In the past few days, traveling around San Francisco has been an utterly exciting journey. Although it is the small city I grew up in, I realized how unfamiliar I was with the aspects of it that really matter. I knew what the streets were named, where the nearest Walgreens or corner store was. Despite what I believed to know about where I live, I was unfamiliar with those individuals within the city that work in organizations with goals to better the community. I knew a minuscule amount of how these individuals work tremendously hard despite almost no recognition at all. Most of all, I learned that the most important detail about what makes a city is its community. Meeting with different leaders was eyeopening instantly. I was exposed to a variety of opinions and perspectives; many which I had never imagined. Not always did I agree with them, but I always did learn from them. A trip that drastically shocked me was on Wednesday when we had the opportunity to meet with different staff members at Compass Family Services. It not only raised my awareness about the issue of homeless families in the city but of how many people work together to truly hand a load full of opportunities to all those children who are just as capable as anyone else. Walking inside and seeing the excited and loving smiles of a group of kids who happened to walk by solely made my day. I remember that morning I felt very tired and not particularly in the mood for long walks. Upon arrival, the kid’s welcoming made me reflect instantly. Being of low-income background I only focused on what I didn’t have; how underprivileged I am. Rarely I thought of those who have significantly less than myself. I came to the realization that it is what those staff members do; every single individual who dreams passionately to invoke change and advancement in the community. I may not currently know which of the paths to my future ahead I will take but I do comprehend the obligation to build connections and foundations with those who work tirelessly to provide everyone with the same opportunity.

I was overwhelmed by the amount of creativity and design that occurred this morning, and I owe it all to David Clifford. David is a teacher, creator, and advocate for social justice, who delivered a presentation to us regarding his current and past projects, as well as his mindset behind his projects. David has a unique outlook on the education system, as he strays away from the traditional system of lectures and textbooks. One of his projects include opening a school (Design School X) that will allow students to learn in a creative and equal space, where every student is valued for his/her ideas. He heavily focuses on the design and innovative aspects, as students are given the task to plan and build their own learning environment. David also uses design as a method for students to create solutions to ongoing issues. He follows this specific design process: 1. Notice 2. Empathize 3. Define 4. Ideate 5. Prototype 6. Test 7. Reflect Following these steps, we (in pairs) were challenged to build a desk or learning space that would benefit the both of us, as well as the rest of the community. Before this activity, we were given some time to write down some of our strengths, stances, and aspects that make up who we are. We then attempted to incorporate our responses into our design. As a very non-creative and linear person, I was incredibly conflicted on how I should approach this challenge, but through collaborating with my partner, I felt more confident to move forward with the task and found myself enjoying the entire process (even the moments where my partner and I ran into several building issues). Something that was very interesting that David mentioned was the idea of an ‘i’ individual and a ‘x’ individual. The former is seen as an individual that has a set route towards his/her future. David mentioned that ‘i’ individuals were more likely to work in industrial settings in factories and such, but because our world has developed, factory jobs are replaced by advanced machinery. ‘x’ individuals, on the other hand, has a more creative outlook on society, and through their story, stance, strength, (as well as one other aspect that I am forgetting), they will find their purpose in society, so it is slightly unclear as to what their future actually holds. I personally think that David is brave to step out of the traditional educational system, and basically create his own system that will cater to all students regardless of their background. I love that he is stepping out of society’s norm, but I’m still a bit conflicted about the whole ‘i’ and ‘x’ idea. I don’t necessarily believe that being an ‘i’ student is a negative thing, as our current school systems (unfortunately) are more centered around ‘i’ students, where students follow a set path towards a future goal. I imagine the path to be entering college, graduating with a degree in whichever major, entering grad school, participating in an internship, and then finding a job and having a successful career. Right now, I feel that investing time into our future generations to ensure that they are receiving an education where they become ‘x’ individuals would be the more beneficial than beginning to start the ‘x’ mindset in high schoolers, where they have been exposed to an ‘i’ mindset for most of their educational career. This world is constantly changing and developing; eventually our systems will accommodate ‘x’ individuals, and our future generations will be our world’s problem solvers. Another individual who views education in a similar light as David Clifford is Rebecca Hong. Rebecca joined Aim High for her first summer as a site director at Lick-Wilmerding High School, and was willing to spare some time out of her busy schedule to briefly speak with us regarding the program. Aim High is a free summer enrichment program that prepare students for high school and puts them on a path towards college. Rebecca mentioned how the admission process prioritizes low-income students over students from a wealthier background in order to allow the underprivileged to have the same opportunity to achieve academically. As a low-income student myself, I am extremely grateful to hear that every student is given the resources to walk towards a brighter future. What I took out of Rebecca’s description of Aim High is that education is highly valued, and the success of every student (regardless of their background) is Aim High’s priority. I actually participated in a summer program similar to Aim High during my middle school years, so I am very familiar with the benefits of a summer enrichment program. Through my experience, it is safe to say that I, along with many other students entered the program with a little understanding of the value of education, but left more informed about the benefits and privilege of a higher education. I am so thankful that programs such as Aim High exist. Without them, so many students are losing out in opportunities, and most of those students are first generation, people of color, and come from a low-income family. Those students and I would become a part of another statistic proving that minorities are least likely to enter and graduate college. So again, a massive shout out to all summer enrichment programs that are striving to erase the educational gap between privileged and underprivileged students.

Today I learned about how universities inside of prisons work. Jesse who works at the PUP or Prison University Project as a teacher and coordinator came in to our room and explained this to us. This project is for prisoners who are gaining credits to receive their Associate’s Degrees. These prisoners are trying to work their ways out of the prison system and back into society as everyday people going out for jobs. He handed out booklets of poems that some of the inmates wrote. All of the poems in the booklet were explaining the inmate’s views on fatherhood. One of the poems that stuck out to me was called “Father or Daddy?” The author of the poem was talking about when he was kid. He was talking about how kids are so easily influenced by what they here on the television. What he said was that when he was five years old, he heard the word melancholy on his television and for the rest of the day he used the word in all of his responses to questions. His father said that was a large word for a kid his size. His father than asked him if he knew how to spell the word and if he knew what the word meant. Obviously he didn’t know the answer to any of these questions and his dad told him not to use words he didn’t know the meaning of and how to spell it. The only thing the PUP needs to incorporate into their project is more major opportunities. They only have one class you can major in and it wasn’t announced what it was. Overall, the PUP is a great project that has been helping many inmates for 17 years and it needs a little bit of work to become greater.

Today, we visited St. Anthony’s Health Clinic and learned about their work in the health care industry. We met with Zeke, who is a clinician and toured the facility. We learned that the two main groups that they serve are homeless and undocumented people in the community who may not have access to free health services. We continued to talk about the homelessness issue in San Francisco and how free healthcare services are really important. St. Anthony’s is a Catholic organization and we learned that they treat everyone no matter what their gender identity or sexual orientation. However, since they do follow the Catholic tradition, they do not offer many reproductive services, and instead refer their clients to other organizations. The facility was very clean and nice, and we got to see their clinics and technology lab. They not only offer a soup kitchen where people can receive a meal, but they also hold clothing drives and offer job training and different types of classes. After our visit, we had lunch in the Yerba Buena gardens, where there was a live pianist and opera singer performing. We hung out, played games, debriefed, and talked about how we could change health issues in our own communities. We ended our day back at Lick, brainstorming project ideas and learning about what we need to take action, as well as pitching our project ideas in partners.

Later on in the day, we had the opportunity to visit the office of the SF Chronicle. After touring the office, we were able to listen in on a news meeting, and pick the brain of a metro columnist. Here, we learned about not only the work of a journalist, but also about its impact on social change. Taking into account our PPPs (Post Program Projects), we learned valuable skills and tips that every writer should know, particularly one addressing a social issue. One example of this is learning how to maneuver and balance between presenting your opinion and writing without bias.  And, skills aside, what was incredibly important for us to hear was how journalism had the power to evoke change. So even if a writer themself didn’t have the ability to evoke this change, by identifying and addressing it, they reveal its presence to those who do have this ability and take the first step.  

Today, I conversed with a lady named Heidi, the conversation started with me asking her what were her thoughts on issues that needed to be solved and what she would do too solve it. Heidi stated that she thought that housing should be a must and unfortunately she said that she had no solutions at the time. Then the conversation dozed off to what he thoughts were on Donald Trump, she gave me a face that expressed her disgust even when someone mentioned the name Donald Trump. She went on to say how she was a huge supporter of Bernie but now that is impossible. So she was lineate to the idea that she would vote for anyone besides Donald Trump. Then my friend Caleb came in and asked Heidi what were her thoughts on gas prices, and she was completely fine with the gas prices because apparently “for such a precious substance” it needs to be valued. I disagreed, but I did not have time to state that I disagreed, because Caleb then went on to ask about taxes and how taxes in certain areas go to the school in that area. Unfortunately, the conversation then came to an end and she left. So all in all it was a good conversation.

We were all left feeling surprised and some of us felt a bit triggered, as well. They were a group of people who really knew who they were as individuals, if not as a whole. I think it was a good opportunity to see the effect of the struggles people face day in and day out, and what they will do to change them.

Our conversation with Sam was about food justice. Bi-Rite’s mission, defined as a goal that can never be reached, is creating a community through food. Looking at the different products throughout the market, Bi-Rite sells many locally made products but they also sell products from faraway places such as Vermont and North Carolina. Sam explained that local food can be responsible food, food grown or produced without using pesticide, GMOs, child labor, and other unsustainable and wrong methods, but responsible food isn’t always local food. This is why Bi-Rite still supports artisans and producers of responsible food from outside the local community. He told us that the three stakeholders are the staff, the guests, and the producers, and the three foods are local food, responsible food, and traditional food, food that keeps our heritage alive such as bread being made in the traditional method. The three stakeholders and foods are connected, and the stakeholders interact and move from different stakeholder positions such as when a producer becomes a guest when they shop at the store. He also talked about how Chili, a staff, personally goes to visit the farms and other places where Bi-Rite get their meat and seafood from to determine whether it is responsible food. They do not sell fish that are caught through longline fishing, a method of fishing that uses lines that could be many miles long and has hooks about every twenty feet. This method of fishing results in unintended catching and killing of animals like turtles and dolphins. He says that there are good and bad fish farms. Some fish farms are crowded, giving rise to diseases and the increased use of antibiotics. Some aren’t sustainable at all. For example, to produce a pound of salmon, fish oil from about five pounds of wild fish is needed. One fish farm that Bi-Rite does buy from is a trout farm in the Sierras that feed their fish algae rather than fish pellet and have running water.