U.S. renounced allegiance to their prior countries, emphasizing how that does not mean they must renounce everything from their homeland, but share their customs and culture with the rest of us so we all learn from each other. It was an important reminder for the rest of us who were naturalized citizens or born as such - a reminder of our privilege, as well as our responsibility to work for our communities and to leave this world better in our wake. 

I'm thankful that I had the rest of the afternoon free to meet my dad and go to Pride in Minneapolis to celebrate love. I try to be a straight ally the best I can, and I'm so thankful my parents are in the same boat.

And I'm thankful for late-night silly dancing, conversation, and stargazing. Nothing like soaking up the summer. My only request is that mosquitoes lay off of soaking up my blood a little bit. I kind of need that to live, but I'll survive, thank goodness.

Today I'm thankful to have been part of the TORCH visioning conversation for next year, as the program continues to expand and try to serve more students, while continuing to serve them well. I'm so thankful to have been able to learn from so many people in that room and all of the factors they are taking into account in consideration of how to best serve their students, from transportation to ACT prep, from college visits to financial aid, from tutoring to academic advising. And the conversation of how to get families in the loop and on board with TORCH services, as well as the basic goal of advocating for their children and being proponents of education, is so crucial, especially as many of these families are working hard to provide more opportunities for their kids. The hard part is when their hard work means they are not as present in their childrens' lives to be well-informed and invested in the day-to-day of constructive time and education for the future. One step at a time.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to be considered an artist for the Summer PLUS program that functions as a free summer camp with academic enrichment through the school district. It has been fun to be on the coordination end of recruiting artists to think of fun, low-budget art projects to do with these K-8th graders, many of whom are from low-income families and may have less exposure to art. One art teacher is working with a group to create a new design to paint a Northfield snowplow. I conscripted one of my friends to some really amazing and accessible photography projects, especially within that discipline that has so many intricacies and practices beyond the scope of your average kid picking up a digital camera or smartphone. And today I got to be one of the twelve artists that we were able to recruit through our new grant and co-teach a little Latin dance to a group of about 20 middle-schoolers! While we expected a couple more site assistants to help manage extraneous behavior so we could just focus on teaching, we tried to go with the flow to at least teach some basic rumba and cha and encourage them to get over the weirdness of, um, touching each other. Awkward. Middle school is awkward for everyone, it just is, but we tried our best to teach the kids how to have leads and follows learn decent frame to respect each other that way too. They were a squirrely crew, but I'm grateful for this opportunity to be silly with some middle schoolers and impart some of my dance love to them.

And I'm so thankful for having gotten to spend an afternoon/evening with three amazing high schoolers as I chauffeured them to take the CLEP (College Level Examination Program - had to look that acronym up!) test in their native tongue so they could put in an hour and a half of their time and test out of four semesters of college-level Spanish. Even though things didn't really go as planned (other than them rocking the test), and our evening stretched way longer than we had expected, I'm so thankful for their patience and that they did not have anything in particular to get home for. I'm thankful to have gotten to talk with them about college, life, God (for the record, I did not bring that one up, one of the students volunteered that he had been not been heading down a good path, but "God found [him]" and now he's learning more about ministry!), and US-Latin America politics. What a cool crew. Thanks God!

After a long and exhausting day, it's time to bake some Reese's surprise cupcakes - surprise in the sense that there's peanut butter snuck into the centers and also in the sense that my dad doesn't know they're coming for his birthday tomorrow!

Buenas noches, until tomorrow. 

Tonight I'm thankful to have run into one of my students when I was flyering his neighborhood about the new summer lunch program I've been working with. He's such a sweetheart, it was good to see him in his element as opposed to how uncomfortable he seems to feel in school, and he was so helpful with advice on how to best reach out to his community.

I'm thankful for how patient my full Zumba class was when my conversation with my student made me late (and my bike clock being 15 minutes slow didn't help either), oops! But I ran into the class already sweating, and I think they seemed to enjoy how we all got a sweat going together!

I'm thankful for a great conversation over dinner with three fellow Carleton alums, two who came down from the Cities that I had not seen for a year, about the future of our education system and their part in it. I'm so thankful for their hearts for education and how they want to reach youth that way, even though the districts they have been working in and the education system itself still present challenges to the ways in which we do serve our youth.

I'm thankful for a roommate baking date.

And I'm thankful for great conversations on the porch, getting to know someone new, and relishing the new summer breeze. Ahhhhhhhh.

Today I'm thankful for my opportunities to practice my español with the Latino communities I am working with. I'm thankful to be able to surround myself with Mexican accents that will help me prepare better for my upcoming year on the Tucson-Mexico border than my still-amazing adventures to Spain, Nicaragua, and Cuba have. I'm thankful to try to overcome language barriers to be a better advocate and hear the stories of those who have made arduous journeys to Northfield, Minnesota, where they are oftentimes still in the shadows.

I'm thankful to have met an aunt who brought her nieces and nephews to my summer lunch program (and their chihuahua Taco!), and to have been someone she could open up to about how she was just one of the thousands who have crossed the border to Arizona and walked through the desert for days. She met her sisters here while her own children are still back in Mexico struggling for pesos. She, heartbroken for them, makes her living here by housework and taking care of others' children (and Taco!).

I'm thankful to have met a father who seems newer to this community, admits learning English is hard, and was pleasantly surprised by my attempts to speak Spanish with him, asking where I learned it. "High school, and there's still so much vocabulary I don't know!" But it was so nice to be able to let my volunteers fend for themselves and entrust them to keep things running smoothly so I could talk with this new father and the two adorable girls he brought with him. I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to explain the TORCH program that these girls may be in when middle school rolls around and make jokes about nail polish and trains with a four-year-old who cannot yet roll her "r"s. 

I'm also thankful for salsa dancing, lime, cilantro, and spices that make this Minnesota white girl sweat... 

... for new roommate bonding over rolled-up cuisine, aka crepes one day and enchiladas the next....

...for old roommate and other close Carleton friend re-bonding over the phone...

...for old high school friend revitalization with a weekend of good times with her family, volunteering with her family friends, and registering (for free!) to be on the bone marrow donor registry to possibly save a life someday...

...and I'm thankful for warm summer days and crisp summer nights. If the weather would make up its mind, that would be even more ideal. But for now, I am thankful for Spanish and for summer.

Buenas noches!

Tonight I'm thankful for how the day was redeemed after it felt like nothing was going my way. Volunteers I had tried to recruit for the other summer lunch program site didn't show up as promised, leaving our other site coordinator scrambling. My volunteers at my site were awesome, but patience for a couple of them was a more difficult task, and as we are still ironing out the kinks with this brand-new program, timing was a little thrown off today with the food service driver coming back to collect the coolers before the end of our service time when we could actually empty them, putting him on hold for a few and making us get creative with our time to get the extra food into our monitor's car to go back to the food shelf... only to have miscommunications and miss one tub of food that needed to go with her, having her do an extra loop after the round to the food shelf and the other site... A couple of people who have made various commitments to serve the youth I'm working with in various capacities had to cancel today, and running errands for an artist to work with some of our youth has yet to prove fruitful, but it's on its way.

I never feel like I have "good days" and "bad days" - just taking things in stride, but it seriously felt like a buildup of one thing after another for a while, and I'm thankful to have had the time to breathe and step away from things for a second, recollect myself, and discern what could be dealt with tomorrow with a fresh heart. I know that the human part of me gets frustrated when others make commitments to either me or others I am working with and want the best for, and I am working on adapting. I know conceptually that they too are human and things come up, and it is up to us to flow and change course, and I must recognize what has gone well today.

Even though some of my artist's supplies errands have not yet panned out, I am thankful for how it has been unbelievably easy to work with the Sketchy Artist store to arrange the supplies that I can get through them. I'm thankful to have been invited to take the place of one of my supervisors at the WINGS dinner since he was not able to go, and in his place, I had the opportunity to thank these Women In Northfield Giving Support for supporting the brand-new Youth IDA program that I have had the privilege to work with to provide financial literacy training and support enrolled low-income youth with special bank accounts designated only for saving money for post-secondary education. It was pretty amazing to get a snapshot of all the initiatives and programs this foundation is supporting in the Northfield community and how they are investing in providing more opportunities for particularly women and children in both systemic ways and in terms basic needs. And I'm thankful for the time to just be a little silly on the phone with my Carleton freshman- and senior-year roomie while we both multi-tasked, listening to each other's stories and reflections on how we've grown with the occasional extraneous sound effects as she made dinner on her time in the West Coast and I finally unpacked more of my new room in my summer housing, with time to tease her about boys and wall space to put up more of my collection of artwork from my own hands (and camera) and from artists around the world. Ahhh, and finally to sit down.

The song on my heart tonight: Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social Club. I love exchanging especially Latin music with people who are more in tune with the Latin scene and history than I am. After I returned from Cuba, my parents discovered they had a Buena Vista Social Club cd in their collection that they then passed onto me, after I had heard live bands cover their songs! I'm thankful for a new friend who has expanded my Latin music education recently, and I look forward to more music exchanges, but for now, this song has been running through my head the last few days. Enjoy this gem from a classic Cuban band!

Today I'm thankful for multi-tasking while watching an incredible NBA playoffs game last night, after one of my beautiful Carleton roommates called me to update me on a couple things going on in her life and make me tear up from her saying how blessed she was by the songs I sent her. Just trying to let God work through me, and I'm thankful for her friendship even if we flow in and out of staying in touch!

 

I'm thankful for a really adorable Zumba class that I got to sub for at the Senior Center - two had never Zumba-ed before, and one of them was this sweetheart from Peru that started talking a mile a minute once she learned I could speak a little castellano, as she said. 

And after a solid workday that ended around 1, I'm thankful for the flexibility to do work-related things but pursue errands and also just be outside! Best discovery of the day: the wifi at my house works outside so I can work on a picnic blanket. Thank you, Minnesota summer, "I'm glad you came."

 

Oh, and tonight, I had my first dinner date in a long time with my fellow alum-bum as we reflected on our past year around Northfield and thoughts on God and entrusting our future to God over curry. And full of spice, I got to transition to a night of Latin dancing and good conversation with a new friend. What a summer this is shaping up to be!

Put yourself in their shoes.

Upworthy - Refugees

Father's Day

Today I am thankful for having the opportunity to congratulate the Carleton Class of 2013 on their graduation this weekend! I have been so blessed to have gotten to spend more time with them and see them shine in their senior year, and I wish them all the best. Notes distributed (that were perhaps partially written during the graduation ceremony... Let's be honest, multi-tasking as Carleton's second PhD honoree moved through poem part 5 out of 8 was a good call...), snacks consumed, memories shared, hugs given, well-wishes exchanged. I'm thankful that a few of my Class of 2012 were able to come back for the ceremony and time with these grads as well, and it was wonderful to see them and especially hang out with one of my beloved housemates again to speak of life updates and recent revelations. I'm thankful to have been once again inspired by the potential Carleton has instilled in its graduates, and I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to have pursued my undergrad education there to be prepared with as much knowledge, analytical skill, flexibility of thought, drive, and compassion as I can muster. Thank you, Carleton, and peace, love, and strength to the next crop of amazing graduates!

And on Father's Day, I'm so thankful for my dad, and I also want to thank all the parents out there who are making strong commitments to their children, whether they be "nuclear families," same-sex couples, single parents, or however your family looks. Some families have more struggles than others, some feel pain/anger/remorse today, and I am amazed by the resilience of single parents who take on the world and kids who try despite less-than-ideal home life. May we all try to encourage our communities to invest in our kids so that they all have a beautiful father and mother figure in their life, no matter who that may be. Maybe you've been lucky to have several! My church community has been filled with adults who have been my village, but I am so lucky to have a dad that I can talk about anything with or spend any amount of time with, even if we're not really doing anything at all (which really means we should be playing ping-pong). He is the most kind, caring, hardworking, humble, and selfless person I know, and even though he still jokingly tells others "I want to be like her when I grow up!," I'm dearly hope I'm even one bit like him.

I'm thankful my dad has been around. I'm thankful for his commitment to raising, loving, and supporting me, and I am also thankful that my dad and I have had the privilege of being born in this country. I am thankful that he has had great support from his family, has been able to pursue higher education, and has been able to pursue a career that he is interested in and can use to make a living to support and sustain his family. I am beyond grateful that he did not have to flee violence or economic hardship in their place of birth, and that I do not have to live in fear of him being deported for making this country his home despite lack of legal approval to reside here. This is a story not often told in our society today, but it is the reality that 12 million undocumented people could have or have had a brother, father, sister, mother, other relative, or friend deported. My dad contributes to his community, just as many immigrants do, and today, there is a movement to call on our legislators to fix our immigration system and stop families from being torn apart; to stop hardworking dads who love and provide for their families from being deported after sacrificing so much for more opportunities here. I am sure many are reflecting on what their fathers have meant to them today would encourage you to take a few minutes to read these stories and advocate for just immigration reform so that families can remain united and pursue their dreams in this country that they call home: http://dontdeportmydad.org/

Blessings.

Tonight I'm thankful for how I have been able to put Matthew 25:35 into practice, "...For I was a stranger and you welcomed me in." This text was the centerpiece of last weekend's Tucson Sunday service (check out this post if you're confused: Tucson Sunday), and this week, one of my friends was in need of emergency housing and a few hugs. We honestly did not know each other very well before, but through these couple of days, I am so thankful to have had a spare bed, time to just talk and be, as well as plenty of storage space (and flexible housemates!) to have been able to take her in in her time of need.

I gained a roommate for a couple days, but I gained a friendship that will hopefully last much longer! She has an amazing heart, and I'm so grateful she in turn let me conscript her and her car to move all of my things to my new summer housing! I'm not great at letting people help me, which is my own attempt at self-reliance and not wanting to take advantage of others, but I need to walk the line between pridefulness and humility in letting others help me in my time of need too, even in something like packing and moving! I am so thankful to have gained a soul sister out of this experience, and I am also thankful to have seen her start processing, and through that processing, humbly reach out to others, many of whom have responded with grace and love as well. Kind of amazing the lives she's already touched and all of the kind souls out there who jumped to offer her what they could in the way of ears, counsel, basic needs, and shelter.

I'm so grateful for all the conversations about silly things or real things like religion, love, boys, education, owls, dependency, foodiness, family, artsyness, etc., and I'm looking forward to cultivating this friendship over health-nut (but tasty) food!

Currently I am distraught, frustrated, disappointed... which doesn't happen very often to me, except for when I feel I have let others down. An incident happened at work today that many would think nothing of, but it left me speechless and unsettled and I just keep returning to it. I have been coordinating volunteers to help with Northfield's brand-new summer lunch program for youth ages 1-18, and our main pool of volunteers is through faith communities, and we are also trying to involve the populations we are serving so we can work in solidarity to serve these youth. I am grateful for those who have a couple hours of their day that they want to put to use serving youth in this way, but part it is tough to broach the subject of privilege to do service work and volunteering. This is something that I think about often and still do not have the satisfactory words all of the time. Workin' on it.

Anyways, that's some context. Before we started serving lunch, one of the volunteers asked me politely what my plan for after my AmeriCorps service is, and I said I will be doing another service year program in Tucson to work more with Latino communities and justice for migrants from Latin America. He, well-intentioned, brought up how he and his wife had spent a winter in Green Valley, but then in response to my mention of working with migrants made some quip about how people joke around there about driving by ditches and "Oh you might see a migrant pop out of one!" And further, he made some comment about how there are "some of them" (continuing to use the term "migrant" in a derogatory sense" around here, which just let me speechless and sick to my stomach. A Mexican-American sister and brother were sitting maybe fifteen feet (and I dearly hope not within earshot from where this older white male was so callously talking about a group of people that could very well have included their family. Yes, some human beings have to resort to sneaking across an arbitrary border, giving away their life savings to a coyote who may or may not transport them to safety in this country, and figure things out from there. A "migrant sneaking through a ditch" in Green Valley is a person who, most likely, will have to walk for days in the desert, and evade thirst, cacti, rattlers, death, and the Border Patrol to first seek shelter and then economic sustainability.

And the question that is on repeat in my mind is how can I purport to be an advocate for the dignity of those who have fled their homeland for this one in times of hardship? How can I work to defend the honor and sacrifice of those children's parents who I do not know personally and do not want to make any assumptions about their story, when I can't even respond to a white male's attempt at humor by communicating my shock/hurt or attempting to talk about awareness and sensitivity, especially about "the other" in his own community? "The other" that he is serving?

I know that my natural reaction to conflict and confrontation is to run the other way, to let it roll off, or try to smooth things out and find a peaceable solution between people. I'd like to think I've made some progress in the vein of trying to open up conversations with my students when they call each other names or refer to others using derogatory stereotypes, and especially try to help them think about why they use such words so they can be more intentional about their language in general. I spend so much time choosing my words, which is part of the reason why I prefer the communication medium of writing rather than speaking - writing allows me the time to craft the message I want to convey. But when put on the spot, an educational conversation needs to happen! And in this instance it just didn't, and I will still be unsettled and disappointed in myself for a little while, so this is my prayer for the meantime.


Dear God,

My prayer tonight is for strength, love, and confidence to practice courageous conversations. May your Spirit fill me with the energy needed to always be on my toes and to not be caught off-guard, but rather to be prepared to respond with grace and the right questions to guide an open and educational conversation.

May you prepare all our hearts to speak with love and be filled with the right words to advocate for justice when we are called.

In the name of the One who stood up for the beggars, invited the outcasts into his home, and threw over the tables of injustice as the Spirit called him to do.


On other happier notes, it was awesome to spend some time with my former boss with Witness for Peace and start juggling a number of social justicey-projects (including button-making with a collective of past and present interns!), and it was so good to see three of my best high school girlfriends (this term always sounds weird for me, they were all friends who happened to be female and what one of my guy friends would call "friend girls" - maybe I'll just use that! inner dialogue aside...) for a nice walk around a lake, swatting mosquitos and swapping stories until one had to take off and the other two and I ended up doing something so rebellious on a Thursday night - we went out to a movie that didn't get us home until about 1am! Woah. But having not indulged in a movie in theaters in ages, and that being the fun time of choice with my high school friend crew, I'm so grateful all the pieces fell perfectly into place for Iron Man 3, to stay awake through the entire thing (something we might not do at work the next day...), and share more friend-time while we were all in the same place. I'm thankful to maintain these relationships after so many years, and wherever we end up and however little we keep in touch, whenever we end up in the same place, may our paths cross!

Somehow, Carleton kids leaving Northfield has snuck up on me! Today was the last day of finals, which means underclassmen have been leaving for a couple days, and most will clear out tomorrow morning at the latest, so some hugs have been in store! I'm thankful to have had opportunities for meal dates and hug dates the past couple days so I could give well-wishes to those who have touched my life. I'm thankful for a few more days to spend with my senior friends and those sticking around for senior week though, and I was especially blessed tonight by a semi-impromptu friend get-together at my house for probably the last time (before I move into different summer housing) - we had to use the "party room" (as my landlord calls it) for laptag and other silly games! What a fantastic mix of classy mixology, intense battle of wits and will in Scattergories, strength and reflexes in laptag (and potential rugburns), and conversations and contemplations on top of my house.

What started running through my head after everyone took off was, appropriately, "Your glory fills the sky, a great and holy light, shining like a million stars, I'm amazed by who you are." I'm thankful to have seen the million stars tonight and to revel in their beauty on a rural rooftop. Thanks friends.

Tucson Sunday

I'm so thankful and blessed to be a part of this wonderful St. Luke community. This village raised me. And today, they blessed me in another huge way. I was invited to be part of a special service just centered around Borderlands justice and migration and specifically work in Tucson because that's where I'll be for my next year starting in late August (a brief update here: http://kemstravels.blogspot.com/). It was actually a huge coincidence, or as some say God-incidence, because Lyle and Jeannie are two members who have spent winters in Tucson for the past few years, have been part of the Southside Presbyterian community, and initiated the idea of having a service to reflect on their work serving migrants and the threats to life that come as a result of unjust trade and immigration policies... right before I found out and told Pastor Gwin that I was placed in ...drumroll... Tucson! It was so moving for Pastor Gwin to light a fire with a little Matthew 25 and a number of statistics to put things in perspective, and then Lyle and Jeannie stood up and talked about why they volunteer as they do and dedicate their time to serving migrants, as well as some of their personal stories and feelings of futility as people continue to go to great lengths to cross the border, only to be so vulnerable to theft, rape, abandonment, abuse, and potentially fatal desert conditions. I was to follow and share half of the sermon to talk about why I feel called to work for social justice and immigration justice in Tucson specifically. I'm not a public speaker by any stretch, and I much prefer writing (thus blogging!), but I am thankful for this opportunity to speak with my community about immigration justice, about the need for service in Tucson, about the current state of immigration reform, and about how immigration policy affects us all.

I am also so thankful that the folk group was able to come together on pretty short notice and put up with me trying to teach two new songs with just one practice right before the service! Whew. I am not one to usually take on a leadership role, but we had a vision for the service, and in addition to sermon-writing, I was to carry out a mission for special music (since the choir does not meet for the summer). I was thankful for the opportunity to teach and lead my congregation in "Awakening" as a call to open up the service and our hearts to work for justice, as well as a couple other justicey songs.

The folk group is used to me popping in and joining them for practices day-of when I am in town and able to join them in the service, and it is so fun to worship in that way, and especially play and sing with my papa! I also so appreciate everyone's energy to help this come together, as well as all of those who came up and shared with me how the service moved them or resonated with them. I'll miss this community for sure, but after hearing Lyle talk about the vibrancy of multicultural Southside Presbyterian with a mixture of white, Latino, African-American, and Native American peoples all worshiping in communion together, I am even more excited for next year. 

Today I'm thankful also to have had the chance to finally sit down and have a meal and spend time with with a wonderful soul and learn so much more about him. We had been in the same friend group for a while, and he has such a huge heart that he was always running around serving others and preparing himself for med school (so that he can serve others), so many of us in the Carleton Christian community felt blessed by his energy and love in the community but of course wanted more chances to get to know him more! I'm thankful to have learned we have some pretty interesting things in common, especially in terms of our faith background, and his recounting a social justice-oriented, multicultural church that raised him as a village was just amazing. I'm thankful for his friendship, and that though we are just getting the time to hang out now, it won't be too little too late because we'll be able to cross paths this summer. Thanks God for bringing him into my life! 

I definitely understand if you do not want to take the time to read this all, but I wanted to include the script of my part of the Tucson service sermon, in case you'd like to check out what I shared with my community. (If you've been following my blog, you may see some familiar bits and pieces - this reflective blog was quite vital to draw from to sermonize!) I realized there were so many words and so much I wanted to share in so little time, so I think I ended up rattling a lot of it off in a spoken word-type cadence. Be forewarned, I did actually include a smiley to myself in my sermon. As the Spirit moves... :-)

"Hi all! I just want to thank Lyle and Jeannie for their incredible hearts of service for Tucson and for those moving and heart-stirring reflections they just shared with us. I think I'm even more sure this is where I'm meant to be. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Kathryn Schmidt, and I grew up in this church :-) I just want to talk a little about what the concept of social justice means to me, and why I feel called to do social justice work specifically in Tucson.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Growing up in this St. Luke community, which I affectionately call a “hippie church,” was a truly inspirational experience. Apparently from before I was born, I was enveloped into a tightly woven network of people passionate about living the way we were made to live through environmental consciousness, through non-violent action for peace and justice, through tolerance and respect of differences, and through caring for our brothers and sisters around the world.

Through my own faith journey, I have come to understand that I see God’s face through other human beings and we are the vessels for God’s love. But more than just trying my hardest to act with love and kindness towards my friends, strangers, enemies (hope I don’t have any enemies!), I have always felt called to serve others. What’s more is I have always felt my service is part of a bigger picture, that I’m called to answer a bigger question. Just had to figure out what that was.

I’ve come to understand helping others is when I am the happiest, but the kind that requires both humility and compassion. The kind of simultaneously working for positive, systemic change and brightening a single person’s day by bringing human kindness to circumstances of hardship and injustice.

Combined with a love for Spanish, the passion for social justice that my family and this church community instilled in me inspired me to pursue a more just relationship between the U.S. and Latin America. I would see in the news political fights over immigration and drug wars but this church always called for compassion, which was so instrumental. 

I wanted to learn and understand more than the stories of the border patrol or of those providing humanitarian assistance. I wanted to understand the systems that create vast migration flows of human beings. So I read books, went on an educational BorderLinks delegation with my dad and a group from St. Luke to Arizona and Mexico, and found myself called to pursue social justice as more than a hobby. Successive internships at the Peace Corps headquarters and with Witness For Peace (a non-profit grassroots NGO that works for peace, justice, and sustainable economies in the Americas) gave me a better idea of how I could best help others in a way that would sit right with me. And then it came time to figure out how to live out my International Relations major and Latin American Studies minor. 

Facing the sea of options was both exciting and daunting, but I knew I wanted more hands-on experience working with specifically migrants from Latin America so as to better serve Latino communities in the U.S. and understand the effects of U.S. policy. Upon recommendation from Dick Headen, actually, I applied for a year of service with the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program and was especially drawn to the Tucson, San Antonio, and Miami sites, for perhaps obvious reasons. And I actually applied last June right after I graduated with support from Pastor Gwin and the St. Luke Session, but the program's calendar year came up too fast as I already had some incredible work and travel opportunities through this past fall. I was relieved that my application could be kept valid for this coming year, so since January I have been working with the placement process and was placed in Tucson to start in late August!

YAVs work with the program to be placed in sites (cities) around the country to live out our faith through service work and live in intentional community with the other volunteers in our sites. So in Tucson, I will have the opportunity to live with the other volunteers who are also really drawn to service related to Latin America and to using their Spanish! And part of the deal is that we will not only have intentional community and reflection time, but we will also be part of a new home church community there, Southside Presbyterian, that has a number of connections to this St. Luke community, and has been instrumental in the Sanctuary movement and in advocating for migrants’ rights and wellbeing in so many different capacities.

I was hoping that our actual work placements would have been set by now so that I could share with you what I will for sure be doing, but the site coordinator has been working tirelessly to add another possible placement in addition to BorderLinks (where the YAV would be doing education outreach in the community and also leading delegations of US citizens down to Mexico, like the one I went on with St. Luke) and Southside Presbyterian (where the YAV would be doing a mix of community organizing and work with the homeless program). The Tucson site coordinator had to add a new work placement because the Southside worker center YAV placement actually worked itself out of a job, which is the most exciting news! A YAV was typically placed there to function as an advocate of sorts to work with migrants and take their concerns to legislators, but now the migrant community has developed its own leaders and own strength and structure to advocate for themselves!

Long story short, I’ll keep you guys posted! But what I do know for sure is that I am excited to take this next step in my faith journey and serve the Tucson community by working with Latino communities and educational outreach surrounding issues of justice for migrants. 

And I know immigration policy and the effects of US policy towards Latin America and the reality of the borderlands can seem really foreign to us here in Minnesota, but immigration justice hits home here too. As many of you know, I haven’t been around here much since graduating from Carleton College last year, but I have had some incredible travel opportunities within this country and within the Americas, and I have been so fortunate that with the second half of my gap year, I have had a wonderful opportunity to tie the Borderlands and immigration policy to Minnesota communities. Since I knew that I could bank on experiential education with the YAV program for the next kind of schoolyear, I decided I wanted to go back down to Northfield where I had gone to Carleton to figure out some part-time things and then another incredible opportunity fell into my lap, and I became an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow with the Northfield TORCH program, which stands for Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes.

This is an academic support program that started in the Northfield High School 7 years ago to tackle this thing called the achievement gap: to generalize, in schools these days, minority students and low-income students don’t do as well in basic indicators like reading, math, and graduating. Minnesota actually has one of the worst achievement gaps in the country. Northfield is part of the typical pattern in the U.S., with a huge influx of Latino immigrants in the last few years and a predominantly white population otherwise figuring out how to handle it. When a group of dedicated individuals realized the graduation rate for Latino students, many of whom were undocumented, was 36% and that something had to be done, they started this program, TORCH.

When Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who came out as an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines last summer, came to Carleton this winter, he said: “We have lost a generation of people who just gave up.” What’s the point of working hard in high school if there’s no hope after? Why take the SATs? Why bother with visiting colleges when they would just turn you away? We need to accept everybody with education access. While we need all the doctors and lawyers and physicists and journalists we can get, we can’t all get 4.0s. Jose was very frank about his own privilege and about how hard he worked to get where he is. We need to provide all undocumented students the same opportunities as others because it is imperative we provide good, solid jobs for all who want to live with dignity and roofs over their heads. If they’re capable and willing to work for it, we should ensure the system works for them. 

The TORCH program is an anomaly in the state of Minnesota, and it has expanded to offering many different services including tutoring, academic advising, internship and job search assistance, and college visits, and other high schools are seeking to model similar programs. After seven years, the graduation rate for Latino students is now 98%, and the program is still expanding to serve more low-income students as well as would-be first generation college students.

I am so blessed and fortunate to learn from this program, from those who initiated these efforts to serve mainly the Northfield Latino community, and from these students who are working on their education but have much different realities to what I had. So I came in in the middle of the year to support the program as I was needed, and my main responsibility was working with students and families on filling out their FAFSAs and getting financial aid to make post-secondary education a real possibility.
 

As far as how policy is affecting the students that I work with, it gives me hope that though it will mean there will be more competition for the high school population in this small town to get jobs, President Obama's band-aid immigration policy DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) means undocumented immigrants who came here under the age of 16 could apply for temporary legal status and permission to work in this country. And TORCH has been successful in getting something like over 30 kids processed through DACA, so more immigrant students whose families came here for more opportunities can legally get jobs and help their families out!

And I'm so thankful for the passage of the Minnesota DREAM Act! While we have work to do nationally, this will mean that all students with Minnesota residency, regardless of documentation status, can get in-state tuition at public colleges and universities! I work with a few DREAMers, and I am fortunate to do so. While many self-select into lower level classes and some need a little more nudging than others to stay on top of their schoolwork and make college possible in the first place, we are working to even the playing field. With many of these students coming from low-income families (economics being the major factor in having to leave their homelands), financial aid packages are a crucial determining factor in where, and if these students are able to pursue higher education and open doors to careers they dream of and can become qualified for. This is an affirmation that they are not at fault for what our laws see as their parents' "mistake" of coming/staying in this country without legal authorization, as well an investment in the health of our communities, the psyche of our young people, and future entrepreneurs, academics, dental hygienists, auto technicians, architects, neurosurgeons, etc.

Without a national DREAM act, though, undocumented students still face serious financial burdens, and they do not have access to federal financial aid... There are still huge obstacles for many students, to be sure.

One student had a 1.8 GPA in high school and went on to college where he got a 3.5 GPA, but he was denied financial aid because the school couldn’t verify his parents’ financial records because they’re undocumented. But he’s a citizen. He dropped out.

Some families are mixed status, like one with five kids. My student’s older and younger sister are undocumented but he was born in the U.S. with his family crossing over and back. He can get financial aid that requires us to send in a copy of his parents’ tax returns for verification as we Sharpie out the fake Social Security numbers. But his younger sister who is two years younger will need immigration reform to include a national DREAM Act and a pathway to citizenship for her to realistically dream of getting to go to Carleton, where she would be a capable student.

And we have to fight for a TORCH now-college-graduate to be able to use his social work degree to do AmeriCorps service – he wants to be an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow, but because he has temporary status through, he can’t. He has to sign up for the draft, but he can’t under current regulations serve this country that he now calls home through AmeriCorps and working with youth?

And these things are all what students face in their educational pathway once they’re here in Minnesota. In writing and acting out some of their own stories through the Latino Play Festival that these Northfield High School Latino students put on for the community, they use that forum to tell their own stories of experiencing much of the suffering Lyle and Jeannie have seen: hiding from the migra, getting raped on their journey, and once in Minnesota, struggling to figure out the dynamics between Mexican and American identities, coming home to take care of their siblings or to empty homes with parents out working all the time or to alcoholism and abuse. 

Immigration is part of their reality. Documentation status is too. I’ve been fortunate to work with these kids and have the deep philosophical conversation about human nature, as well as just be a part of hearing snippets about these kids’ lives, like “My sister had babies too early. I want to be the first in my family to go to college so I can get a good job and take care of my mom better. I can’t have kids for a long time because I don’t want to mess this up.” Or “Immigration came to Viking Terrace [the trailer park] this morning, and I’m really glad my mom wasn’t home.” Or when one student asked, "What are you doing next year? You're going to Tucson? Arizona? What will you be doing there?" I say I'll be working with Latino communities and immigration policy, and his response was, "Oh cool, can you get them to give me papers then?” 

I strive for this year in Tucson to allow me to build a better understanding of how to fix our broken immigration system, what upcoming changes will be rolling out, and how to address the needs of those in the United States who have undertaken such risk and hardship with the sole purpose of bettering their and their family’s lives. I need the human face of migrant stories. I need to understand how this farmer was pushed off his land as a result of NAFTA policy, and how that woman has waited and tried to get a green card but there is no other way to feed her children. And I want to be the gringa that will try to perfect her Spanish but at least helps make it more readily apparent that someone from el Norte cares.

The concept of social justice is being God’s hands and feet right here on this earth. In my vein, it’s about asking how do our immigration policies affect our neighbors to the south? How are unequal free trade agreements connected to trends of migration? Why is there an increase in people showing up to clinics missing limbs, and why do people still undertake incredibly dangerous risks to come to this country?

To me, social justice is not about charity, or simply throwing money at an issue to hope it goes away or to soothe our conscience. It’s about empathy, about truly understanding the suffering of another. It’s about asking why a child goes hungry not just today but still tomorrow. It’s about solidarity, not coming up with solutions to others’ problems based on our own experiences, but working with communities to generate solutions based on the circumstances and experiences of the community itself. It’s about humility, and grace, and walking in the footsteps of another.

We need people to aid the hungry, the sick, and the hurt. That is all extraordinarily good work. We also have to look at the root causes though and ask why fellow human beings are facing these problems. Even though, and especially because we possess more tangible resources and more opportunities than much of humanity, it is precisely our responsibility to act with grace to work for the meekest of the meek.

Maybe social justice related to Latin America isn’t your thing, but I do challenge you to work with the gifts and skills you have to better the lives of others in systemic ways. I encourage you to figure out your own definition of social justice and challenge you to work for justice for all of God’s children as this church community has challenged me and inspired me to do, and I want to thank you, St. Luke for how you have supported me along my academic/faith/life journey, and I would like to humbly ask for your support in another way. 

Each volunteer is asked to raise $3000 for the program before they begin their service. It is estimated that it costs the PC(USA) about $30,000 to support a YAV for a year with communal housing, a small living stipend, a site coordinator, mentoring, and community resources, and we as volunteers are only asked to raise 10 percent of that. St. Luke has graciously offered to help spearhead fundraising efforts with the June "Change for Change," and one St. Luker has generously offered $1500 to match donations by the rest of the community, so we're already halfway there! Funds raised beyond the $3000 will be held at St. Luke to use for projects my site identifies once I have been there awhile. Every little bit can help support this program, and invest in the amazing work the Tucson site does related to immigration justice. 

I want to ask this community to walk with us in this call to work for immigration justice, whether that’s keeping tabs on immigration policy and advocating for just reforms like driver’s licenses for all here in Minnesota, whether that’s supporting the work of my Tucson YAV site financially through Change for Change, whether that’s following my reflections in my blog while I’m in Tucson, or whether that’s coming down to visit me in Tucson between August 2013 and 2014 – or other St. Lukers who winter down there too! I humbly ask for your solidarity in however you are able to walk with us in this call to work for justice in Tucson, and I thank you again for all of your love and support."

So there you have it. If you've stuck with me this long, much gratitude! To see the tears of those who have actively participated in raising me in this church family was so touching, and I hope I have done justice to all they have invested in me. For more info on how you can support this Tucson work financially if you are so moved, check out my travel blog: http://kemstravels.blogspot.com/, which I will be updating during my year in Tucson as well. Thank you for listening to where my path is taking me next, and may you also find your path to work for the meekest of the meek in whatever you do in life. 

Today's inspiration is this spoken word piece on how the addition of one immigrant does not automatically equal subtraction of a job from somebody who was here before. Instead, they contribute, and our future value may be compounded from intertwined lives and interdependence. Mathematics

I'm also so proud of some of the students I've been blessed to work with through the TORCH program, to have heard some of their stories, and to have seen what they have written, produced, and acted in this year's Latino Play Festival - and they were featured on a KARE11 news story! Check it out! Latino Play Festival

And finally I'm reflecting on my time here in Northfield during my gap year. I have so cherished the time I have gotten to spend with Carleton friends as I was able to visit a couple times in the fall and then come back in January, but I just felt like I have been working all of the time (which has been both rewarding and necessary!), and all of a sudden, my workload is transitioning to a lighter summertime, but I forget that I'll still be here but most of my Carleton friends won't be! Tonight the FC (Fellowship in Christ) celebrated its seniors, and I think it hit everybody how there is a mad dash to finals, but these seniors are going off to whatever God has in store for them next. Laughs resounded, and tears were shed - I definitely should have prepared myself to walk into that cozy living room and be ready to cry for how many of these seniors have touched my life and others'.... I hate crying but it was cathartic tonight. I know this about myself, that I struggle when it feels like I am doing so much/meeting so many people that while those relationships are meaningful, they barely skim the surface, whereas I would prefer to spend more time with perhaps fewer individuals and truly learn more of their stories. I am thankful for the mix of one-on-one time I have had with Carleton friends, as well as students that I have worked with, because one-on-one is how I thrive and feel like I am best serving others, but perhaps that is just how I best feel the results of serving others because serving large numbers of people at once, while it can be amazing and hopefully touch many lives, does not resonate with my soul like affirming the soul and beauty of just one other person. I feel like I have just been skimming the surface of the Carleton community this year, and while I have gotten to know some wonderful people, I did not have time for meal dates and one-on-one friend-time nearly as much as I would have liked. I am thankful for how I have gotten to see many of these seniors grow and to have heard others share how they have been touched by how God worked through the seniors in this community. I am excited for them, and I am confident that even if their futures are not laid out nice and neat, that they have incredible gifts, that they have all of what they need, that it will not always be easy and their plan may not be clear at this moment, and that they will shine in whatever they are called to do as long as they continue to listen and trust. Such strength, such solidness, such talent, such compassion, such organization, such leadership, such humility, and such love will serve them well in their walk to serve others.

So blessed tonight. Tonight I thank God for a summer work schedule that lets me sleep in until 9.

For Northfielders willing to give their time to serve youth in so many capacities.

For about ten friends and even a couple unexpecteds that fulfilled a vow that they would make it to my Zumba class at least once this term, on the last day, making it a fabulous silly and high-sass class and a wonderful way to end my run as a Carleton Zumba instructor (though not entirely because we'll be able to have a summer session! So if you're on/around Carleton this summer, come to my class Thursdays 5-6!). So many sweaty hugs.

For friends to join with to go to the final WHOA Hip-Hop Dance Co. performance and final Knights concert to critique and be inspired by those art forms.

For dependable friends more than willing to bring refreshments, cars, and whatever else needed for a successful, chill bonfire night at my house to celebrate their last day of classes. It was such a blessing that the forecasted rains held off, that it was cool enough to draw near to the fire, yet tolerable to sit in the open air. I'm thankful for my friends' fire-creating and -tending skills (now I may have fire-building skills too!).

For the fire pit in this house's backyard, and for a ladder to be randomly awaiting for some adventurous souls to clamber up to the roof to enjoy the fresh spring air and each other's company. It was a blessing to get to spend time with those mainly junior and senior friends tonight, hear them recount their last classes, tool around on my guitar, and review my crazy chocolate choices (fair trade all the way!) for smores - milk, espresso, and mint dark.

For how thoughtful and courteous they are to make refreshments for others, stoke the fire, be conscientious of my housemates' sleeping hours considering it is a weeknight, and help me clean up without me expecting or asking. 

For getting to know a couple of my senior friends better this year, by virtue of my gap year and choosing to spend half of it back in Northfield. I have been so blessed to see them grow with more maturity and silliness, and I am so excited for how they will use their gifts and Carleton degrees in the future. I'm thankful for lunch and dinner dates, random hangouts, sisterly love and support from my girl friends, and the range of lovingly suffocating and tender hugs from my guy friends.

Blessed indeed.

Tonight I'm so thankful for the passage of the Minnesota DREAM Act! While we have work to do nationally, this will mean that all students with Minnesota residency, regardless of documentation status, can get in-state tuition at public colleges and universities! I work with a few DREAMers, and I am fortunate to do so. While many self-select into lower level classes and some need a little more nudging than others to stay on top of their schoolwork and make college possible in the first place, we are working to even the playing field. With many of these students coming from low-income families (economics being the major factor in having to leave their homelands), financial aid packages are a crucial determining factor in where, and if these students are able to pursue higher education and open doors to careers they dream of and can become qualified for. This is an affirmation that they are not at fault for what our laws see as their parents' "mistake" of coming/staying in this country without legal authorization, as well an investment in the health of our communities, the psyche of our young people, and future entrepreneurs, academics, dental hygienists, auto technicians, architects, neurosurgeons, etc.

For more information about the Minnesota DREAM Act, NAVIGATE MN is way on top of things: MN DREAM Act Will Become Law. We are hoping to have someone from NAVIGATE come do a presentation for TORCH kids and families sometime this summer to get a better sense of how this will affect them, especially as the legislation will come into effect on July 1st and could potentially be a good thing for our current graduates planning on starting school in the fall too!

I'm thankful that Minnesota made history with such a quick turnaround from a possible amendment that would close the door on the conversation about the possibility of equal marriage in Minnesota, to becoming the 12th state to approve same-sex marriage.

I'm proud of the work OutFront and Minnesotans United have done to encourage Minnesotans to talk about their values, and I'm thankful for the friend who, spur of the moment last fall, said she was phone banking and asked if I'd like to join her. I'm proud of this campaign, and I'm proud to have been able to dedicate some of my time to making it possible for some of my friends and many Minnesotans that I will never have the pleasure of meeting to marry their beloved.

I'm thankful that my home church, St. Luke has been on the forefront of accepting and rejoicing in the love that same-sex couple share, and that a beautiful couple of that community got to stand up with their two daughters and praise God that they could have a wedding this August!

Love has prevailed.

Tonight I'm thankful to have been inspired by the senior project presentations at Arcadia Charter School. This school, by virtue of its small size, project-based curriculum, and emphasis on fostering creativity, growth, and confidence, has prepared their students so well with skills of elocution and grace. Reflecting on my own experience, I was shy (and would still say that about myself) and hated speaking in public all through high school, and it was not until perhaps the last couple of years that I have felt more comfortable speaking with and in front of human beings. I was only forced to take one semester of speech class through high school though, while these Arcadia students, if starting there in the sixth grade, have been working on class projects and presenting in front of teachers and their peers since the age of twelve. By the time they are seniors, that experience is evident, and they are able to talk about their hard work and passion with ease.

And for Arcadia to be able to encourage their seniors to work tirelessly on their final projects of their choice, from building electric tricycles from scratch to glassblowing, to writing their own novels, to amateur documentary photography, and to work collaboratively with an adviser and a mentor from the community, those opportunities are incredible. Basically like Carleton comps, with some projects actually up to that academic level. 

Here are a couple highlights:

- A book of poetry titled "Life and God" because this student realized that was what it came down to for him. "I am a collage of those around me," he wrote. Commenting on his confidence that may come across as arrogance, he adds, "All praise towards me is a direct reflection of everybody who had put something into me." This boy knows where his love and strength come from, and he so delicately walked the line of vulnerability and assurance, and of questioning and faith in his poems.

- An in-depth study of social change and what it means to be an activist. Understanding how to define and contrast social change and social justice, and concluding, in dialogue with another student's study of "Just War Theory," that violence may be a means to social change but is always unjust because it is going against someone else's self-worth as a human being.

Wow. Just wow.

And I'm thankful for the note from one of the advisers "Thanks for being at our school this 'spring,' Kathryn. I wish there were more people like you, in Northfield, interested in being a part of influencing young peoples' lives in a positive way." I'm thankful to have been a part of this environment, albeit just for half days, twice a week for a few months, and I look forward to spending more time with these students in just the few remaining weeks. I am sure I am more inspired by them than they would be by anything I would have to offer, but we all do what we can. 

My students...

So today, I have to air some things about working with my students, with whom I am so fortunate to work through the TORCH program and try to understand more of their stories. I will never know how to walk in their shoes, but I am thankful to try my best to be a resource for academic or life advice, however they need it. 

It makes me sad that when asking students to take home a checklist for documents required to fill out their FAFSA to apply for federal financial aid for college that you have to be sensitive with the words you use; family, instead of parents. That you cannot make any assumptions about who is supporting this student at home, who is actually in the picture, who is financially responsible for these young adults.

It makes me sad that my weekly let's-get-a-life-plan meeting with a student had to get postponed; his life was semi-derailed because his father, who wasn't around much anyways, got locked up, according to my student's text. The actions of families affect a student's academic life perhaps more than they realize. 

It makes me sad that a student shared not one, but two personal stories of siblings in her argumentative essay for an English class - her chosen topic was the necessity of rehab centers and programs for those struggling with addiction. That some of her siblings were born of different fathers, two different fathers not her own sexually abusing her two sisters. That in our office, we have to be ready to love our kids in different ways depending upon what they need: help on their chemistry homework, or a conversation about literally anything other than the mess going on at home.

But it gives me hope how strong these students are. That there may be so much more pain than we'd ever know, but some of them do want to open up to us. That some of them are motivated through it all to graduate to either just get out of there, or because they see education as the crucial link to bettering their life and possibly their family's.     

It gives me hope that a student with a tough family situation has never considered himself homeless because he always has a bed or couch to sleep on.

It gives me hope that filling out the FAFSA means for one student the difference between commuting from home and enjoying dorm life on campus. She practically did a happy dance in her seat when she saw her financial award estimate on the FAFSA confirmation page.

It gives me hope that though it will mean there will be more competition for the high school population in this small town to get jobs, President Obama's band-aid immigration policy DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) means undocumented immigrants who came here under the age of 16 could apply for temporary legal status and permission to work in this country, so more immigrant students whose families came here for more opportunities can legally get jobs and help their families out!

It gives me hope that my students can be accepted into an open enough environment where if a girl wants to wear a tux and take her girlfriend wearing a dress, she can.

It give me hope that I have the privilege to get on a solid enough basis with one student whose heart is in the right place, but his language is sometimes not the most respectful when referring to other people, as he has used terms such as "gay" as a derogatory adjective or "Redneck. It is not in my nature to be comfortable with confrontation, but because we understood and respected each other already, we could have that learning conversation. 

It gives me hope that my student used his disillusionment about his father as his motivation to be a better man than he ever was, and after working with him for just a short time, I'm thankful that I could honestly reply, "You already are."

Snarcasm, meet grace.

Today, I'm thankful that sometimes when you receive crap but return kindness, you receive even more kindness in return. I got a random snarky email from an older man who was attempting to buy prints from my photography website but was having technology issues (and patience issues), so I needed to breathe and try to respond as graciously as possible to try to help him as best as I could through the cyberwebs. Breathe, send out love. I think I was just polite, but he emailed back soon after and apologized profusely for his impatience and frustration with technology and for taking it out on me. He could have slunk away into the depths of the impersonal cyberworld, but he chose to reach out again and ask for forgiveness. That response was overwhelmingly nice, and I'm thankful we both could show each other grace through that process.

Many times the world does not work like this, but in what may feel like all-encompassing darkness, may you be the little light. Or a big light! Whatever you choose. You could have the gift of radiating positivity and love wherever you go, or your light may be more subtle, but whatever you are, you are valued. We're all just doing the best we can.

Zumbathon!

Dearest Blessings Blog readers, this is what all of my time out of work has been dedicated to the past couple weeks (/months). I organized a Northfield Zumbathon, which is an extended Zumba (Latin dance-based fitness) class that serves as a fundraiser for a cause. Aside from being a Promise Fellow, I am also a Zumba instructor (as most of you may know), so I was able to organize a Zumbathon to benefit the Northfield Youth Sports Collaborative scholarship fund. I chose this organization as the recipient of the fundraiser because the scholarship fund is able to help all youth in Northfield participate in sports regardless of income, so contributing to this cause will make it even more possible for many of my TORCH students to play sports. I had the privilege to try many sports when I was young and eventually end up playing tennis all the way through varsity at Carleton, and I had so much support along the way from my family and my community, both financially and otherwise, and you just learn so much through sports - teamwork, responsibility, time management, etc. It was amazing to have the Zumba community come together to take a little of our time to dance so that we can provide more opportunities for Northfield youth to move and groove if they so choose as well! 

I am so thankful for all who helped the Zumbathon come together yesterday! Awesome instructors, friends who I conscripted to help volunteer, everybody who Zumba-ed with us, and those who donated even without being able to come. In our first ever Northfield Zumbathon, we raised almost $900 for the Northfield Youth Sports Collaborative scholarship fund! That's OPPORTUNITIES for youth we're talking about. We're all doing our part to make this community healthier. I had a blast with everyone, and we should do it again sometime :-) 

I'm also thankful for all of the publicity efforts of the other instructors, and how willingly each of the eight (amazing!) instructors, six of whom I had never met before, volunteered their time to help all of this come together. And I'm thankful for snowballing inspiration, like the Facebook post one of the instructors wrote to her Zumba network prior to the event:  

"There are some things we take for granted.... like being ABLE to exercise - having the body that can do it, the awesome benefits it will give us, etc. Some teens really want to be a part of sports in Northfield but, unfortunately, do not have the funds to pay for school fees. We need to ensure ALL our Northfield students get to be involved in sports. This helps us all- builds our community, supports positive behaviors and growth, and makes a true difference for young lives. Thank you to Kathryn Schmidt for doing all the work to make this event possible! Thank you YOU for just coming out and/or donating to support access to sports for ALL Northfield Youth. :-) Come out today 3:30 to 5 to support those who have one big barrier - the money to cover the cost of the sport or activity! OR, AT LEAST DONATE to support our community's youth and growth!"

For those who were not able to join us yesterday but would still like to donate to provide sports scholarships for Northfield youth, you can still do so here: http://kschmidt.zumba.com/northfield-zumbathon Thank you all!  

If anybody would like to see pictures, check out these links:

Northfield Patch follow-up:

http://northfield.patch.com/articles/zumbathon-raises-money-for-northfield-youth-sports-collaborative#photo-14478316

Southern MN follow-up:

http://www.southernminn.com/northfield_news/sports/article_adb503b5-0591-59e0-8ea5-a4420abc697a.html

Thanks be to God! Glory, hallelujah!

Tonight in the midst of the work insanity, I'd like to just share a brief story that I had the opportunity to reflect on for my AmeriCorps monthly progress report.

Since I came into my site in the middle of the year, first volunteering at afterschool Homework Help with the TORCH program, and then landed this Promise Fellow position, I have been playing catch-up in terms of learning students’ names and forming relationships within this community. I have been pleasantly surprised by how many students I have been able to interact with and how many I do know by name at this point. I have been fortunate to work with a number of wonderful students, and I feel it is a great honor when building relationships with students can lead to them feeling comfortable enough to share about their lives with me and see me as a resource they can trust, or perhaps even a big sister figure.

One student had been coming into our office during his study hall for the past couple of weeks to get some things done, and I had talked with him briefly a couple of times to just check in academically, but I was pleasantly surprised, given how quiet and reserved he is, how comfortable he felt talking with me. I ran into him in the weight room at Carleton, when I was all sweaty and gross after teaching a Zumba class, and rather than awkwardly trying to avoid me as some students would rather not see their teachers outside of school, he approached me to talk about prom that had happened just a few days before. He sought my counsel as a young woman because he needed to talk to his date about something and was not sure how to say it, or how to go about it because they hardly have any time to talk during the school day. He told me it is hard for him to open up to people, but he felt like he needed to ask her forgiveness about something because he wanted to be her Superman and make her prom night the most special possible because he so valued their friendship. I was just amazed by how he wanted to open up to me to ask my advice, and it was beautiful to see the heart in this young man, seeking her forgiveness and wanting to make things right.   

His heart just melted mine. I'm so grateful to have run into him and learned more about this young man who said he has regrets about his past, and I'm thankful to have had this opportunity to talk with him about the power of forgiveness. 

I'm thankful life is busy, but busy with good things, and I'm happy for those moments that stand out as clear examples of God's grace can shimmer even when we least expect it, as long as we lay that foundation of living out love all of the time so when we are called to, we are always ready!