Service Scholars Research and Reflection 2019-2020

ENSWORTH

Carrie Cohen ’20 My First Books for Haiti

SERVICE SCHOLARS 2020 Research & Reflections Publication

SERVICE SCHOLARS RESEARCH AND REFLECTION PUBLICATION ENSWORTH SCHOOL NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE SPRING 2020

MARY CATHERINE BRADSHAW Editor Service Learning Curriculum Director

ASH WEBER

Service Learning Coordinator

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2020 SERVICE SCHOLARS...................................................................................................4 SERVICE SCHOLAR REQUIREMENTS........................................................................5 ACKNOWLEDGMENT & SPECIAL THANKS............................................................5 RESEARCH ESSAYS & REFLECTIONS: Charlotte Anne Alarcon, Research Essay.......................................................................................6 Charlotte Anne Alarcon, Reflection............................................................................................10 Anisa Bhatt, Research Essay..........................................................................................................12 Anisa Bhatt, Reflection.....................................................................................................................16 Jessica Calloway, Research Essay.................................................................................................18 Jessica Calloway, Reflection...........................................................................................................22 Carrie Cohen, Research Essay.......................................................................................................24 Carrie Cohen, Reflection.................................................................................................................28 Grace Edwards, Research Essay....................................................................................................30 Grace Edwards, Reflection..............................................................................................................34 Carrie Elcan, Research Essay..........................................................................................................36 Carrie Elcan, Reflection....................................................................................................................40 Mary Hayes Greer, Research Essay.............................................................................................42 Mary Hayes Greer, Reflection.........................................................................................................45 Lizza Hubbard, Research Essay....................................................................................................46 Lizza Hubbard, Reflection...............................................................................................................50 Mylan Le, Research Essay...............................................................................................................51 Mylan Le, Reflection.........................................................................................................................57 Charlie Mahanes, Research Essay...............................................................................................59 Charlie Mahanes, Reflection..........................................................................................................63 Julia Moody, Research Essay..........................................................................................................65 Julie Moody, Reflection....................................................................................................................70 Rylie O’Neil., Research Essay..........................................................................................................71 Rylie O’Neil, Reflection.....................................................................................................................75 Mae Mae Wallace, Reflection..........................................................................................................77

2020 ENSWORTH SERVICE SCHOLARS CHARLOTTE ANNE ALARCON* Factors Affecting Nashville’s Inner-City Kids and Their Education Kids Academy Advisor: Elias Salazar

LILLY LUCAS Federal Programs for Low Income Children Preston Taylor Ministries Advisor: Teresa Todd

ANISA BHATT* Childhood Education In Nashville Kids Academy Advisor: Juan Maigler Cansino

CHARLIE MAHANES* Nashville Food Project Nashville Food Project Advisor: Brooke Morgan

BRY’NHYIA BRAZIER Attitudes Toward Education Based on Class Kids Academy Advisor: Courtney Bahr

BARRETT MCFERRIN Effect of Poverty on Education Red Sweater Project; Time to Rise Advisor: Lindsay White

JESSICA CALLOWAY* The True Sacrifices of Families & Children for Pediatric Hospital Visits Strive Program & Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Advisor: Brooke Morgan

SHEALY MISCHINSKI Curriculum Building and Funding for Public Schools Kids Academy Advisor: Juan Maigler Cansino

CARRIE COHEN* Haitian Education My First Books; Advisor: Cecilia Wang GRACE EDWARDS* Literacy’s Impact in Breaking the Cycle of Poverty for Underserved Youth Kids Academy; Preston Taylor Ministries Advisor: Zach Schneider CARRIE ELCAN* Tearing Down the Walls Tearing Down the Walls Conference Advisor: Brooke Morgan

NEELY MOORER Factors Contributing to Low Literacy Kids Academy; Preston Taylor Ministries Advisor: Cecilia Wang RYLIE O’NEIL* Time to Rise Time to Rise Advisor: Lindsay White

MARY HAYES GREER* Incarceration and Hunger in Low Income Families WNDC; Safe Haven Family Shelter; Big Brothers Big Sisters Advisor: Jeff Scott

JANE ANNA VICKERY Sexual Assault Public Policy Sexual Assault Center Advisor: Brooke Morgan

LIZZA HUBBARD* Nutritional Choices of Impoverished Preston Taylor Ministries Advisor: Rich Mischinski MYLAN LE* Turnip Green Creative Reuse and the Landfill Turnip Green Creative Advisor: Teresa Todd

JULIA MOODY* McDowell County, WV: The History, Coal Mining, Social Issues & Black Lung West Virginia Rural area mission trip Advisor: Zach Schneider

MAE MAE WALLACE* Poverty and Low Literacy Kids Academy Advisor: Cecilia Wang

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* Indicates Published Service Scholar

SERVICE SCHOLAR REQUIREMENTS Service Scholar: The Service Learning Program is a curricular component of Community Life that promotes participation in the life of the community beyond the school. Its full description can be found in the high school Curriculum Guide. A Service Scholar engages in an extension of his/her senior Service Learning project. The extension consists of an academic component as well as additional service hours. Service Scholars exercise and incorporate the Core Skills that they have learned in their classes and apply them to their senior service-learning experiences.

Service Scholars complete at least 20 hours of service on their Grade 12 projects beyond what is otherwise required. They spend additional time collecting artifacts, researching and composing a paper that provides insight into the issues relevant to their project. The paper is a minimum of 2000 words and must reflect the quality and depth expected of Grade 12 level academic research in order to pass. In addition, Service Scholars write a 500-word reflection analyzing their personal experience with the project related to learning outcomes, although these pages are not counted toward the 2000 word total. The proposed academic component of the project must lie within the general purview of the high school academic program.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Each candidate has had the option to revise either, neither or both of their written pieces for this publication. All Ensworth students are to be commended for their service learning efforts, and the students who have chosen this publication opportunity should be recognized for using their talents to the fullest, being contributors to society and exercising their intellectual vitality. These published Service Scholars have received no grade, nor was publication required to become a Service Scholar. They should be congratulated for their commitment and their scholarship.

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO‌ Mary Byrne Dailey & Lynn Vincent Dr. Crystal Miller Our Non-Profit Partners Advisors, Teachers, and Administrators

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Essay: Charlotte Anne Alarcon

ESSAY: CHARLOTTE ANNE ALARCON FACTORS AFFECTING NASHVILLE’S INNER-CITY KIDS AND THEIR EDUCATION

Though an increase in Nashville’s population can be seen as a new source of revenue, popularity, and opportunities, it also raises the question of how well Nashville is dealing with the increase of those belonging to lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

The Tennessee government’s website defines one’s “socioeconomic status” as “the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation. Examinations of socioeconomic status often reveal inequities in access to resources, plus issues related to privilege, power, and control” (Demographics and Socioeconomic Status). After researching many websites and meeting many kids of lower socioeconomic statuses from Kids Academy first hand, it is apparent that belonging to a lower socioeconomic class does inhibit education. As education is the gateway to new opportunities and starting a new life, it is concerning that factors such as poor nutrition, lack of housing, crime, family dynamics, and lack of health care, all of which are present in Nashville, directly influence one’s education from the moment of birth.

Belonging to a lower socioeconomic status, sadly, begins affecting a child’s education while in the womb. Disadvantaged mothers, sometimes single or those belonging to low-income households, typically are faced with harsh decisions revolving around food, housing, and much more before giving birth to their child. Because of expenses and difficulty of obtaining such resources, “disadvantaged pregnant women [fail] to obtain or receive adequate prenatal care” (Crooks; Pettigrew 29). Not only does this lack of prenatal care, containing essential vitamins, and proper care of a woman’s body begin to affect a child not even born yet, women in lower-income houses are more likely to fall into habits of smoking, drinking, and drug use to cope with difficult situations, also inhibiting child-growth within the womb (Pettigrew 29). When women finally give birth to their children, studies have shown that “women with household incomes falling below the federal poverty threshold were [thirty-three] times more likely to deliver a low birth weight baby” (Pettigrew 30). Sadly, this implies that such children would naturally be prone to facing more health risks not only later on in life, but very possibly early on in their childhood as well. A study by Starfield ed al. (1991) indicated that these low-weight babies not only would face future health restrictions, but also struggled in school immediately. They would begin to struggle early on in reading, writing, and math due to the inability to pay attention and the tendency to behave poorly within classroom settings (Anderson & Doyle; Pettigrew 30). This illustrates the reality that many children face when they are born into a low-income family–even though they had no impact on their family and their socioeconomic status, their health and education would still suffer without them knowing any better.

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Essay: Charlotte Anne Alarcon

Even when children face poverty temporarily, their emotional and behavioral issues spark, causing, again, a lack of ability to fully engross oneself in the classroom.

Because these children, whether lacking “life-sustaining resources” for a long or short amount of time, find themselves not succeeding in the classroom, they tend to show signs of depression, stress, and anxiety at faster rates. This naturally restricts one’s ability to succeed in the classroom, and because they don’t even have the resources to pay for simple items like food and clothes, they won’t be able to obtain mental healthcare (Pettigrew 31). Additionally, racial biases within the school system, though not always intended but are still present nonetheless, affect children in regards to their educational opportunities. In a study by “Lee and Burkham” (2002), it was found that 34% of black children and 29% of Hispanic children were found to belong in the lowest SES, or socioeconomic status, compared to white children–in which only 9% of white children belonged to the lowest SES quadrant (Pettigrew 26). Sadly, this difference is recognizable in the school system and is in no way hidden. Perhaps, for children seeing such divide amongst races and observing that their own is one of the races most prone to poverty, it creates a low standard for them, making them believe that there is no point in trying in school as their future is already defined. Because public schools struggle to have the right accomodations and funds to support such students, it is easy for them to continue to think this way and lose interest in education by simply acting out (Pettigrew 26). This acting out soon leads to dropping out of school very quickly, a notion not uncommon within the public school system. A 2018 Tennessee High School Dropout report stated 89% of high schoolers graduated on time. As high as this seems, it is still important to note that those not graduating are those from urban inner cities with graduation rates of about 80%. This red flag shows Nashville’s little attention and care to those belonging to lower social economic statuses within Nashville’s growing urban school systems (Aldrich). This lack of attention to students within urban school settings makes it seem okay to drop out of school as no adults take initiative to tell students otherwise and fail to teach the importance of continuing one’s education and succeeding further beyond in the educational world.

Family dynamics greatly influence one’s socioeconomic status and endanger one’s future for educational success early on within Nashville. To begin, a child’s education is placed at risk, when their family life begins to shatter and disassemble. Naturally, people are most vulnerable and naive in their youth, making them dependent on adult figures, especially their parents. Being dependent on such adult figures includes dependency for financial security, a home, food, and mental support. As seen in lower socioeconomic status families, it is not just hard to find food or clothes, but many times it is hard to have an adult to look to or even a family to call your own. In a report by “Danzinger and Gottschalk” (1995), it was stated “children were five times more likely to be economically disadvantaged when reared in mother-only homes” (Pettigrew 28-9). This naturally occurs because not only do women typically make less money than men, but being in a one-parent house despite gender means less money going towards home funding and financial security. Sadly, though there are many cases of single dad households, many households within lower socioeconomic

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Essay: Charlotte Anne Alarcon

communities are headed by single women whether their husbands were killed, died naturally, or left them. In a Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights report, it was stated, “[i]n Tennessee, 50.8% of children living in single-mother households were economically disadvantaged; in contrast, only 9.7% of children living with married parents experienced the same financial strain” (Pettigrew 28-9). Sadly, as discussed before many children are born into single-parent households, automatically putting them at risk of being in a lower-socioeconomic status. According to a study by “Betson & Michael”, many people are constrained to their initial socioeconomic background that they obtained in their childhood. Sadly, children cannot choose what socioeconomic status they are born into and in many ways have no power or authority to change that, making it hard for them to work out of it or see a future involving a better education and financial security. In many ways, whatever socioeconomic status one is born into is the same socioeconomic status they are destined to have and live with for the rest of their life (Pettigrew 25-26).

When families begin to separate or parents divorce, children watch the basis of their dependency crumble as their parents, those who are expected to supply everything a child needs, struggle in a new manner in life. While a child in a lower socioeconomic status might solely be worrying about where their next meal might come from, when a family breaks up, it adds a whole new dimension to worry about and makes a child act out even more, whether it be in school or on the streets.

Finally, one’s setting and residence greatly impacts a child’s educational experience.

It is evident that schools with the least amount of attention and funding are placed in areas with people coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. These public schools are given little priority and are simply there so as to say that the community has a public school–many times, these schools are forgotten and ignored when asking for proper materials to better themselves for the children. It is well known that public schools are funded ultimately by local funds and taxes from the community.

When a school is receiving taxes from an already low-income community, they are naturally going to receive less money compared to schools in areas with wealthier families (Pettigrew 27-8). This ends up acting like a domino effect, in that because the school rallies little support and funding, it directly influences the children living in that area making it hard for them to succeed academically and see the importance of a genuine education–because they are not offered a genuine education. Being in an impoverished community not only offers little access to facilities dedicated to supporting education, it also leaves many “expose[d] minors to crime, drug use, and more” (Pettigrew pg 27). Although these factors are not related to education directly, they negatively affect youth in ways that eventually affect their education. When children are exposed to illegal and harmful activities, such as misuse of drugs and alcohol or joining groups devoted to performing violent acts around the community, they lose sight of a life full of higher education and a life above the typical lower socioeconomic one, and fall down the same tracks of many that take advantage of the youth to do their dirty work and “live in the moment”. These actions lead students to act out within their school settings, get expelled, or even cause them to quit schooling altogether as they find themselves more intrigued in alcohol, drugs, and crime

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Essay: Charlotte Anne Alarcon

(Pettigrew 27). Sadly, one’s surroundings directly impacts their community’s school and children’s education.

The following facts sadly show how Nashville continues to fail to support children in lower socioeconomic backgrounds, however, to conclude, there are still solutions possible to introduce to public schooling and Nashville in general to help Nashville’s youth in finding hope for a better education and future. As discussed above, public schools in lower-income communities naturally receive less attention compared to other public schools in wealthier areas of Tennessee. Many aspects–overpopulated classrooms, little opportunities to take harder classes such as honors or AP courses, or the teacher’s inability to assess each individual student’s learning style and behavioral needs–attribute to a student’s educational experience falling behind.

However, if a school were to stand up, whether supported by their community vocally or financially, and establish goals for student collaboration, peer tutoring, and moments for teachers to interact with smaller groups of kids, students would begin to feel supported and hopeful–something not always experienced or found at home. This newfound help could be the main factor to entice students to stay at school and understand that much more of this can be found and utilized in the higher educational world. To further a student’s education and see that more jobs other than those low-paying ones typically offered to community members of lower socioeconomic statuses, schools can bring real-world experiences and job fairs to their schools to introduce a new “perspective” to the students. Whether this includes bringing in examples of people with different jobs, showing how one can achieve such jobs, or simply introducing colleges whether they be community, state, or private colleges, such experiences emphasize the exciting future that lays ahead for those who stick to their education. Many times, they don’t even know what the big world has to offer as they are isolated within their small community (Inclusion: Awareness of Socioeconomic Diversity 1-3). These changes all involve broadening the student’s perspective of the world around them and introducing them into a life that they haven’t had the opportunity to live. By showing what education can bring a student in life, whether it be a permanent home, a well-paid job, or financial security, students will begin to feel more inclined to continue their education, despite their lowersocioeconomic status. These changes, in fact, could be the way to break the cycle and show youth from all around urban Nashville that it is up to them to continue their education and show they are supported in doing so to start a life of financial security for themselves and soon later be able to give back to their old community to better education for the generations to come.

WORKS CITED Aldrich, Marta W., and Laura Faith Kebede. “Tennessee’s 2018 Graduation Rate Is Steady at 89 Percent. See How Your School Did.” Chalkbeat, 1 Oct. 2018, chalkbeat.org/posts/ tn/2018/10/01/tennessees-graduation-rate-steady-at-89-percent-see-how-your-schooldid/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020.

Anderson, P., & Doyle, L.W. (2003). Neurobehavioral outcomes of school-age children born extremely low birth weight or very preterm in the 1990s. Journal of the American Medical Association, 289, 3264-3272.

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Essay/Reflection: Charlotte Anne Alarcon

Betson, D. M., & Michael, R.T. (1997). Why So Many Children are Poor. The Future of Children, 7(2), 25-39. Retrieved December 11, 2007, from http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/ vol7no2ART2.pdf Crooks, D. L. (1995). American Children at Risk: Poverty and its Consequences for Children’s Health, Growth, and School Achievement. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 38(S21), 57-86.

Danzinger, S., & Gottschalk, P. (1995). America Unequal. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

“Demographics and Socioeconomic Status.” TN.gov, TN.gov Services, www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ environmental/epht/demographics-and-socioeconomic-status.html. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020.

Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights. (2007, September). 2006 Women and children poverty data: Tennessee. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from http://www. heartlandalliance.org/maip/documents/WomenChildrenFamiliesTN9.4.pdf Inclusion: Awareness of Socioeconomic Diversity. Knoxville, U of Tennessee Knoxville Teaching and Learning Innovation. The University of Tennessee Knoxville, teaching.utk.edu/wpcontent/uploads/sites/78/2018/04/AprilDiversiTea.pdf. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020.

Lee, V. E., & Burkham, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the Starting Gate: Social Background Differences in Achievement as Children Begin School. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

Pettigrew, Eydie J. A Study of the Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Student Achievement in a Rural East Tennessee System. Edited by Joyce Duncan, Dr., May 2009. East Tennessee State University, dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3196&context=etd. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020.

REF LECTION: CHARLOTTE ANNE ALARCON KIDS ACADEMY REFLECTION After spending two weeks as a general counselor at Kids Academy and researching different aspects of how underprivileged youth are affected in school, my eyes have been opened to a greater world within our own city of Nashville. Before being a part of Kids Academy, I had little knowledge surrounding what life was like for under-priveledged inner-city kids in Nashville, and I certainly did not know the extent to how little and flawed their education system is. When my group of eight kids in Kids Academy began taking math, English, writing, and science classes, I was shocked to discover my group struggled to read simple sentences such as “dogs are crazy” and some had no idea what addition and subtraction in math even meant as middle schoolers. I was disheartened and felt a sense of guilt rush over me as I watched the children in my class being introduced to many subjects I had been introduced to long before middle school.

Although many of the kids in my class struggled and sometimes “fought back” when learning these challenging and new concepts, I now understand, following writing my research essay, that many of these reactions derived from their family backgrounds.

Throughout our two weeks, many kids would mention that they had never seen so much food when we were at lunch in our cafeteria or mention that they hadn’t seen their mom or dad in a while. These are just two of the many examples of situations kids may face that don’t just affect their emotions and growth but affect their education as well. As the days went by, I began to learn how to approach many of the kids who struggled with reading, writing, and completing math problems. I learned that it was

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Reflection: Charlotte Anne Alarcon

more successful to handle each student individually, as each is different and is at a different stage–another tip I found when researching how to alleviate problems within the school system regarding kids with difficulties. I would be patient and wait for each one to complete what they could and then help lead them in the direction to continue completing their work. Many would try to convince us to give them the answers, but I found that rather than giving them loads of worksheets to do, playing games and encouraging each one led to an environment in which students truly enjoyed learning and sharing answers they found on their own.

Although working with kids can be challenging sometimes, I found this to be the most rewarding service work I have completed due to the fact that I was able to create relationships and use lessons I’ve learned from school to actually make an impact. I truly enjoyed getting to make real connections to those I was helping and watching their growth and enjoyment out of Kids Academy. I, along with two other counselors from Kids Academy who are in the dance ensembles, also taught a dance class to the kids one Tuesday morning. We choreographed a dance routine and then allowed the kids to express themselves through dance through a “improvosition” section. It was so much fun to watch our work and our passion translate to others and allow them to simply just have fun and be in the moment. Completing my research essay and being a counselor in Kids Academy truly opened up my eyes to see a whole new problem within Nashville and has prompted a new passion of mine to go out and help more regarding the education system in not just in Tennessee, but anywhere.

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Essay: Anisa Bhatt

ESSAY: ANISA BHATT CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN NASHVILLE

Over the summer, working with volunteers and teachers who were a part of Kids Academy, I got great insight into the problem of childhood education in Nashville.

Although Nashville is equipped with some of the best education systems, there are numerous families that are not able to give their kids the best educational opportunities because of their income level or other roadblocks. Because there are a lot of children who can not afford private schooling, a lot of parents look to public schools or homeschooling to educate their kids. However, with the large population of Nashville, schools are starting to become overpopulated, hindering the education of children and abilities of the teachers. These families are often overseen by the government; however, there are many successful organizations that work with volunteers, such as Kids Academy, that provide services and time to the children who lack the perfect learning experience. Applying knowledge from psychology class and observations from Kids Academy, I also researched the perfect learning environment for students to expand their knowledge and grow as an individual.

Primarily, the definition of a family living in poverty needs to be established. In 2016, The National Center for Children in Poverty looked at data regarding families income, and stated that the federal poverty threshold is $24,339 for a family of four with two children (“Tennessee Demographics of Poor Children.”). Any family that has a household income below that number is considered to be living in poverty. However, the most concerning part of the data, research shows that families need at least twice the federal poverty threshold in order to provide basic needs to the household.

This definition of poverty is very outdated, as it has remained unchanged since 1960.

In 1960, the government set the poverty line at three times the basic food basket.

However, in more current times, food only accounts for one-seventh of the cost of living, and the poverty line has only adjusted due to inflation. In Tennessee, there are 364,692 children who live with poor families. Out of those children, 84,154 children live with parents who do not have a high school degree (“Tennessee Demographics of Poor Children.”). That stated, many parents do not have much knowledge on how to provide their kids with the best education based on personal experience. Some families even question whether or not they should homeschool their kids in order to save money. Because families do not have to pay for as many clothes and donate for school fundraisers, homeschooling children is significantly cheaper. Compared to the total price of $2,225 per year for public school, including gas, school supplies, clothing, and donations, homeschooling costs about $1,300 less at a total cost of $925 per year (“Is Public School Cheaper than Homeschooling?”).

There are about 136,273 children in Nashville according to Nashville AreaConnect compared to the overall population of 691,243 people. Furthermore, out of the

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Essay: Anisa Bhatt

183,863 households in Nashville, 47,985 of them have children. Kristen Vaughn, a volunteer teacher from Tusculum Elementary School, has provided her knowledge and personal experience of teaching at an overpopulated school, and how she had to use her creativity and insight to still provide a good education to her students.

Because there were so many students at the elementary school, portable classrooms had to be installed in the back of the school. Because the classrooms were portable, and installed outside, there was no AC or heating unit installed to stabilize the extreme Nashville temperatures outside. During the summer, the temperature in the portable classrooms soared over 82 degrees fahrenheit, and was sometimes close to freezing during the winter. She hoped that the kids would come in with jackets and mittens during the winter, but most children were not able to afford such winter articles of clothing. There is also limited electricity that can be supplied to the portable classrooms. Because of this limitation, teachers cannot have any lamps or even coffee makers. Furthermore, the portable classroom provides no natural light.

The children at schools such as Tusculum Elementary School know that this does not happen at other schools, and lose the passion to learn because of their environment.

In Nashville, there are 5 metro schools that are currently teaching hundreds more children than their maximum capacity. These schools are operating at 25 percent or higher, over their max capacity (Zelinski, Andrea). Although the environment of learning at some of the overcrowded public schools is not ideal in any manner, it is crucial for schools to have great teachers to still keep the children learning and growing. However, it is getting harder and harder to attract teachers to these overcrowded schools. Many teachers are leaving their current jobs because of the 5060 hour weeks and endless papers to grade (Jaggers, Gayle). Furthermore, if a survey were taken, it would be apparent that there would be lower grades in a classroom that is overpopulated compared to a classroom that has an appropriate teacher to student ratio. When there are too many students per teacher, the teacher does not have the ability to help the children one-on-one and is not able to give students individual attention if necessary. Moreover, since the teacher can not oversee the high amount of students, there could be problems with behavior. Because of this problem, teachers may find themselves focusing on a few unfocused students instead of putting effort into helping those who need more help. This could create a domino effect all the way to the college application process if the student chooses to go down the university route. If the student does not do well in middle school, it will leave them a few steps behind from their classmates, and will hinder their shot at getting into, or doing well in college.

Applying knowledge from psychology class and learning about the ideal learning environment, I have combined the research I have done with the work from psychology class to explain how children could learn with most proficiency. There is not a way to physically lower the population of Nashville without being tyrannical; however there is a way for teachers to try to create a good learning environment with the facilities they are given, even though it can be hard. Not only should teachers provide an optimal learning environment, family members should also continue the learning once the children return back home from school. The first psychologist

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Essay: Anisa Bhatt

that we learned about in psychology class is Jean Piaget. Piaget studied childhood development. He was not interested in comparing levels of intelligence between ages, but had more of an interest in the development of mental skills. He also had a big impact on education. Piaget thought that rather than trying to teach a child to think and behave like an adult would, teachers should be encouraged to view their work as an opportunity to educate children in individual thinking. Education should inspire children to not allow themselves to conform or follow guidelines that would hinder their imagination. Piaget also thought that children grow their moral education based on their observations of the world. Peers, not student’s parents, are crucial for the moral development of children. Piaget divided the moral development and education into four stages. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage where babies view the world through their senses, mainly touch. The next stage is the preoperational stage.

During this stage, children arrange objects logically based on their appearance. The third concrete operational stage is the stage where time, space, and quantity are understood that they can be of different forms. The fourth and final stage is the formal operational stage, which is where most middle schoolers are at right now.

This is the stage where hypothetical thinking and verbal reasoning started to be used in education. Piaget was very adamant about making sure students had a lot of peer interaction in and out of the classroom to promote moral growth (The Psychology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained). The next psychologist studied was Lev Vygotsky.

He was a Russian psychologist who spread the idea that skills needed to reason all stem from experiences of a child. Vygotsky believed that children achieve their wisdom and values from their caregivers and past generations. Children then use this wisdom and these values to navigate the world once they become independent from their family. He also had many theories that influenced approaches to learning and teaching. He believed that teachers should have an instructive role, as they should guide and nurture their students. This would help their students improve their attention span, concentration, and learning skills (The Psychology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained). Using the works of these two psychologists, teachers in Nashville should strive and put effort into making the perfect learning environment for their students even if they don’t have the proper funding or supplies. Although the teachers at the overcrowded or low funded schools don’t have the facilities or supplies to support their students physically, they can change their education performance to create the environment that is best suitable according to these two psychologists.

Other than the teachers striving to make the perfect learning environment for their students, there are multiple ways we, as citizens of Nashville, can also help with this problem. There are many organizations that are in Nashville that work to gather supplies and take donations from the citizens of Nashville in order to help schools around the city. One, that even The Ensworth School is a part of, is Book’em. Book’em is an organization that takes donations of books and gives them to children from underprivileged homes and communities in Nashville (Bliss, Jessica). There are many reasons why it is important for children to have a lot of options of books at their disposal in their home or classroom. Reading expands the vocabulary of children, as they come across words they have never heard of, which then prompts the children to

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Essay: Anisa Bhatt

either go to a dictionary or ask their parents to find out what the word means. (Short, Annabelle) Reading also helps children become a more independent student with more self confidence. Reading starts off by children being read to by their parents or someone else, but as the child becomes more advanced in their studies and education, they begin to start reading by themselves, thus developing a sense of independence.

As they begin to read independently, they begin to obtain a perspective of their own to view the world with. Furthermore, children at a young age are able to recognize signs and labels in the outside world, and being able to read will help them understand the purpose those items serve. Reading also helps enhance children’s imagination, by letting them use words to paint a picture in their head. When someone reads a book, it is not very likely that someone has the same image in their head as someone who is reading the same book. This also creates a sense of independent thoughts and opinions. Another organization that provides books to children from low-income areas in Nashville is Ride for Reading (Bliss, Jessica). Volunteers that are a part of Ride for Reading can either donate books to the organization or also volunteer to deliver the books to the children via bicycle. Dolly Parton also has a great organization called the Imagination Library that provides one book per month to children from birth to 5 years old for free.

As I worked with Kids Academy, I saw the issue that overcrowded schools can have on the quality of education through the performance of the children at the summer camp. With this problem in sight, I was immediately intrigued and sought to research about how Nashville can solve or aid the problem of overcrowded schools. Although funding for public schools is still in question, with portable classrooms still being used, organizations and nonprofits in Nashville also help children from low-income areas be able to afford the school supplies necessary to perform well in school.

Through the knowledge that I got from psychology and learning about Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, I was able to construct the perfect learning environment that takes little to zero money to give to the students. Using this environment and way of teaching, students in Nashville will be able to perform at their best and use their education to pursue a successful future.

WORKS CITED

Bliss, Jessica. “Want to help Metro Nashville Public Schools students? Here’s how to volunteer or donate.” Tennessean, 6 Sept. 2019, www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/09/06/wanthelp-nashville-public-schools-heres-how-volunteer-donate/2199576001/.

“Is Public School Cheaper than Homeschooling?” Southeast Homeschool Expo, www. southeasthomeschoolexpo.com/public-school-cheaper-than-homeschooling/. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Jaggers, Gayle. “Poverty and low income households challenge to Nashville Public School Teachers |Opinion.” Tennessean, 18 July 2019, www.tennessean.com/story/ opinion/2019/07/18/metro-nashville-school-teachers-deserve-better/1746625001/.

Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

The Psychology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2012.

Short, Annabelle. “10 Reasons Why Reading is Important for Kids.” Imagine Forest, 25 July 2017, www.imagineforest.com/blog/10-reasons-reading-important-kids/. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

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Essay/Reflection: Anisa Bhatt

“Tennessee Demographics of Poor Children.” National Center for Children in Poverty, Bank Street Graduate School of Education, 19 Nov. 2018, www.nccp.org/profiles/TN_profile_7. html.

Zelinski, Andrea. “At some overcrowded Nashville schools, the student body is only getting bigger.” Nashville Scene, 20 Nov. 2014, www.nashvillescene.com/news/article/13056962/atsome-overcrowded-nashville-schools-the-student-body-is-only-getting-bigger. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

REF LECTION: ANISA BHATT SERVICE SCHOLAR REFLECTION: KIDS ACADEMY I worked with Kids Academy during the summer of 2019 in partnership with Ensworth High School and other junior and senior peers. Leading up to Kids Academy, the camp counselors met together in order to come up with a plan to ensure a beneficial and fun summer program for the campers. With the leadership of Shealy Mischinski and Mae Mae Wallace, along with the help of Coach Whitfield, there were some great ideas that were implemented into the curriculum of Kids Academy. We also partnered with John Early Magnet School, where most of the campers were from, to make sure we were teaching the correct and appropriate skills in preparation for their middle school.

Many of the students from John Early were from low-income families or communities, and may have had trouble learning in the best environment. I was a general counselor, which means that I followed and helped the kids with everything, including all four of their classes and daily activities. I was there during the harder and more academic times; but even so, I also saw how the kids flourished in just two weeks. Out of all four classes, including reading, math, science, and writing, the kids enjoyed science the most. Dante Rodriguez, our science teacher, brought in so many supplies from his house and the store in order to provide the children materials to perform science experiments.

The kids were so amazed and saw how what they had learned in science class at school really works, right in front of their eyes. During the second week, two other general counselors and I were tasked with coming up with a dance routine that the children would enjoy and teach it to them as one of their activities of the week. The week prior, we gathered and choreographed a fun and upbeat dance routine that would get the kids active but also let them show their true colors and personality. We didn’t really know what to expect before we taught the routine; however, we were amazed to see how excited the kids were to share our passion for dance. I have always been the dancer who is given choreography to perform, so it was very fun and interesting to be in the reversed role and see how the kids put their “twist” to the choreography. Some campers were a little shy in the beginning; however, when they saw their peers dancing around them, they opened up a little and joined in. This pattern of peer interaction was also present in the classroom. Although the students had a lot of self-motivation, they were also motivated by each other. They worked together in each science experiment, they read out loud together, and helped each other with math problems. Finally, we also took a couple of field trips, including The Nashville Zoo. At both of the field trip locations, the campers

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Reflection: Anisa Bhatt

took a break from being “students� and we got to see what they were like outside of school. Their curious nature and attention to detail carried to the outside world as they were astonished with all of the animals at the zoo. They were never scared to ask questions and expand their knowledge about the animals around them. Overall, Kids Academy was an amazing experience and taught me a lot about how children learn, and about myself and how to provide children with the perfect learning environment.

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Essay: Jessica Calloway

ESSAY: JESSICA CALLOWAY THE TRUE SACRIFICES OF FAMILIES AND CHILDREN FOR PEDIATRIC HOSPITAL VISITS For my service scholar project, I was a STriVe volunteer at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt this summer. The main objective of this volunteer program was to work with patients and parents in order to make their hospital stay a little bit easier, more comfortable, and hopefully, less traumatic. I played with patients and their siblings and provided games and necessities, like toiletries, to families by taking carts to the inpatient rooms.

While reflecting on my time at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, I realized that there are two distinct sides to a hospital. Typically, I was experiencing the gratefulness of the parents and seeing the smiles of the kids. However, there were a few times where I saw the other side, and I experienced a parent’s frustration or a child being too fatigued to engage. I saw the happier perspective much more often, but I knew, from the glimpses of the more dismal perspective, that there was a huge “behind the scenes” element filled with sacrifices, fears, and despair. This realization inspired me to research the main reasons why the children end up in the hospital and the losses that the families sustain due to this visit. Learning this information has helped me to sympathize more with the families I worked with this summer and have a deeper understanding of their situation.

Coming into this experience, I truly had no knowledge about hospitals or the main reasons why children end up there. To begin, I wanted to answer this foundational question. I discovered that the top three reasons are injury, respiratory disorders, and nervous system disorders (Leonard). Among these broad categories, in 2012, the top five specific diagnoses for children in the hospital, age zero to seventeen, were pneumonia, acute bronchitis, asthma, mood disorders, and appendicitis (Witt). I chose to further investigate three of these disorders that affect different parts of the body.

Asthma is an airway infection and its main causes are allergens, irritants, exercise, and stress. The main symptoms are a chronic cough, less energy, loss of breath, and feeling weak or tired (“Asthma in Children (Childhood Asthma)”). Asthma is chronic and cannot be cured, but it is highly treatable (Gill). Treatments may include bronchodilator medication, anti-inflammatory drugs, and an inhaler (“Emergency Care for Acute Asthma Attack in a Child”).

Mood disorders are a drastic change in mood that affect daily activities. Examples include major depression and bipolar disorder. They can be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and can also be hereditary, meaning that parents are able to pass on a mood disorder trait to their children. In addition, mood disorders could be substance-induced or caused by a health or life problem, such as parents getting

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Essay: Jessica Calloway

divorced or the death of a close family member. The main symptoms are feelings of despair, helplessness and guilt, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, trouble with relationships, and a drop in energy. These can lead to poor performance in school, constant anger, and acting out of rebellion. When one visits the hospital due to a mood disorder, he or she stays for an average length of seven days. Treatments may include medicines, talk therapy or psychotherapy, family therapy, or working with the school to create an individualized education plan (Mood Disorders in Teens).

Appendicitis is the painful swelling of and an infection in the appendix. This is caused when the inside of the appendix is blocked by something, then germs and bacteria increase rapidly, and blood supply is cut off. The main symptoms are pain in the abdomen, vomiting, fever, chills, and constipation. When one visits the hospital for appendicitis, he or she stays for one to three days after the operation. Treatment includes an abdominal ultrasound or CT scan to diagnose and after this, either open surgery or laparoscopic surgery (“Appendicitis”).

This research is very important to me because I now have a deeper insight into what the kids that I played with could have been feeling like physically. I also am appreciative that I got the chance to be one bright spot in their day that clearly could have been very difficult to get through.

Aside from physical pains, costs and loss of time can also cause trouble for families.

The research conducted by JoAnna K. Leyenaar, MD, concluded that, in 2016, thirty percent of the average number of pediatric hospitalizations for that year were longer than four days (Leyenaar). I previously had the misconception that the majority of kids stayed in the hospital for weeks or months, but clearly this is not the case. This percentage affirms the information from the disorders above, which also have an average hospital stay of only a few days. Although not a long time, a few days can be a difficult sacrifice for a family. I met many families who had travelled from around the state and the country to come to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Even for families who live in Nashville, taking off time from work can be difficult or impossible, and not being with their sick child in order to keep their job is a devastating sacrifice. I was surprised when I walked from one room bustling with extended family to another room with a tiny infant all by herself, but this showed the harsh reality behind necessary decisions for parents.

In regards to cost and understanding this burden on families, I was specifically interested in how insurance plays a role. In the same, previously mentioned study, Dr. Leyenaar found that at general hospitals, respiratory diseases were responsible for the highest condition-specific total hospital costs (Leyenaar). Due to the fact that respiratory conditions are one of the leading causes for pediatric hospitalization, this information matches up. According to research by Dr. Brian J. Moore, the average pediatric nonbirth hospital stay was $13,400 in 2016. I then researched more about insured versus uninsured visits (Moore). In 2012, Dr. Whitney P. Witt conducted research called “Overview of Hospital Stays for Children in the United States”. Her

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Essay: Jessica Calloway

findings reflected that, in 2012, the total number of hospital stays for kids age zero to seventeen was 5,850,200, and 3.5% of these, or 204,757, were uninsured. When I first saw the 3.5%, the number did not grab my attention, but when I did the calculations and saw that 204,757 families had to figure out a way to pay without insurance, I was shocked (Witt). She found that, across all hospitalizations, mean hospital costs were lower for children than for adults; however, excluding newborn and maternal stays, mean hospital costs were higher for children. This statistic shows that overall, for the disorders I am focusing on (which exclude newborn and maternal stays), costs are higher for pediatric visits. Juxtaposing this information, the study also showed that hospital stays for children are less likely to be uninsured than hospital stays among adults (Moore). This information seems to contradict itself, but this may stem from the fact that most children are blameless for health problems, but adults can make certain choices in their life, like smoking or diet, which can lead them to a hospital visit.

Asthma is a leading cause of chronic disease-related school absenteeism, so I dove deeper into the troubles this disease can cause. Currently, more than four million kids have asthma, so clearly it is common. However, 5.5% of these kids were unable to see a primary care doctor for asthma because of cost. Again, this may seem like a small percentage, but 5.5% is actually 220,000 kids that cannot see a doctor. 4.6% or 184,000 kids were unable to see a specialist due to cost and 10.7% or 428,000 kids were unable to buy medication because of cost (Hsu). These barriers are heartbreaking, but a true reality for many families.

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt does have a strong financial assistance program, including an initiative called CoverKids, which “provides free, comprehensive health coverage for qualifying children 18 and younger in Tennessee” (“Payment, Financial Assistance and More”). However, healthcare is a global issue and many healthcare providers across the country and the world do not offer the same amount of assistance to families who need it. I felt that I needed to complete this research to more deeply understand the families and children in all hospitals, not just the one I worked in.

My research and experience both connect to academic disciplines and previous knowledge from the quarter service days. My research directly connects to my AP Biology class, which I took junior year. During this class, we learned about how the human body works and responds to foreign bacteria. We learned about the respiratory system, which accounts for the majority of pediatric hospital visits, and how hereditary genes can be passed through family, which is one way a child could have a mood disorder. My experience directly related to Spanish, which I have been taking classes in throughout all of high school. I did not realize that I would be using my Spanish, but I was so excited that I was able to do so. One day, while pushing around a cart of toiletries to the inpatient rooms, I opened the door to a family who spoke only Spanish.

When I was able to communicate effectively with the mom in her language, she was so overwhelmingly grateful and this meant so much to me. I loved being able to tell her that she could pick out anything and everything was free of charge. This interaction

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Essay: Jessica Calloway

once again reaffirmed the fact that I want to pursue Spanish and minor in it during college. The quarter service days that I participated in throughout high school helped to develop the skills necessary for this program. I learned to offer help wherever I could, to cooperate with others, and to remember that the purpose of service is to always put others first and not focus on myself.

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is one of the most special places I have been. Everything they do has a specific purpose behind it. Although they could just provide basic healthcare, they choose to go above and beyond for their patients.

They have frequent celebrity visits, crafts, movie showings, and mini-concerts for the families. There is even a radio station on the main floor that can be heard throughout the whole hospital, including all of the rooms for kids who cannot leave. My volunteer group of high schoolers worked under child life specialists, who manage the emotional and mental aspect of the treatment plan for the kids. The ways that we helped them to help the kids seemed so simple, yet had such a concrete purpose. The playrooms and games gave the children an opportunity to have a normal childhood and to provide a mental escape for their current situation. The carts full of activities gave kids the chance to make a choice in a place where they are not able to make very many choices. They cannot tell a doctor they don’t want to have their blood drawn, but they can say they don’t want to play with the toy cars. Being around this amazing and purpose-driven energy inspired me to go above and beyond when volunteering.

I pushed myself to constantly see where I could help, put others first, and to not complain when my job seemed boring, but to mentally return to the reason for what I was doing. I have carried these ways of interacting with others and tasks throughout my life since the program ended, and I will continue to implement these into my life in the future. Thanks to participating in STriVe and having the opportunity to work with child life specialists, I could see this occupation as a possible job option for me.

I have been inspired to study child psychology and possibly earn a degree in social work. I am so happy that, for the first time in my life, I have found a career that I could truly see myself being excited to wake up to every day.

WORKS CITED “Appendicitis.” StLouisChildren’s, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, www.stlouischildrens.org/ conditions-treatments/appendicitis. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020 “Asthma in Children (Childhood Asthma).” WebMD, www.webmd.com/asthma/childrenasthma#1. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

“Emergency Care for Acute Asthma Attack in a Child.” WebMD, www.webmd.com/asthma/ asthma-attack-emergency-treatment-children. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Gill, Karen Richardson, MD, FAAP, editor. “Is Asthma Curable?” Healthline, Healthline Media, www.healthline.com/health/asthma/is-asthma-curable. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Hsu, Joy. Asthma-Related School Absenteeism, Morbidity, and Modifiable Factors. US National Library of Medicine, 1 July 2017. National Center for Biotechnology Information, www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4914465/. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Lasky, Tamar. Children’s Hospitalizations with a Mood Disorder Diagnosis in General Hospitals in the United States 2000-2006. US National Library of Medicine, 7 Aug. 2011. National Center for Biotechnology Information, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3162503/.

Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

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Essay/Reflection: Jessica Calloway

Leonard, Kimberly. “Top Reasons Children End up in the Hospital.” Health.usnews, U.S. News and World Report, 10 June 2014, health.usnews.com/health-news/best-childrenshospitals/slideshows/top-reasons-children-end-up-in-the-hospital?slide=11. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Leyenaar, JoAnna K. Epidemiology of Pediatric Hospitalizations at General Hospitals and Freestanding Children’s Hospitals in the United States. US National Library of Medicine, 11 Nov. 2016. National Center for Biotechnology Information, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ articles/PMC5467435/. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

“Mood Disorders in Teens.” StanfordChildren’s, Stanford Medicine, www.stanfordchildrens.org/ en/topic/default?id=overview-of-mood-disorders-in-children-and-adolescents-90-P01634.

Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Moore, Brian J. Costs of Pediatric Hospital Stays, 2016. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Aug. 2019. HCUP, www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb250-Pediatric-StaysCosts-2016.jsp. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

“Payment, Financial Assistance and More.” Children’sHospitalVanderbilt, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, www.childrenshospitalvanderbilt.org/patient-education/paymentfinancial-assistance-and-more. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Witt, Whitney P., Ph.D. M.P.H., et al. Overview of Hospital Stays for Children in the United States.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Dec. 2014. Hcup-us.ahrq, www.hcup-us.ahrq. gov/reports/statbriefs/sb187-Hospital-Stays-Children-2012.pdf. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

REF LECTION: JESSICA CALLOWAY STRIVE VOLUNTEER PROGRAM AT MONROE CARELL JR. CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL AT VANDERBILT For my service scholar project, I was a STriVe volunteer at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. This program was three weeks during this past summer from July 8-26, Monday through Friday, 8:00 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon.

The main objective of this volunteer program was to work with patients and parents in order to make their hospital stay a little bit easier and more comfortable. Each day, I worked with many other people, both other volunteers and staff. The group of volunteers was made up of eighteen other high schoolers from all across Tennessee, even a few from out of state. Our main “boss” that we worked under was Stephanie Van Dyke, who is the Director of Child Life and Volunteer Services at the hospital. The child life specialists work under her. These were the people who we directly worked and interacted with each day. Their job is to manage the mental health aspect of the treatment plan for patients and to make the stay less traumatic for the child by translating confusing medical terms or treatments into words he or she can understand. They also focus on how important “play” is as an essential element to every childhood and so they incorporate this into the child’s daily routine as much as possible. As STriVers, our main job was to help the child life specialists do their job and help as many kids as they can. The main way that we did this was through rotations.

Each week we would all get two new rotations, one for the morning and one for the

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Reflection: Jessica Calloway

afternoon. One of my favorite rotations was monitoring the patient playroom. I loved being able to interact and create strong relationships with the patients while coloring, playing air hockey, or doing a craft. These activities tied back into the intention of giving the kids time to just play like a normal kid and not have to think about scary treatments or situations going on outside of that room. This playroom was very therapeutic for the parents as well. They were able to just sit, breathe, and let go of any stress or tension about the health of their child for a moment.

During my experience, I noticed how intimidated I was by being in a new environment, surrounded by people I didn’t know. I was very nervous the first time I took the elevator with (very important looking) doctors and nurses. Throughout my time at the hospital, I slowly gained confidence interacting with parents, nurses, and even the kids. At the beginning of the program, we learned how to communicate with the kids, like talking to the child before the parent, and always getting down on the same level as him or her. I now am able to navigate unknown situations and can communicate much better with people I do not know.

During my time, I noticed how truly amazing Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital is. They have an intention behind everything they do and always go the extra mile to make families happier and more comfortable. By being immersed into this type of energy, I was motivated to work hard and always help even when I was not asked to. I believe the strengthening of this skill will serve me well in life.

My research focuses on the conditions and reasons that lead to hospital visits, the cost of these visits, and the amount of time that these families have to sacrifice. In AP Biology, we learned about how these conditions happen in the body. My experience also connects to AP Spanish because I was able to communicate with several Spanishspeaking families in the hospital.

This program was a fantastic experience that truly has changed my life and has given me new ideas about careers in the future.

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Essay: Carrie Cohen

ESSAY: CARRIE COHEN HAITIAN EDUCATION

Abraham Lincoln once said, “the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.” Mediating on the words of the sixteenth president of The United States of America, one may wonder how countries without classrooms are governed. For the citizens of The Republic of Haiti, the absence of educational resources is the root of many economical and political issues.

Identified as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and a country with one of the world’s highest income inequality ratings as measured by the Gini coefficient as .65, Haiti lacks an education system that provides all children with an opportunity to learn (Jadotte). While Haiti does have a public school system, students suffer from “severe and chronic malnourishment” that prevents cognitive brain development and children in rural areas must walk many miles to and from school each day (Prou). Furthermore, the public schools in Haiti may be tuition free, but parents are financially burdened by the expense of uniforms, books, and other school supplies.

Not only are parents burdened with education expenses, but families must also adjust to the loss of their child’s ability to work and to earn money for survival. As many families find their child’s labor an essential contribution to family survival, losing a pair of hands on the farm may be simply impossible for most families.

Since The Republic of Haiti came into existence, there have been many different attempts to change the cycle of poverty and political volatility through educational reformation. Various Hatian leaders such as Joseph C. Bernard, the Minister of Education in 1979, President Préval, and President Michel Martelly have unsuccessfully attempted to reform the education system. In 1982, Bernard tried to implement “La Réforme Bernard ‘’, which contained a series of changes designed to make education more accessible and attainable for all children (Prou). Bernard’s reform included a multitude of promising changes such as making “the official language of instruction” Creole, a language better understood by the lower class children. Furthermore, Bernard’s reform intended to promote equality under the education system by consolidating urban and rural education under the Ministry of National Education (Prou). In Marc Prou’s “Attempts at Reforming Haiti’s Education System: The Challenges of Mending the Tapestry’’, he states that “in the time leading up to the Bernard reform, both primary and secondary private schools, as well as private universities, vastly outnumbered their public counterparts’’ and the lack of public education is the exact problem Bernard intended to solve. The reform also embraced “literary education for adult learners”’ in addition to provisions for “heath, nutrition, and family support” (Prou). Although Bernard’s plan for reform seemed feasible theoretically, logistically, the reform failed to be successfully implemented because many “local and foriegn actors...undermined the process” (Prou).

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Essay: Carrie Cohen

Nearly twenty-five years after Joseph C. Bernard made the first effort to reform the Haitian educational system, President Préval established the “Groupe de Travail sur L’éducation et la Formation ‘’ which gave all children access to a free primary school education. But, President Préval’s efforts were abruptly ended by the catastrophic earthquake that struck on January, 12, 2010 (Doucet). The earthquake of 7.0 magnitude resulted in an estimated 616,000 people either dead or injured and over 1.3 million people displaced (Dube). After the natural disaster the nation’s few educational resources were destroyed and “in some communities as many as 90 percent of students lost their schools” (Education Is Key to Recovery). As the Haitian government dedicated its budget to disaster relief for many years following the earthquake, any forward motion that Préval had gained towards reforming the education system came to a screeching halt, as attention was focused on rebuilding the country. Following President Préval’s example of education reform, Michel Martelly emphasized country wide access to free primary school education for all children during his presidential campaign in 2011. President Préval’s campaign signs often included the phrase “Timoun Yo Pral Lekòl” which translates to, “the children will go to school” (Doucet). During his campaign, officials projected that Préval’s education movement would reach “more than 500,000 students” during the “2011-2012 academic year alone” (Doucet). While Préval’s movement to reform education originally seemed to be rather impactful, the program did not make nearly as much lasting change to the education system in Haiti as many had hoped. One challenge that all leaders of Haiti face is the pressure from Haitian elites who rely on the “perpetuation of poverty to thrive and maintain the social order” (Doucet). Many elites rely on illiteracy to drive poverty which in turn secures their spot as a wealthy, educated member of society. Although each leader of Haiti faced a new set of pressing issues and unforeseen obstacles, Bernard, Préval, and Martelly each promised educational reform, but for one reason or another failed to deliver on behalf of their promises.

In a nation where “ eighty-seven percent of households whose main provider has no educational background are poor”, the correlation between the level of education and quality of life is abundantly clear (Jadotte). If the education system can not be reformed from internal forces from within a country’s borders such as the force of Bernard, Préval, or Martelly, then external forces may be the only way to truly reform Haiti’s education system. In the wake of the 2010 earthquake, UNICEF distributed “Early Childhood Development Kits” which contained stimulating games and toys for children who were affected by the earthquake (Doucet). Although UNICEF’s kits sound promising, other than positively affecting the mental health of the children affected by the earthquake, the kits seemed to have very little long lasting education value. Another issue is that the development kit was only useful to the child in a family, when research has shown that in times of crisis the best way to help children is by helping the family as a whole, through an approach known as “family-centered care” (Doucet). In fact, Fabienne Doucet, a researcher from New York University and the author of, “Arrested Development: How Lack of Will Cripples Educational Reform in Haiti”, would argue the best way to help Haitians while promoting

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Essay: Carrie Cohen

sustainability would be to fund local grassroots projects rather than universal organizations. But as many external sources such as nonprofits fail to understand the most advantageous way to help the inhabitants of a country in need, the solution to the Haitian education deficit becomes overwhelmingly complex.

After understanding that internal forces in Haiti often lack both the funding and the motivation to make a lasting change and external forces often fail to provide relief in ways that are sustainable, one may truly understand the complexity of the Haitian education crisis. While my research has made me more conflicted than ever on how to truly help make lasting reforms to the education system in Haiti, with a strong positive correlation between literacy and quality of life, I am confident that sending books and education resources to Haitian schools is not a bad place to start. Which is why for my senior service project I created original French children’s books with my own artwork for children in Haiti in partnership with Restor La Vie. Throughout my senior year, I drew on an overwhelming need for education resources and focused on forming a curriculum for the children receiving my books. I designed a multi-chapter children’s book that covered multiple lessons on both science and mathematics. My book included an introduction to addition, a lesson on floating and buoyancy, and the life cycle of a frog. I worked hard to make sure the sentences were easy to understand for children who were learning to read and that my art helped to guide children who were not fully comfortable reading full sentences. While the road to reforming the education system in Haiti clearly continues to encounter many obstacles, I hope that my books will help to build the philosophy of Hatian school rooms which will be the philosophy of the government in the next generation.

Looking into the future, I believe that the only way education in Haiti could truly be reformed would be from a combined effort of both internal and external forces. New policies must be created internally within the Haitian borders, but more importantly these new policies must be carried out and forcefully implemented throughout Haiti by local officials and teachers. With a roadmap laid out by the government, external forces such as nonprofits would be able to supply resources, donate time, and concentrate efforts in a much more organized manner than ever before. Above all else, I think the most effective way to reform Haitian education moving forward would be to concentrate external funding towards the grassroots nonprofits that are already established in Haiti or towards nonprofits opening headquarters within the borders of Haiti. By funding the grassroots nonprofits, Hatian employed nonprofits would be able to sustainably run educational efforts from within the borders of their own country. I feel there is a large disconnect between the people of Haiti and the foreign nonprofits who are working to help better the quality of life of impovered Haitian.

In the future, years down the road, I would love to help move the headquarters of Restor La Vi into Jacmel, Haiti, where the nonprofit’s partner school is located. I may be dreaming big, but all big changes originate from big ideas from big dreams. I truly believe that the change needed in Haiti must come from a partnership between the Haitian government and a well established nonprofit who builds an operating headquarters within the borders of Haiti. While the education system will not be

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Essay: Carrie Cohen

reformed in one night or one year, the reformation must start somewhere. From all my research, I believe the best solution to the education crisis in Haiti would be to open a nonprofit in one of the roughest and most impoverished areas of Haiti. Hiring the impoverished citizens of the local areas to carry out the work of a nonprofit would not only better the lives of each hired Haitian and his or her families but also better the economy as a whole. One instrumental factor would be for the nonprofit to act as a friend rather than a parent. Once Haitian citizens had been hired and fully trained to carry out the work of the nonprofit, gradually the leaders of the nonprofit would allow the headquarters in Haiti to be run solely by Haitians rather than foreigners. Another key aspect of this system would undoubtedly be technology. In order to maintain close contact with the Haitian headquarters, the nonprofit would have to bring technology to Haiti. If one powerhouse company such as Apple or Dell would donate one computer and one printer to the nonprofit’s headquarters, then an American nonprofit could easily build an extension of itself in Haiti to be run by Haitians for Haitians.

While my proposed solution may seem unattainable, I believe in the power of humanity. When humans from all over the world unite with a common goal, nothing is out of reach. If only half of the social media posts dedicated to making jokes about the Corona Virus or COVD-19 were dedicated to the lack of educational resources, then I can guarantee there would be more than enough funding to open multiple nonprofits from within the borders of Haiti. The Haitian government has unsuccessfully attempted to reform the education system for decades, but without guidance from nonprofits within the country of Haiti, very little change has been made. If the entire world was aware of the true nature of the education crisis in Haiti then extraordinary changes would have been made years ago. But, when new health crises and celebrity drama cover the headlines of every news source, the Haitian education crisis has been slowly forgotten. The conversation of Haitian education may have been briefly opened during the 2010 earthquake, when Haiti had its name in the headlines. But, I believe the conversation must reopen with urgency, and I hope to open that conversation today with the presentation of my research, service scholar project, and proposed solution.

WORKS CITED Aronson, Jamie. “Haiti.” Our World: Haiti, Great Neck Publishing, 30 Sept. 2019, p. 1.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.3331/our_world_481_250263.

Doucet, Fabienne. “Arrested Development: How Lack of Will Cripples Educational Reform in Haiti.” Journal of Haitian Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 2012, pp. 120–150. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/ stable/41715455. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

Downie, Andrew. “Haitian Universities Struggle to Rebound. (Cover Story).” Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 58, no. 18, 6 Jan. 2012, pp. A1–A10. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=71767315&site=ehost-live Dube, Annie, et al. “Health Outcomes for Children in Haiti Since the 2010 Earthquake: A Systematic Review.” California English, vol. 23, no. 3, Feb. 2018, pp. 77–88. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1017/S1049023X17007105.

“Education Is Key to Recovery.” America, vol. 212, no. 13, Apr. 2015, p. 10. EBSCOhost,search.

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Essay: Carrie Cohen

ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mat&AN=101913468&site=ehost-live.

Jadotte, Evans. “Characterization of Inequality and Poverty in the Republic of Haiti.”

Estudios Sociales: Revista de Investigación Científica, vol. 15, no. 29, Jan. 2007, pp. 8–56.

EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=24841272&site= eds-live.

Prou, Marc. “Attempts at Reforming Haiti’s Education System: The Challenges of Mending the Tapestry, 1979-2004.” Journal of Haitian Studies, vol. 15, no. 1/2, 2009, pp. 29–69. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41715152. Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

REF LECTION: CARRIE COHEN SERVICE SCHOLAR REFLECTION Over the course of my time at Ensworth, I have loved working alongside my peers to better my community. For my senior service project, I have had the privilege to combine two of my greatest passions, service and French. In partnership with Restor La Vi, a non-profit initiative founded by an Ensworth mother, I have had the opportunity to create original French children’s books for underprivileged students in Haiti. While I have always loved creating original French stories and illustrations for the children in Haiti, for my senior service project I really wanted to take my work to the next step.

Throughout my senior year, I researched education in Haiti and focused on forming a curriculum for the children receiving my books. After spending numerous hours researching the Haitian education system, I designed a multi-chapter children’s book that covered multiple lessons on both science and mathematics. My book included an introduction to addition, a lesson on floating and buoyancy, and the life cycle of a frog. I worked hard to make sure the sentences were easy to understand for children who were learning to read and that my art helped to guide children who were not fully comfortable reading full sentences.

Creating original children’s books for the children in Haiti clearly utilized my knowledge of the French language, but my senior service project incorporated many academic classes and Ensworth core skills than I originally had not anticipated using.

For example, I came across various terms such as “Gini Coefficient” and “Lorenz Curve” while researching the poverty and income inequality in Haiti.

Drawing knowledge from AP Microeconomics, I was able to thoroughly understand the economical issues that contribute to the lack of educational resources in Haiti.

Furthermore, Dr. Todd invited me to present at the Tennessee Conference on Volunteerism and Service Learning on February, 10, 2020. While some students may have felt uncomfortable presenting at a conference of this size, I was easily able to channel the Ensworth core skills of applying knowledge and communicating clearing in a discussion.

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Reflection: Carrie Cohen

While I originally embarked on my senior service scholar project to make a change in the lives of the children in Haiti, I truly believe that the children in Haiti ended up changing my life. After researching education in Haiti, I became even more appreciative of the opportunity I have to attend a school as wonderful as Ensworth.

Learning of the education system in Haiti has really pushed me to think twice before complaining about the heavy AP Economics textbook in my backpack because I now am very aware that children in impoverished countries would love to have a book that heavy. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to provide children in Haiti with children’s books, and I will never really know the magnitude of my impact, as communicating directly to the children in Haiti is nearly impossible. But, I have heard from a correspondent at Restor La Vi that the school receiving my books was able to hire an additional primary teacher as a result of my contribution to the increase in educational resources. Secondly, a correspondent at Restor La Vi also told me that the Haitian teachers keep my books locked in a safe in the classroom because my books are the only books that the school has. I am so honored that my books are so precious to the school that received them, but I wish that all the teachers and students who received my books could know how precious they are to me. Although we may be miles and oceans apart, I will always feel a special connection to the citizens of Haiti because of the bond I have forged with students and teachers through my work with Restor La Vi.

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Essay: Grace Edwards

ESSAY: GRACE EDWARDS LITERACY’S IMPACT IN BREAKING THE CYCLE OF POVERTY FOR UNDERSERVED YOUTH Do you remember learning to read? Do you ever remember being concerned that you couldn’t read as well as some of the other kids in your class during grade school? Do you remember being concerned that there weren’t any books readily available for you to read when you got home from school? These questions can seem small and insignificant to us, yet they are everyday worries for millions of low income children in America. The biggest threat to education in America is poverty. Just as poverty is controlling the education that the underserved children of America are getting, the opportunity to alter this predetermined future is as well. This creates a problem in the present day to society due to the issue that children cannot decide what socioeconomic group their family is from, or what color their skin is. In America, there is something known as the “achievement gap” which is the gap in literacy rates for different socioeconomic groups.

“On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2015 for 12th graders, 46% of white students scored at or above proficient in literacy, while only 17% of black and 25% of Latinos did.” (241 Team). This gap is one of the leading factors in higher incarceration levels, lower paying jobs, and poorer health for Hispanic and Black people. The achievement gap in American society is rooted in historic racism and oppression of minority groups and has not strayed from the people who have been affected yearly. The achievement gap is present in all school subjects ranging from pre school up until higher education but is especially prevalent in the literacy achievement levels for children from minority groups. Poverty in America is a vicious cycle, and one of the primary ways to break that cycle is by boosting the literacy rates of underserved children from low income areas.

As I have personally seen working with two different organizations during my four years of high school, Kids Academy and Preston Taylor Ministries, literacy is both confidence boosting for these young children and can set these kids up for the rest of their lives. “Early literacy is one area where lack of progress is particularly alarming. A student’s ability to read on grade level by the end of 4th grade is a key indicator of future success in school and in life.” (Nelson). Even though both of these organizations have different ideals, the main goal is the same: to keep these underserved and at-risk youth in programs that will lead them into the direction of success and education. As I stated above, literacy not only determines confidence among these kids but can also be one of the main factors of success later in life. Kids Academy and PTM both work to alter the trajectory of the lives of these children, who would probably not be opened up to new experiences due to the economic status of their parents. If by fourth grade, kids have an almost-predetermined fate due to their reading skills, shouldn’t one of our main goals as a society be to understand what we

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can do to boost these scores, and literacy for underserved youth and adults, as much as possible?

Some people also believe that America is a developed country and highly civilized, and as a result literacy is not an issue. Even though this may seem true considering how many people are highly educated in America, literacy is among one of the biggest crises in America today. According to the National Commission on Adult Literacy, “one in three people drop- out of high school and one in four Americans are low income with parents who lack education and knowledge to improve their economic status.” (NCAL). This statistic not only demonstrates that issues with literacy go beyond elementary school, but that many families lack basic knowledge on how to function economically in today’s world.

According to the Heart of America Foundation, “61 percent of families living in poverty do not have children’s books in their homes. Consequently, children living in poverty already have a 50 percent weaker vocabulary than their wealthier peers at the start of the school year.” (Hart) These children attend school with other children who already have a leg up on them due to the amount of money their parents make or the resources their families make available to them. The connection between illiteracy and poverty clearly represents the issue with our education system. Two children from two entirely different backgrounds are put into the same classroom and are treated with the exact same expectations, even though one of them may have read a book at home or the other may not have eaten dinner the night before. The expectation to succeed in a classroom when the teacher or the entire school has no idea about what a child is going through is absurd. So when literacy tests are given and these children that may be from schools with a larger number of children from low income families fail these fourth grade literacy tests, the issue is not that these kids cannot read.

The issue is that these kids have not been set up by America’s education system to succeed due to their background of poverty, in which they have no control over. Coming from a low income family is not what people from higher income backgrounds always think it is or how it affects people. It may be that the child doesn’t know where their next meal is going to come from or that they can’t live in the house they have been living in. Poverty presents itself in many forms, and expectations of kids who do not have the resources to cope with this stress and strain is unreasonable. “Since the 2000-2001 school year, students eligible for free and reduced lunch also increased by 142 percent. Black and Hispanic students have poverty rates two to three times higher than white students.” (Nelson) This demonstrates the growth of low income students in America, as well as the growth in demand for resources to help combat the low literacy rates that come hand in hand with low income students.

Although issues for literacy are represented through every race and ethnicity in low income families and areas, Hispanic and Black children are negatively affected

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compared to white students. The underlying issue of this unbalanced proportion of low income students who are of racial minorities that are failing these literacy tests are due to the unavailable resources for low income students. People from these marginalized races and ethnicities have a harder time finding work, good public education, and even basic human resources due to the assumptions that come along with the color of their skin and their low socioeconomic status. These racist and classist issues and assumptions are prevalent in America, and as these grow, so do the poverty and literacy rates for low income families, students, and neighborhoods. “Between 2000 and 2014, the percentage of K-12 public schools that had high numbers of poor Black or Hispanic students increased from nine to sixteen percent.” (Hart) These issues do not show any signs of relenting due to the increase in tension in today’s society. Every day on the news is a new feeling of hurt for a different group of people, and as adults, we have no idea how this affects the new generation of children. The growth of illiteracy rates among children of color is not due to the growth of these children, but to the growth in social justice issues for racial minorities in America, such as religion and nationality.

Not only are minority groups disproportionately affected by illiteracy, women have just as long been oppressed and left out of education. “Early Americans often believed it was a waste to educate women past the basics since they would need to run a home and raise a family.” (241 Team) This expectation that women will stay home, raise a family, and never need to know about the educated parts of life is not far behind us. The fight for literacy for all people is not even close to over, just because things appear to be better than they used to be, does not mean the fight for people who can’t fight for themselves is over. Even though the literacy rate for minority and immigrant groups are growing, the educational achievement within these groups is stagnant, or even lowering. So these groups are often seen as undeserving or unsuitable for help in educational spaces due to their native language or the color of their skin.

Many people do not view education, specifically literacy, as a social justice issue, even though society is based around the idea that to fully function as a person you must be able to read. “Those who are illiterate can lack access to information, are excluded from making choices about their rights or government through voting, and have fewer opportunities for employment. Illiteracy keeps people trapped in a cycle of poverty and subjugation, limiting life choices and making it difficult to achieve social mobility. Literacy truly is power—power over one’s own life.” (241 Team) Not being proficient in reading is an isolating factor, especially when it is expected of every citizen, and the resources to do so were not readily available. The history of literacy in America is just as complicated and confusing as it is in America today. It had just as much to do with how much money each family had, what family you were from, and where you lived. The ability that literacy has to control others is still prevalent in today’s society, even though for many people it is inaccessible. For hundreds of years, literacy has been something that for many groups of people was unattainable, either due to location or socioeconomic status and nothing about this has changed today, especially children whose parents are not proficient in reading. “Children

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whose parents have low literacy levels have a 72 percent chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves. These children are more likely to get poor grades, display behavioral problems, have high absentee rates, repeat school years, or drop out.” (NBER) These children may have never seen their parents either read a book, or even a menu. The opportunity for a child whose parents were never able to read, may even have a lower ability to get the education their parents were not able to. The issue behind this is, the cycle of poverty and how it affects literacy children.

The fact of the matter is, America’s public education system needs major help. In our communities all across the board, there are schools that are failing, teachers that are underpaid, and students who are unhappy and underperforming. Not only do these issues affect the lives of millions of people but can affect the futures of children who have barely had time to figure out what they want to do with their lives. The problem is that children are not given equal opportunity from the start, and this creates a cycle of communities that can’t ever choose a different future. Low income areas are doomed to remain low income areas until they are gentrified and many different families are displaced. Most of these issues, that start with elementary education, definitely do not end there. “Black and Latino students are roughly two to three years of learning behind White students of the same age.” (McKinsey) These issues of literacy being used as a mechanism of control is not going to end unless literacy is made into a human right, not an option just for people who can afford it. By creating more convenient options and freedom for children to explore their educational abilities, the cycle of poverty and illiteracy cannot uphold itself. If society decides to rebel against systematic oppression against a specific group of people, the system will fail due to a lack of support. Education is not only about what happens inside the classroom but about the circumstances the student faces everyday. One approach to this systematic change could be to implement “Two Generation” programs for the parent and child to learn together, or even just making sure the books you donate or get rid of are going straight towards children, families, and schools in need.

If, as a society, we choose to change the trajectory of millions of people with a predetermined fate, it will lower health care costs by millions and create limitless opportunities to those who have never been given the chance. If America prides itself on being a developed country where the “American Dream” can be achieved, then the education system needs to be set for equal opportunity for children of any background. Education is not something a child should have to think twice about.

Literacy is not an issue of “can we afford it?” but a human right for all.

WORKS CITED Chideya, Farai “Grappling With Realities of Illiteracy.” NPR, NPR, 16 Aug. 2007, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12840593, 21 Jan 2020.

Hanford, Emily. “Why Millions Of Kids Can’t Read And What Better Teaching Can Do About It.” 22 Jan. 2007 www.npr.org/2019/01/02/677722959/why-millions-of-kids-cantread-and-what-better-teaching-can-do-about-it. NPR, NPR, 17 Feb 2020.

Hart, Lucy. “Poverty & Illiteracy in Schools.” Education, 29 Sept. 2016,

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https://education.seattlepi.com/poverty-illiteracy-schools-2334.html 17 Feb 2020.

“Illiteracy in America: Troubling Statistics and How Schools Can Help.” Portland, 27 Sept. 2019, https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/education-news-roundup/illiteracy-in-america/ 23 Jan 2020.

Mourshed, Mona “Engaging Teachers to Advance Childhood Literacy: Social Sector.”

McKinsey & Company, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/social-sector/how-we-helpclients/engaging-teachers-to-advance-childhood-literacy 29 Dec 2019.

Nelson, Norma. “Read This - US Literacy Gap Needs Closing.” TheHill, 3 Apr. 2018, https:// thehill.com/opinion/education/381399-read-this-us-literacy-gap-needs-closing17 Feb 2020.

REF LECTION: GRACE EDWARDS WHY SERVE YOUR COMMUNITY? I never realized how my much time could be valued by someone else until I spent my time on people who deserved it. During the summer of 2019, I worked at Kids Academy and Preston Taylor Ministries, and both organizations work with underserved youth in Nashville. Although these organizations work in different areas and have different goals, the experiences I gained from both have been life changing for me. I have been able to use my life and my privilege for something way bigger than myself.

Kids Academy was the program I joined as a counselor for the summer going into my senior year. This program was a two week camp for 5th graders from John Early Museum Magnet School. This camp was designed to keep the kids busy for the two week period and build relationships that would last well beyond the summer. I was able to see how different other people’s lives are from my own and lean into the discomfort that comes when acknowledging privilege. The way I was able to learn about my own privilege by working with these kids was seeing the difference in my background versus the background these children had, and the opportunities in my life that I had never even acknowledged not everyone had access to.

Preston Taylor Ministries was a whole different story for me. I started working at PTM three years ago because my mom dragged me to a meeting with the girl she was mentoring. I had no idea this one place could help me use my time in such great ways for the benefit of others. After seeing the joy that PTM and all of its programs brought to these kids, I decided I would stay with the program. I never thought that three years later, I would show up everyday after school and smile for the entire two hours I’m there.

These children and families do not choose to struggle, but they are brave enough to ask for help when they need it. Places like PTM have changed the lives for too many families too count, and I am just glad I am able to be a part of it. PTM and the kids I’ve developed relationships with mean a lot to me.

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Reflection: Grace Edwards

I could probably go on for days about why these kids changed my life and why they were so special to me, but in the end, that is not what my service was about. I didn’t choose to work with these kids so that they could give me insights into myself. I chose to work with these two organizations to make a difference in my community and start using my time to demonstrate social responsibility and improve the lives of the people I live next door to. When I first started my service in freshman year, I had no idea the direction it would take me. I thought that each Friday that we had a service day was just another day to do whatever I wanted, hours to pass on my way to graduation. I never grasped the change my effort and determination could make on so many different people. From the Ensworth service learning program I was able to find my place and my people and where I want to make a difference in the world. My privilege, the life I was born into, the people I decide are worth it, are what make service in our communities something special. From my service scholar project I have grown in my social awareness, social responsibility, and attention towards what kind of mark I want to leave behind.

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Essay: Carrie Elcan

ESSAY: CARRIE ELCAN TEARING DOWN THE WALLS

“One of the great challenges of our time is that the disparities we face today have more complex causes and point less straightforwardly to solutions” (Omar Wasow, assistant professor of politics, Princeton University). This is the world we live in.

While the injustices of today are not quite as obvious as the denial of the right to vote, “separate but equal” accommodations, or Jim Crow laws, there is still inequality and there are still problems. Unequal access to education and opportunities, higher incarceration rates amongst minorities, and race wage gaps are just a few examples of the inequalities still existing in the 21st century. Independent schools are a particularly interesting subject of discussion when it comes to diversity and integration because of their unique and unfortunate racial history that still affects the schools today. Therefore, when the 2016 presidential election made the disparities within my own school clearer to me than ever before, I was forced to realize that I wanted and needed to at least try to be a part of the solution. I approached my teacher and mentor, Mr. Whitfield, who shared my dismay over the current state of our school and our country. Together, we hatched a plan: start a conference that brings high school students together to discuss their unique perspectives and experiences in an effort to bridge the divide. This organization came to be a conference called Tearing Down the Walls. While I have worked on this conference for the past four years, I have also taken additional time my senior year to stop, question, and research what other institutions and organizations are doing to foster better race relations between people from all walks of life. My studies have primarily consisted of examining the approaches that the NAIS, White Privilege Conference, and the ISA have taken to bring people together within independent schools.

First, it is impossible to analyze the work organizations are doing to try and improve the racial climate within independent schools without initially understanding why there is such a need for change at these institutions. While independent schools are regularly recognized for their high academic standards, individualistic style of teaching, and exceptional teachers, their often forgotten history and foundations still have a profound impact on the campuses’ dynamics in the current age (The Independent School Advantage). As a result of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, private schools in the South became “a safe haven” for white Americans trying to escape the enforced integration of public schools in the latter half of the 20th century (A History of Private Schools). The Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed segregation in higher public education and overturned the previously established compromise of “separate but equal” in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) (Brown v. Board of Education). Private school enrollment increased by 43% in fifteen southern states after this ruling made whites fear their children’s public institutions would also soon be integrated. In addition, southern states even began

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Essay: Carrie Elcan

setting up funds and extending financial grants to white students in order for them to be able to attend private schools. For example, in 1956, Georgia’s government granted $218,000 to more than 1,500 students in private schools and aided white teachers in leaving public schools for private. Although this kind of legislation did not mention race, it, consequently, barred blacks from attending white private schools because of the white legislators in charge of distributing the aid. Later, during the 1960s, the numbers of students leaving public education for private again significantly increased, this time by 200,000 students, as a result of federal court commands to integrate (A History of Private Schools). While the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and cases like the Bob Jones University trial have since made progress in non-discrimination policies, the damage is still felt and seen in independent schools across the nation today, particularly the Southeast. Private schools today often emphasize diversity in their mission statements and admission advertisements, yet students of color are still immensely underrepresented in these schools (The Independent School Advantage).

The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) annually puts on the two most well known diversity conferences in the United States: the People of Color Conference (PoCC) and the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC).

Although these conferences have grown in size since they first started over thirty years ago, they maintain the same principles as when they were founded. The symposiums provide a safe space for people of color and allies to come together with people experiencing similar struggles within other independent school communities across the nation. Considering that minority students make up on average only 28% of independent schools’ student bodies, it is incredibly refreshening for these students to experience an environment where they feel less marginalized (Average Private School Minority Percentage). Similarly, the minority representation amongst teachers at independent schools is often an ever lower percentage than the student minority ratio, so it is integral that these teachers of color have the opportunity to discuss the pressures, discomfort, and difficulties they face everyday teaching at predominately white schools. The PoCC offers administrators the chance to attend hundreds of workshops, seminars, and master classes that will educate them on how to help improve the racial climate within their schools once they are back in isolating situations. Although it may be beneficial for students to have more discretion in what workshops they choose to attend, like the adults have, the SDLC primarily consists of scheduled breakout sessions called “home/family groups” and a few large plenary session speakers. Both conferences have designated sessions for affinity groups in order to allow open-dialogue between people with shared experiences. The leading stature of these conferences allow them to bring in keynote speakers who are prominent in their fields of work and are capable of motivating the attendees to continue the hard work they do. Through conversations and the arts, faculty and students of color or allyship are emboldened to return to their schools with strategy, leadership, and a new network of people (The NAIS PoCC and The SDLC).

On the other hand, the White Privilege Conference (WPC) principally analyzes the issue of privilege and its injustice. This conference, founded over 20 years ago, invites

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Essay: Carrie Elcan

anyone interested in the discussion to come to collaborate, build their conscience, and listen to how common identifiers (race, class, gender, sexuality, etc) can affect one’s privilege (History of the WPC). The American activist, Dr. Peggy McIntosh states, “Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they have done or failed to do” (White Privilege). Therefore, while white privilege does not mean that no white person ever experiences any form of oppression, it does mean that there are certain unearned rights that white people receive in western society just because of the color of their skin. White privilege is not racism, but it has a heavy, negative impact when it goes unrecognized by its carrier. White people often forget to acknowledge that “normal” to them is not “normal” for others. A few examples of this privilege are: whites generally being able to freely walk in whatever store they want to without being suspected of stealing; being able to open any article, textbook, or media and see their race widely represented; and having the opportunity to choose to be amongst people of their own race whenever they want.

These simple acts are not guaranteed for other races on average days. Privilege exists in all forms and for most people in one way or another, but the intersectionality of one’s whiteness means, at the most basic level, their chances of succeeding in life are innately higher than those who are not white (White Privilege). People’s sexuality, gender, ethnicity, disability, or any other common identifier also come with privilege depending on who they are. The group that statistically and typically has the most privilege is cisgendered, straight, wealthy, and healthy white males. This data is not to say whites should feel unwanted or like they are incapable of helping make progress for other people, it is just something that must be acknowledged to truly understand other groups’ oppressions (How to Show White Men). The WPC works to uncover the unjustness of privilege and how it influences others’ lives. They offer a space for all people, including whites, to explore the topic in a protected space (The WPC Looks).

The Independent School Alliance (ISA) takes a slightly different approach from the two previously mentioned organizations on attacking the issue of race relations.

They focus on counseling and placement for underrepresented students in independent schools. Since 1985, instead of hosting a conference, the ISA has helped place thousands of students in independent schools across Southern California. The ISA helps parents with driven children choose and then apply to schools, prepare for interviews and tests, and apply for financial aid if needed. Most impressively, they also guarantee support programs for the students throughout their education experience once into a school. In reference to the Southeast, black Americans have historically been the group at disadvantage concerning education and social justice. In addition, however, the ISA points out the discrimination that exists for all different races in other areas of the country and the need to also help these students get access to higher-achieving education (ISA). The West Coast, where ISA’s efforts are centered, is no stranger to an embarassing, prejudiced past, and they too still feel the effects of their history. Whether it be the anti-Japanese sentiments mainly taking place in California, or the South Central Los Angeles Race Riots, this area of

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Essay: Carrie Elcan

our country still suffers with inclusivity in its institutions (Korematsu v. U.S. and LA: 1992). The ISA’ efforts have significantly increased the diversity within independent schools of the greater Los Angeles area and have granted many minority children with incredible opportunities (ISA).

My initial passion for Tearing Down the Walls and my additional research for this project has undeniably come from my classes and experiences at Ensworth. I believe the issue of social injustice has interdisciplinary ties to many of the classes I have taken. Whether it be the stories I have read about the experiences of minority groups living in America, the history of the United States racially and its legislation, or the impact that the economy has on social justice issues, I have constantly been inspired to question what I can do to make our community and country a better place.

For example, I remember reading in either AP Government or African American Literature the words of Otto Kerner: “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” This statement did not settle well with me, but I recognized the sad truth in his statement, so I yearned to examine our history in depth and see how we could learn from the past to create change. AP Economics also helped me to understand that when barred from achieving a higher economic status in society, one’s access to social justice in most aspects will be limited. My time in the classroom has given me background knowledge that enables me to feel confident in my research, and this service scholar project has given me the chance to take the time and further investigate the problems I have discovered from my school studies.

The issue of race relations and social justice in independent schools has not gone away. Change is possible, but acknowledging our faults and past is first necessary. I truly believe Tearing Down the Walls has made strides in improving these major concerns within the 20 prestigious Southeastern school communities that have attended our conference, but we are not finished yet. Accepting progress as enough will never allow us to reach a full solution. Thus, analyzing the work that other organizations are doing to try and help solve the same matters is intrinsic to our success as an organization and a country. After all, working together is the only way to transform our society as a whole. While Nashville and the Southeast at large were good places to start offering the Tearing Down the Walls experience, we have plans to expand our conference to other regions of the country also in need of guidance and a safe space for discussion. We, of course, do not have all the answers right now, nor will we ever, but we will continuously work to strengthen our conference as we learn from our own experiences and use research about the successes of those around us to reevaluate and improve our planning. The research I have done on the PoCC and SDLC, the WPC, and the ISA will help us in implementing new ideas and strategies into our program schedule and overall mission. No matter where I am in life, I will never stop advocating for social justice, and I will continue to recognize servitude as an indispensable right to life.

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Essay/Reflection: Carrie Elcan

WORKS CITED

“A History of Private Schools & Race in the American South.” Southern Education Foundation, www.southerneducation.org/publications/historyofprivateschools/.

“HISTORY OF WPC.” Wpc-Site, www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/history-of-wpc.

History.com Editors. “Brown v. Board of Education.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 27 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-oftopeka.

“Home.” (2020), www.privateschoolreview.com/average-diversity-minority-stats/national-data.

“Korematsu v. United States.” Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/323us214.

Accessed 11 Mar. 2020.

McIntosh, P. (2003). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. In S. Plous (Ed.), Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination (p. 191–196). McGraw-Hill.

“The Independent School Advantage.” Parents NAIS - The Independent School Advantage, parents.nais.org/learn/the-independent-school-advantage/.

“The NAIS People of Color Conference.” PoCC, pocc.nais.org/About/NAIS-People-of-ColorConference.

“The Student Diversity Leadership Conference.” PoCC, pocc.nais.org/About/Student-DiversityLeadership-Conference.

Tate, Greg. “L.A. 1992: How Race Riots Have Shaped America.” Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018, www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/l-a-1992-how-race-riots-have-shapedamerica-110417/.

“What is White Privilege?” Wpc-Site, www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/what-is-whiteprivilege.

REF LECTION: CARRIE ELCAN TEARING DOWN THE WALLS When we began, I was unsure of what we could achieve. I worried about how I might be perceived as a blonde-haired white girl passionate about improving race relations.

However, I found a unique strength in pursuing a passion and trusting my own instincts. Over the past three years of creating and working on this conference, I have learned a colossal amount about myself, U.S. history, and how to be a change agent for my school and country. Through leading a diverse group of students on a planning committee, and also serving as an intermediary between the students and the adults on our entire steering committee, I have learned how to incorporate different opinions into crafting the best possible experience for students from all walks of life at our conference.

I discovered the opportunity that a safe space provides for students to learn to be comfortable in their identities and better able to see other’s perspectives. At Tearing Down the Walls, every voice is heard and every opinion is respected in discussion, so in upholding this type of principle in my work and school life, I have discovered how much easier it is for people to learn to see others’ perspective with open eyes. It might sound cliche, but you truly cannot even begin to fully understand someone until learning their story. I have also furthered my belief in the arts as a channel for joining people together and communicating paramount matters. Through spoken word, singing performances,

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Reflection: Carrie Elcan

and dancing collectively, I have seen the power art has to tear down walls and build bridges. In addition to these values, I have learned through Tearing Down the Walls that making sacrifices in the short term, like missing a social event, giving up a free period or losing a few hours of sleep, pays off in seeing the goals of our conference come to fruition. The reward of seeing a successful project come together and continue to impact school communities and beyond is absolutely worthwhile. Belief in the cause gave me confidence, and I found a renewable source of energy from how much I cared.

In a sense, I had been putting limits on what I thought I could achieve; however, I was gratified and inspired to do more by seeing so many young students with a drive to be the ones to finally redirect our country’s future. I learned that when honesty and respect are brought to the table, we have a partial formula for building something better.

There were bumps in the road and, at times, I questioned my stamina to manage the scope and challenges of the project. However, when the first group of students arrived, I felt gratified and inspired that so many young people shared my drive to redirect our country’s future. Although the quest for unity is not an easy one, I leave each conference with more hope for our future and pride in my generation. I cannot change the national political environment, but I can be a change agent where I am.

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Essay: Mary Hayes Greer

ESSAY: MARY HAYES GREER INCARCERATION & HUNGER IN LOW INCOME FAMILIES When assessing the effects of mass incarceration with regards to education and literacy rates in America, it is important to analyze the disadvantages that some minorities face day in and day out. Throughout my research, my eyes were opened beyond my initial expectations, allowing me to delve into a specific niche and tap into my true passion for service. Looking back as well as looking forward into the future, I am hyper-aware that service is something that is a social responsibility as well as a mandate in my life. I am confident that it is something that will carry on well beyond my years at Ensworth.

In order to combat the effects of incarceration, education, and literacy disadvantages, I partnered with Big Brother Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee, Safe Haven Family Shelter, and The West Nashville Dream Center. These sites are heavily involved with issues regarding homelessness, low income housing, and creating a positive upbringing of youth in today’s society. All three places help manage problems regarding incarceration, and aim to pull kids out of the vicious cycle that their family is in or has been in. All of these organizations have different statistics that reside within the realms of the societal problems they aim to target, but overall they aim to solve the same social issues, thus changing the world for the better in any way they see fit.

Starting by analyzing the incarceration rates within Tennessee, there are many important aspects that need to be assessed. Between the 95 counties in Tennessee, there are a total of 54,804 inmates in jail and prison facilities as we speak. This number does not include correction facilities and parole personnel (NIC Department of Justice).

When analyzing this ever-increasing number, it is important to recognize the effects this cycle has on families within the community. Imprisonment doesn’t just affect the individual behind bars. Incarceration reaches well beyond the individual and affects family and friends close to the individual. This number not only affects the city and state as a whole, but it also affects the surrounding communities. When one parent is incarcerated, the average annual income per family increases dramatically, making the availability of daily necessities such as food scarce (Simmons Research). Families are not always able to sustain their needs when one income earning individual is suddenly out of the picture, no longer bringing home resources or the money that puts food on the table. Oftentimes, those who are generationally marginalized become targets stuck within this evil cycle of incarceration that continues to have a negative effect on others if not terminated.

The ways in which family incarceration correlates to education rates, literacy, and hunger, is something that needs to be talked about more often. Speaking to literacy rates within prison and the correlation between inmates and functional literacy, there are many statistics to be analyzed. Using one of Ensworth’s core skills, the art of questioning, I began to question the underlying factors that tie incarceration and literacy together. Knowing this is something that is oftentimes not talked about in our

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Essay: Mary Hayes Greer

Ensworth community, I really had to take it upon myself to question ways that I could find out not only the root of the problem, but how to help solve it as well. Once I began to question the impacts, I decided that looking deeper into numerical statistics and theories would be a great place to start in order to develop a deeper understanding of the problem on hand. More than 60% of prison inmates are functionally illiterate, meaning that the expectations passed down generationally are at a disadvantage.

Parents who are illiterate tend to hold lower expectations for their children as a result of the fact that it is hard to expect your child to do something that you are not able to do yourself. Additionally, 85% of all juveniles in the court system are also functionally illiterate, making those who are literate a minority within the system (Beginning to Read Library). According to The Beginning to Read Library, 70% of the inmates in prison today cannot read above a fourth grade level. These statistics should not be taken lightly as it is beyond obvious that education and incarceration go hand in hand and both need a solution. When parents are granted virtually no access to higher education or education at all, they often hold their children to a lower standard regarding education. One statistic that darts out is the fact that inmates in prison who receive literacy help have a 16% chance of returning to prison in contrast to those who don’t receive help. Those who don’t receive help have a 70% percent chance of returning, resulting in a 54% difference. It is critical to understand the ways in which we can target this 54% due to the fact that these people are often overlooked in society. That is why I believe we should all look for ways to help, such as seeking out and partnering with organizations such as Safe Haven and Big Brothers.

The literacy help that we give inmates virtually predicts the outcome of their future, meaning that this also affects the outcome of their families and children.

When assessing the effects of incarceration in relation to hunger, I began to look into how many families went hungry within my Nashville community and outside the city as well. It is estimated that the U.S. poverty rate would have dropped by twenty percent, equivalent to a 1/5 reduction rate, between 1980 and 2004 if not for mass incarceration. 815 million people, or 7.6% of the population, go hungry each day (Food Aid Foundation). According to the Food Aid Foundation, one in nine people do not have enough food to lead an active lifestyle. In America alone, more than 37 million people struggle with hunger, with 11 million of the 37 million being children (Food Aid Foundation). Working with agencies like the West Nashville Dream Center and Safe Haven, I aimed to target this pressing issue. We went into low income neighborhoods and essentially set up pop up grocery shops that allowed families to come and shop for their needs, for free. This relieved them of the burden of having to go to the supermarket and purchase items such as food for the night or breakfast for the morning. Oftentimes, low income families struggle with transportation as well, making not only the cost of groceries a burden, but also the cost to get to and from the grocery. Additionally, we provided after school snacks for the children to help them meet their dietary requirements, as food deserts are often a prevalent problem in low income neighborhoods. Likewise, Safe Haven provides families with meals as well as a kitchen and utensils to help cook the meals. Volunteers also sign up to cook home cooked meals for the families, giving them a sense of home within the walls of the shelter. This organization helps combat a number of societal issues, with hunger being only a small portion of the things they do on a larger scale.

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Essay: Mary Hayes Greer

Wrapping all of the societal issues into my project was fairly easy after I realized how much hunger, literacy, and incarceration were intertwined. By working with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle TN, my goal was to provide resources for my mentee Kenny, and ultimately make sure that he didn’t end up in the same position that his father had. My family’s main goals were to help him reach his goal of walking across his high school stage with a diploma and to ultimately walk across the stage at the graduation from a university. Throughout my journey with Kenny, I have learned the importance of applying knowledge. After analyzing the statistics, I could apply my knowledge to figure out exactly what it was that Kenny needed from me.

I used this knowledge to better educate myself on the ways in which I could help individuals, knowing that this help would produce a domino effect and touch those in his community as well. Social Work Simmons states that on average, incarcerated men are placed in prison facilities 100 miles away from their home, and women 160 miles away. Parent-child visitation in prison is also a major problem, seeing as there are prevalent obstacles such as the inability to pay for transportation to and from the prison, as well the insufficient information about visiting procedures. An organization I worked with, Safe Haven Family Shelter, plays a vital role in combating the transition process. Oftentimes, as stated, it is difficult for parents who have recently exited the jail system, to reintegrate into their normal “pre-prison” lifestyle.

This organization provides shelter, job training, and additional resources such as a fully-functioning library and after school tutors, in order to help families get back on their feet. This organization has been helping families for over 35 years, making sure that there is at least one source of stability in their lives. They aim to provide resources so that problems such as shelter, hunger, and education downfalls cease from their lives. The after school tutors, “homework helpers,” and the library, are all vital sources when aiding literacy within the shelter. According to the Nashville Adult Literacy council which is based locally in the heart of Nashville, one in eight Nashville residents are unable to read at all. Additionally, 12% of Davidson county citizens alone lack the basic literacy skills to simply read a menu or a children’s book.

Research through the Literacy Council in Nashville shows that students who are not reading on their own grade level by the third grade are four times more likely to drop out during some point in their highschool career. As of now, only 34% of the students in Davidson County are reaching this benchmark. That is why Safe Haven prides itself in providing resources to those in need and aims to create a strong literacy foundation that carries onto posterity.

To conclude, it is beyond evident that the effects of hunger and literacy relating to incarceration are more prevalent than ever before. These problems will continue to arise unless we do something and do something now. These problems will trickle through generations and continue to fester unless they are stopped at the root and addressed in a clear and concise manner. Thanks to the involvement of Nashville citizens, I feel people are more apt to help those in need nowadays, due to the fact that the problems are so prevalent. Nashville is a strong city, Tennessee is a strong state, America is a strong nation, and the world is a strong place. I know we can come together to make a difference and find a solution to these societal problems if we pursue change. I believe that as more people begin to open their eyes to seeing service as a social mandate and responsibility, a change will come, and it will come soon.

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Essay/Reflection: Mary Hayes Greer

WORKS CITED “Literacy in Nashville – What You Can Do to Help.” Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, 8 Mar. 2020, www.nashvillechamber.com/blog/2018/literacy-in-nashville-what-you-cando-to-help.

Literacy Statistics, www.begintoread.com/research/literacystatistics.html.

“Nashville Adult Literacy Council.” Nashville Adult Literacy Council, nashvilleliteracy.org/.

“The Challenges of Prisoner Re-Entry Into Society.” Socialwork@Simmons, 12 July 2016, socialwork.simmons.edu/blog/Prisoner-Reentry/. Webmanager. “Tennessee.” National Institute of Corrections, 23 Jan. 2018, nicic.gov/state-statistics/2015/tennessee.

REF LECTION: MARY HAYES GREER SERVICE SHOLAR REFLECTION Before delving into the depths of this complex project, I was unaware of just how many people are affected by societal issues such as literacy, hunger, and incarceration.

Previously, I was aware of many of the ways in which these issues affected a few specific families, but I never truly understood just how many families are affected on a daily basis due to these problems. It is critical to understand not only the effects, but how many people are affected within Davidson county, within Nashville, within Tennessee, as well as on a global scale. Understanding the underlying root issues that correlate to these problems is essential for one to find a long term solution. I am hyper aware of my civic duty to actively participate in acts of service and find ways to better the community. Community service is not something that I believe is simply to “check a box,” but rather a personal mandate to help others on a greater scale. This mandate manifests itself in many different ways in my life. Although many would refute this statement, I personally believe that the one thing we all have to give is time. By working with our mentee Kenny, I have learned that the only thing I need to truly help him is time. Time, talent, and treasure is a triad that is commonly used, but I have created a new phrase; “show up.” Simply show up. You may not have much financially, or a specific “talent,” but if managed right, we all have time. Being a mentor as well as a volunteer at Safe Haven and the WNDC, taught me that showing up is the first step to help solve the societal issues mentioned previously. Similarly, as well as showing up, one has to be willing to learn. Oftentimes, learning comes from experience as well as listening to others talk about their own experiences. During the middle portion of my project, Ms. Bradshaw and I traveled to Vanderbilt to see a panel of like-minded individuals pursuing service in the surrounding areas. One question posed struck me particularly hard. A student noted that it is critical that we investigate what makes a person “uncomfortable” in certain situations. Post conversation, I learned that it is imperative to understand what external factors such as home community, make a certain student feel as though they are being pushed outside of their comfort zone.

For example, a student from an elite school may feel slightly more uncomftorbale volunteering at a low income elementary school than a child who was raised in a low income neighborhood. As a community, it is critical that we dig deeper to find all the facts rooted within this question. Additionally, I plan to continue my service work far beyond the deadline of this project. Service has become a crucial part of my life, and I am so grateful that school has allotted time for every student to find a passion, all while bettering the community as a whole.

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Essay: Lizza Hubbard

ESSAY: LIZZA HUBBARD NUTRITIONAL CHOICES OF IMPOVERISHED

Preston Taylor Ministries has allowed me to explore my passion in running and mentoring kids. For the past three years, I have been working with Preston Taylor, and I was able to lead a group of third grade & fourth grade students every Wednesday.

Preston Taylor Ministries is a non-profit devoted to serving the underprivileged youth of Nashville. I am very proud to say that I started my Preston Taylor Ministries (PTM) journey back in 2017, when I was a sophomore. I wanted to help lead the PTM Life group, which is a smaller group of PTM that focuses on third and fourth graders to lead healthy lifestyles. Each Wednesday I would lead the kids through ab exercises, then to a short run, about a mile, and we would finish with a prayer and lesson about healthy eating/options to choose healthy foods at home and school. Because of my passion for this amazing program, I wanted to continue my work by becoming a Service Scholar, and dive deeper into the subject of what age is most formative for a child, healthy eating and youth (specifically the underserved youth), and how mentors can help at risk/ underserved children’s lives.

Age 8, which is third and fourth grade, is the most formative year of a child’s life. Ask yourself, do you remember third grade? I know I do. In fact, third grade is probably my most vivid memory of all my elementary school years. I made amazing friends, and learned life lessons I still hold on today. Third grade is the very end of your early childhood years, and the very beginning of the middle childhood years, which is why this age is such a vital year in health, social skills, and brain development. The Forbes “A $5 Children’s Book vs. a $47,000 jail cell” highlights the importance of education during third grade, especially when learning how to read. Sadly, “60% of America’s inmates are illiterate” (Cohen), so a child who has not learned how to read is even more likely to make poor decisions and go to jail. By teaching the PTM third and fourth graders healthy eating and exercise habits, we are already imprinting on them to make good decisions about food, which in turn, causes the children to make good decisions at school like focusing and learning to read. Another article from “ERIC”, illustrates the importance of children being able to read by the end of third grade, due to a statistic found that, “Students who fail to reach this critical milestone often falter in the later grades and drop out before earning a high school diploma” (Hernandez). Although I did not physically teach the children how to read, I empowered the children to lead healthy lifestyles, and how they are able to consciously make decisions about choosing apples and peanut butter over takis, for example. By empowering the third and fourth graders, they feel that much more in control of their lives, and feel the need to succeed not only in sports/ running, but also in school. The leaders of PTM Life would even print and give out articles about healthy eating for the students to read, and we would go through each line, word by word, making sure the students understood. PTM Life empowers students, even

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Essay: Lizza Hubbard

outside of the classroom, to succeed in school, specifically reading, so that they will go on to graduate Middle School, and onto High School, and then vocational school, college, or even a job.

Obviously, I wanted to dive deeper into the main purpose of PTM Life, which is to inspire students to lead healthy lifestyles by exercising, running, and choosing vitamin rich food options. Healthy eating is vital to a child and their development, no matter what the financial situation is. The American Psychological Association has some incredible research and ideas on the importance of healthy eating and exercise in children. To put it simply, “Good nutrition and plenty of exercise are the building blocks for strong growth, healthy development and lifelong wellbeing for children.”

(American Psychological Association) The act of eating healthy as a young child causes great success in later years of life, because- health is wealth! Children who are underprivileged are at a greater risk for poor nutrition. Specifically, “16 to 17 million children live in homes where they are at risk of going hungry (approximately one in six households)” (American Psychological Association), which is an incredibly large number considering this probably means someone you know has a child or knows a child who has struggled with finding where their next meal will come from. On the other end of the spectrum, a large majority of the lower class have enough money for a fast food run, but do not have the money, time, or resources to afford healthy food at a grocery store. The severity of this issue is so grave, that politicians and advocates have stepped in, such as Michelle Obama, and her campaign, called “Let’s Move!”

Her initiative has forced public schools to provide healthier foods for their children.

Michelle Obama says, “We can provide this kind of healthy food for communities across the country, and we can do it by each of us lending a hand.” (Obama) This quote not only shows her passion for helping improve the diets of children, but shows that we all need to work together to improve the food crisis of America’s underprivileged youth. Food such as fried chicken and french fries are less frequent and have been substituted for grilled chicken and baked potato wedges. At the end of every PTM Life program, we passed out a healthy snack, such as cheddar cheese and grapes, peanut butter apple, or lightly salted corn chips with low fat salsa. We would talk about the vitamins and “ingredients in grapes”, and how pringles or takis have a large amount of ingredients that we could not identify, or even pronounce. But, grapes’ only ingredient is a grape! We would teach small lessons in making healthy decisions, such as these, and that in fact, healthy eating can be fun. We worked towards identifying healthy carbs, as well as regarding that the healthiest meals will have whole, raw vegetables full of color, such as zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Food deserts are prevalent in our city, and very much so affects the underprivileged youth of Nashville. The concept of food deserts is not only damning to the residents to live in these areas, but also to our local metropolitan governments. The concept of food deserts is the lack of grocery stores in a certain area/neighborhood. Food deserts are prominent in lower income and impoverished neighborhoods, and are concentrated in higher income, middle to upper class, “safe”, family neighborhoods. If you were to look on a map of Nashville, and the concentration of grocery stores, you would find that most grocery stores, such as Publix, Whole foods, Trader Joes, and Krogers are

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Essay: Lizza Hubbard

within less than 2 miles apart from each other within certain neighborhoods and areas of town. Food deserts also have connotations that lower income areas do not have the adequate transportation to grocery stores, due to the lack of cars, lack of Nashville public transportation system, or even the lack of walkable healthy stores.

Most of the children whom I taught told me that most of their food came from school obviously, but at home, they would eat instant meals from the convenience store, or just go to McDonalds for a quick happy meal. Poor nutrition, which is fattening, can cause diabetes in children and teens. The American Academy of Pediatrics says, “If the incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes in children are increasing and if this increase cannot be reversed, our society will face major challenges”. This quote highlights the urgency of this issue and how the United States needs to take action in the rapid rise of diabetes in children. Preston Taylor Ministries Life Program devotes itself to bettering the lives of the at-risk children to improve their lifestyles through healthy eating and exercises. Although we help a small population of children day by day, our impact is global. Preston Taylor Ministries advocates for the underserved youth of Nashville, a thriving city, whose always in the spotlight. Children whom I have worked with before have told me that they share with their friends and family the knowledge they have learned from PTM Life. Parents and friends of the children will even come and run or run/ walk in our 5ks near the end of Spring. Through word of mouth, and spread of information, our impact affects all of Nashville, and will continue to spread throughout the Southeast.

The greater program, Preston Taylor Ministries, does not focus solely on healthy eating, but mainly focuses on the volunteers being constant positive influences on the kids. Sadly, children who are part of lower income families do not always have the best role models to look up to at home and can witness some pretty harsh events for their ages such as “pollution, food insecurity, housing instability, led exposure, violence, and crime” (Children’s Bureau). This sad information shows how badly these children need positive adult influences in their lives. I am proud to say that I have been a constant in these kids’ lives by showing up each Wednesday with a smile, always ready to greet my special kids. I have shown them what consistency looks like, and how to always be there for someone you love. I am ready to have difficult conversations with each child, concerning home life, or even just be there to share a funny story about what happened at lunch yesterday. Either way, these children crave attention, and for someone to just be there and care for them. I am not only there for the kids as a positive influence, but I also have high standards for the kids I work with.

Children of lower income families do not always have a high standard set by their parents, have very few rules, and have an unclear line of what is wrong and what is right. I make sure to always be clear and intentional with what we are doing in the exercises, mile run, or even sharing our snacks. Children need constants in their lives, as well as an abundance of activities for afterschool to keep them occupied to pursue healthy lives.

In conclusion, I am so lucky to have experienced the love from each child at Preston Taylor Ministries. I have learned to become a leader through teaching healthy eating

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Essay: Lizza Hubbard

and exercises to children part of lower income communities. My impact on these children will stay with them through the rest of their lives and will lead them to making good decisions in High School, and even after school. Simple choices such as substituting cheese and crackers instead of Takis teaches the children to make healthy choices at a young age, so they will not turn to an unhealthy lifestyle like drugs, alcohol, violence, or other poor decisions. Instead, the children who have been through Preston Taylor Ministries are more likely to graduate high school, attend vocational school or college, obtain a sustainable job, and even come and volunteer for Preston Taylor Ministries. I have heard PTM students (who have gone through the program) share their stories that they would not be alive today, let alone make incredible decisions, and graduate from an incredible University and onto graduate school. Preston Taylor Ministries is impacting children across Nashville by empowering them to lead healthy lifestyles, make good decisions, and encourage them to share their passions and stories with people across the country. The powerful impact of PTM is endless, due to the invested volunteers, and thousands of children who have made the choice to lead healthy lives, and impact their communities, around the United States.

WORKS CITED American Diabetes Association. “Type 2 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.” American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 Mar. 2000, https://pediatrics. aappublications.org/content/105/3/671 American Psychologists . “Changing Diet and Exercise for Kids.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, 2011, https://www.apa.org/topics/ children/healthy-eating Cohen, Steve. “A $5 Children’s Book vs. a $47,000 Jail Cell -- Choose One.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 11 Aug. 2011, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecohen/2010/12/25/a-5childrens-book-vs-a-47000-jail-cell-choose-one/#741c0dbe615b Hernandez, and Donald J. “Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation.” Annie E. Casey Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation.

701 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, MD https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED518818 “Poverty and Its Effects on Children: Children’s Bureau.” Child Abuse Prevention, Treatment & Welfare Services | Children’s Bureau, 8 Jan. 2020, https://www.all4kids.org/news/blog/ poverty-and-its-effects-on-children/

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Reflection: Lizza Hubbard

REF LECTION: LIZZA HUBBARD SERVICE SHOLAR REFLECTION For the past three years, I have worked with Preston Taylor Ministries (an after school non profit for underserved Nashville youth), and have donated my Wednesdays to working with third and fourth graders. Each Wednesday, I led a small program within Preston Taylor Ministries called “PTM Life”, which was an afterschool program. I would lead the kids through workouts such as core development, leg strength, and cardio exercises like jumping jacks. After our workouts, we would head into our run, which was normally about a mile. The end of our one hour session would conclude with a healthy snack, as well as a lesson to encourage healthy eating habits.

As a high school runner (track & cross country), I was able to combine my love for running & healthy eating with connecting with kids. I have learned so much from this experience, and I am so lucky to have seen growth in all of the students I have worked with. A large percentage of underserved children have difficulties/will have future difficulties with maintaining healthy lifestyles due to the lack of resources we, at least I know I, take for granted. As a child, I grew up always involved in multiple sports, and my parents always made sure I had a healthy lunch to take to school. PTM Life opened my eyes in that what I grew up with what I thought was a given, was actually a luxury.

I learned to be a true leader from this experience. When I first started PTM Life in 2017 (as a sophomore) I would normally take a back seat to the main “adult” leader. I would simply just do as she told me, such as leading abs, or passing out the snacks. But, as I became more comfortable, I started leading entire workouts, then the runs, then to our final lesson plan, which was the whole PTM Life Program. I have grown so much as a person from this experience, and I have impacted so many children’s lives, who will most likely go on to make healthy food choices, healthy exercise habits, make good choices in high school, then college or vocational school, then through jobs, and therefore life. Most children who face poverty do not have some sort of structure or positive influence, and in this case, I was both. I was the face who these children could count on every Wednesday.

I wanted to give back to my community by working with kids and teaching them about healthy eating and exercise habits. Not only did I make such a huge impact on the children’s lives, but they made an even bigger impact on my life. I was so excited to see their smiling faces every Wednesday, and each and every one of them always greeted me with a hug. Preston Taylor Ministries has given me the tools to be a leader, in the ability to think on my feet, to compromise, and to lead with compassion first. I have continued working with Preston Taylor to this day and have even caused my parents and friends to get involved too. By bringing my family and friends to this special program, more and more children have constant, positive, adult influences to look up to. I can proudly say that I have made a difference in the lives of the children at PTM and have caused more leaders to volunteer at such a special place. The underserved youth of Nashville need our help the most: they are our future of our community; no one left behind.

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Essay: Mylan Le

ESSAY: MYLAN LE TURNIP GREEN CREATIVE REUSE AND THE LANDFILL BACKGROUND Turnip Green Creative Reuse is a local organization that works to promote reusing trash as art supplies in order to keep it out of the landfill. Therefore, it addresses two main issues, the growing landfill and the lack of creative education. Its mission is “Fostering creativity and sustainability through reuse” working in 4 areas of service: reuse and repurpose, education and outreach, artist support, and a green gallery.

Working towards their mission, they “value teachers and artists who make art using donations,” “foster, educate, and inspire the practice of reduce, reuse and recycle in children with recycling and composting classes,” and “recognizes that everyone deserves the opportunity for a creative experience and to be inspired in a safe and welcoming community.” (Turnip Green Creative Reuse) 2 MAIN ISSUES The Landfill One of the most significant and most overlooked public issues prevalent in the world today is the growing landfill. Frequently, citizens do not think about the negative impacts they are inflicting on the environment of their community when they throw away recyclable and reusable materials such as plastics, paper, and fabric.

To understand the gravity of the current state of our environment, we must first look at the increasing numbers related to the landfill. According to SaveOnEnergy, a company promoting the conversion of residential plans into environmentally friendly alternatives, as of 2018, the United States produced more than 254 million tons of yearly waste, and half of that waste will end up in the landfill. (Land of Waste) In fact, there are “more than 2,000 active landfills across the country – and you probably live, work or socialize closer to one than you may think.” (Land of Waste) Therefore, the lack of awareness of this situation prevalent in our communities is causing it to worsen.

In an attempt to shrink the landfill, many households and schools have recycling bins. However, a rather shocking statistic reported by National Geographic shows that of the materials that have the potential to be recycled “6.3 billion tons never made it to a recycling bin”. If citizens had been more careful about what they throw away and what they recycle, they could have saved the landfill from gaining 6.3 billion tons of recyclable materials that are now unable to be reused. Furthermore, in other instances, recycled materials make a small difference in the environment.

The amount of energy and costs it takes to recycle materials counters the purpose of recycling that people do not often consider. According to Jon Miltmore, the Managing Editor for the Foundation for Economic Education, “It’s time to admit the recycling mania is a giant placebo. It makes people feel good, but the idea that it

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Essay: Mylan Le

improves the condition of humans or the planet is highly dubious”. (Jon Miltmore) This statistic shows that reusing materials could have a massive impact on the environment because, with the reuse of materials, it is guaranteed to have another purpose. In contrast, recycled materials have the potential not actually to be recycled.

The purpose of Turnip Green Creative Reuse then is to reuse materials to make a more considerable impact on the environment.

As reported by Darryl Fears, a reporter for the Washington Post, the American Association for the Advancement of Science predicts that “If current trends continue, the researchers predict over 13 billion tons of plastic will be discarded in landfills or the environment by 2050,” (Darryl Fears) At the rate at which the world is producing more products made of plastic and expensive packaging, this prediction does not seem far fetched. With 13 billion tons of plastic, the question of what to do with all the trash in the landfill is raised, and Turnip Green presents one solution.

Impacts of Turnip Green on the Landfill Specifically, in Tennessee, 21.3 tons of trash is produced per person, as you can see in the graph in Figure 1 made by SaveOnEnergy. Turnip Green, a local organization, is working to reduce this amount specifically since they have not yet grown to reach other landfills, and their success can be seen through their total pounds of donations that they weigh the moment a donation is made. As shown on the Turnip Green website, as of 2018, they have diverted 87,408 pounds of trash from the landfill, 13,871 people have visited the Creative Reuse Center, they have participated in 962 waste reduction programs with 36,726 participants in reuse programs. As the statistics show, Turnip Green is making a significant impact on the Nashville community and the landfill; however, since they are a relatively new organization, they have not yet eliminated the issue of the landfill. Over time, they have the potential to grow and make a substantial impact.

Creative Education In addition to the landfill, another upcoming issue is the lack of creative education in schools. From a young age, art has been an essential part of many lives of people ranging from the interaction with art through coloring books when one is a child or the actual creation of art as one gets older. According to Sally Gifford, a writer for an organization working towards art education in adolescents called the National Endowment for the Arts, having art as part of a child’s life can help a child develop social skills and emotional regulation skills. Based on their findings, “Parents who reported singing to their child at least three times a week were more likely to report that their child had strong and sophisticated social skills.” (Sally Gifford) and “Infants who participated in a six-month active music group with singing and dancing had better emotional regulation behaviors than did infants in a passive music group, where music was played in the background while infants did other activities.” (Sally Gifford) Apart from the benefits mentioned in the study, there are a multitude of benefits in encouraging the expression of creativity that help in the development of a child as well as help them in their later lives. Therefore, art is critical in the

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development of children and must be present in school curriculums.

Unfortunately, this implementation is not always made, and children are not often able to be creative in school due to underfunding in public schools. As reported by Emily Wendler, a reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma making reports on energy, the environment, education, health, criminal justice, and the intersection of government in Oklahoma, “Oklahoma schools ended 1,110 fine arts classes between 2014 and 2018, a period of severe state budget cuts.� (Emily Wendler) This series of class cuts are not just impacting Oklahoma, but many public schools across the nation are doing the same as government funding for education declines. This statistic not only reflects the lack of funding for public schools but also shows the neglect of art programs in school systems. If schools are forced to cut a program due to a lack of resources, they will not give up any academic class nor athletic funding. Instead, schools often cut the art department leaving many students to leave and pursue other educational or athletic passions. Although many may argue that this decision is a rightful one due to the overall costliness of art and the benefits of the other two

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fields in which funding must go, it also harms children who could have benefited from the effects of creating art and inhibits potential future artists from discovering their passion.

In addition to children, adults can also benefit from making art. According to Brian Kisida and Daniel H. Bowen, “Among adults, arts participation is related to behaviors that contribute to the health of civil society, such as increased civic engagement, greater social tolerance, and reductions in other-regarding behavior.” (Brian Kisida) This finding shows the long-lasting effects of being able to express oneself. Even as an adult, people must find a place to express themselves and organize their thoughts and emotions. Often, many people find this comfort in art, which is why behavior can be changed through art. However, if those adults are unable to learn about ways to create art and implement it in their lives, they will not possess this vital resource in the future. Therefore, these statistics show the impact of creative education in general, and its effects on all people, not just children and not only adults.

Turnip Green’s Impact on Creative Education Turnip Green works to address this lack of visual art education and lack of art supplies in schools in the community with 21.3 tons of trash. Although donations are often spontaneous, many donations are perfect for lower school art classes such as beads, paper, and wood with which students enjoy working. These supplies in traditional art stores can often become very expensive, but with Turnip Green, these art supplies can essentially be free. Apart from easily reusable art supplies, art teachers can also be creative with potential projects. Jean Zelle, a retired public school teacher and teaching artist for Turnip Green, learned how to make watercolor paint out of dried up markers and use those painted to teach free art classes at multiple Nashville Public Library branches.

From her experiences as a public school art teacher, she claims that she received only $2,000 as a yearly fund to teach 1,000 lower school children. This funding gave each student $2 for art supplies for the entire year, often leaving the students without any art supplies for their class at the end of the year. Her story reflects the overlook of art programs in schools due to the lack of funding. To remedy this need, Turnip Green was founded, and Ms. Zelle’s art classes significantly improved with more students finding their undiscovered love for art.

In addition to using art supplies from Turnip Green, Jean Zelle now also works with Turnip Green to remedy the lack of art classes in general in public schools. As mentioned earlier, she is a teaching artist for Turnip Green’s free art classes that anyone can attend no matter how artistic one may be. These classes encourage creativity in people of all ages and help children gain a passion for art if they do not find this passion in school.

This excitement felt by children while making art can cause them to be ecstatic about going to school. In Turnip Green’s case, children are excited to go to art

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classes after school hosted by Turnip Green. Thanks to Turnip Green’s influence on the community, children are now excited to go to school, learn, and make art. As their website states, “Reducing absenteeism results in higher test scores and fewer disciplinary issues, and more time learning and having fun with Turnip Green!”

(Turnip Green Creative Reuse) This impact that Turnip Green has on children related to their school attendance is shown below. Therefore, this graph shows that art can benefit the day to day life of a child not only in the art classroom but also in other classrooms as well.

Four Areas of Service The work of Turnip Green can be categorized into four different categories: the creative reuse center, the open studio, the green galleries, and outreach. Each of these areas of service addresses a different issue of the landfill, art education, or both.

Creative Reuse Center The Creative Reuse Center is the place where Turnip Green stores all donations and receives donations. When a donation arrives at Turnip Green, volunteers weigh it in this shop to track the impact Turnip Green has on the community. A group of volunteers then organizes all of the donations for easy accessibility for artists who are looking for art supplies. Frequently, there are at least four volunteers at the Reuse Center at a time due to the number of donations and visitors the shop gets every day, as mentioned earlier. Volunteers sanitize and modify some of the donations to make it most useful for instance, they clean off most of the dust in donations and break up binders to compact the materials and easily store the cardboard.

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Essay: Mylan Le

The artists who come to the shop, on the other hand, have the option of donating after picking up the supplies they need. The policy is “take what you want and donate what you can,” so art teachers do not feel at a loss for money while shopping here and will take any supplies that they believe will benefit the children at their school.

In the back of the reuse center, there is an Open Studio that is just a space for artists.

Open Studio In the back of the Creative Reuse Center, there is an Open Studio for artists who may not have a safe and quiet place to create art. Anyone is welcome to gather the supplies they need around the shop and bring it to the Open Studio in the back to create their art. Often, some families bring their children to create art in the Open Studio, and there are also art teachers who utilize the Open Studio for planning projects.

Green Galleries On the other hand, for artists who want their art displayed, Turnip Green has two galleries. One is in the Creative Reuse Center, and the other is in a bank. These Green Galleries display art that an artist creates using the donations from Turnip Green to promote both reusing supplies as well as the artist. The art is also available for purchase, so the artist also gains support through creating art for Turnip Green.

Programs and Outreach Lastly, Turnip Green influences the community by working with other nonprofits and interest groups. As mentioned earlier, the Nashville Public Libraries partner with Turnip Green to offer free art classes. Furthermore, Turnip Green often makes appearances at festivals running a booth with various recycling and reusing activities.

At these programs, the participants not only get an easy opportunity to contribute towards Turnip Green’s cause, but Turnip Green also gets a chance to reach out to more people and make their purpose known. At the festivals, to complement the activities, they also distribute pamphlets about recycling and serve as a resource for anyone wanting advice on how to recycle and help their cause.

Conclusion Although Turnip Green is currently a local organization, they are working to solve issues that are prevalent worldwide. Although they are not yet able to broadly impact the statistics of the amount of trash produced worldwide immediately, all of their volunteers are doing something to make a difference and better the lives of the community around them. Impacting the lives of many in the Tennessee community, Turnip Green is making the community around them a better place. Hopefully, they will grow to change the lives of many more.

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Essay/Reflection: Mylan Le

WORKS CITED

Fears, Darryl. “There’s Literally a Ton of Plastic Garbage for Every Person on Earth.”

The Washington Post, WP Company, 19 July 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/19/theres-literally-aton-of-plastic-garbage-for-every-person-in-the-world/.

Gifford, Sally. “Arts and Early Childhood Development Focus of New NEA Research.”

National Endowment for the Arts, 19 Dec. 2015, www.arts.gov/news/2015/arts-and-earlychildhood-development-focus-new-nea-research.

Kisida, Brian, and Daniel H. Bowen. “New Evidence of the Benefits of Arts Education.”

Brookings, Brookings, 12 Feb. 2019, www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-centerchalkboard/2019/02/12/new-evidence-of-the-benefits-of-arts-education/.

“Land of Waste: American Landfills and Waste Production.” SaveOnEnergy, 2018, www.saveonenergy.com/land-of-waste/.

McCarthy, Joe. “Where Will The Trash Go When All the US Landfills Are Full?” Global Citizen, Global Poverty Project, 14 May 2018, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/uslandfills-are-filling-up/.

Miltimore, Jon. “America Finally Admits Recycling Doesn’t Work: Jon Miltimore.” FEE Freeman Article, Foundation for Economic Education, 21 Mar. 2019, fee.org/articles/america-finally-admits-recycling-doesn-t-work/.

“Turnip Green Creative Reuse.” Turnip Green Creative Reuse, www.turnipgreencreativereuse.org/.

Williams, Ryan. “We Depend On Plastic. Now, We’re Drowning in It.” We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning in It., 16 May 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/ magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/.

REF LECTION: MYLAN LE SERVICE SHOLAR REFLECTION Turnip Green Creative Reuse is a local organization that promotes the reuse of materials to create art. I learned about this organization through a previous Service Learning experience, which prompted me to pursue it for my Senior Service Project due to my interest in art. From my earlier experiences in my art classes as well as what I knew about the environment and landfill, I was able to apply this knowledge as well as expand it while working with Turnip Green. I learned about the growing landfill and its adverse effects on the environment in which we live. I learned about the statistics of the amount of trash produced per person and our contribution to the landfill. This knowledge led to an increased awareness of the amount of waste that I produce as well as a recognition for what I do with it. Before my interaction, I was simply an artist using new and costly art supplies, but now, I strive to reuse supplies and find costefficient alternatives.

In addition to my newfound awareness, the time I spent closely working with the leaders of Turnip Green, Leah Sherry and Ally Miller, allowed me to learn the challenges of attending to the Creative Reuse Center as well as coordinating outreach programs throughout Nashville. Since Turnip Green is a local organization at the moment, they have a small network of volunteers, and frequently, they have difficulty

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keeping the Reuse Center organized as well as preparing to participate in large community events to promote their organization. Luckily, they have always received support from the community with many new volunteers and donations, and I feel as if I have been able to alleviate some challenges during my time there. Ultimately, I gained a sense of accomplishment from the impact that I am making by volunteering and a newfound appreciation for Turnip Green and other nonprofit organizations who must face the challenges which I witnessed.

I have also personally grown from interacting with the various artists who have visited the shop, taught art classes for Turnip Green, and made art for Turnip Green.

As an artist, I enjoy interacting with other artists to broaden my scope of art, and my interaction with these artists not only improved my art skills but also prompted a newfound appreciation for artists and teachers. I learned about the difficulty of teaching art in public schools on a low budget as well as attempting to make art on a low budget. Their stories gave me a newfound perspective that most do not hear about why art programs are often overlooked.

Furthermore, I was able to see the impact I was making in the community through the children whom I helped at the library and festivals. The children were ecstatic to make art because they are often unable to do so in their different financial situations. Seeing the happiness generated by creating art in children made me realize the importance of creativity and the need for accessibility and opportunity to create art.

In conclusion, although Turnip Green is a local organization, they are working to solve issues that are prevalent worldwide such as the need for the cut down of the landfill and an increase in creative education. I understand that Turnip Green can’t solve this prevalent issue immediately; however, I admire that all of their volunteers are doing something to at least make a difference in the community around them. I hope to continue to explore these issues in the future to better the community around me.

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Essay: Charlie Mahanes

ESSAY: CHARLIE MAHANES THE NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT

Intro to Hunger and Food Insecurity: One of the essential necessities in the world for all living things is the need for food.

As a result, hunger and food insecurity are some of the most significant issues that face people around the globe. According to Feeding America, the United States nonprofit dedicated to alleviating the threat of hunger in the nation, “Food insecurity describes a household’s inability to provide enough food for every person to live an active, healthy life. Food insecurity is one way we can measure and assess the risk of hunger” (Feeding America). In the organization’s collection statistics, in 2018, an estimated 1 in 9 Americans were food insecure, which equates to over 37 million Americans, including more than 11 million children. Just as impactful as observing the threat of food insecurity in the country is narrowing the scope to Tennessee. In Tennessee, 1 in 7 people in Tennessee is struggling with hunger, meaning that nearly 935,000 people in the state are unsure where their next meal is coming from. This statistic translates to people facing hunger in Tennessee, requiring an estimated $470 million per year to meet their food needs.

Causes of Hunger: There are several causes of hunger for people in Tennessee, with the most obvious being poverty. Feeding America states that food insecurity “does not exist in isolation, as low-income families are affected by multiple, overlapping issues like lack of affordable housing, social isolation, chronic or acute health problems, high medical costs, and low wages” (Feeding America). Additionally, in an article from The United Way of Williamson County about the issue of hunger in Tennessee, “39% of Tennessee households struggle to afford the basic necessities of housing, child care, food, health care, and transportation” (United Way of Williamson County).

This disparity in Tennessee households’ financial status leads to families having to make difficult decisions when providing for their families, often having to neglect to pay for food, and thus, the households struggle with food insecurity. While one might think that households located in rural communities are safer from the effects of food insecurity, the article points out that, in fact, 15% of people in rural areas are hungry, mainly due to not having access to grocery stores or transportation.

Food Deserts and Swamps: A lack of access to grocery stores also brings up a second significant contributor to food insecurity: the impact of food deserts and food swamps on households.

According to The Food Empowerment Project, an organization dedicated to encouraging healthier food options for people, “Food deserts can be described as geographic areas where residents’ access to affordable, healthy food options

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(especially fresh fruits and vegetables) is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance” (Food Empowerment Project). As a result, the number of healthy food options for households living in food deserts is incredibly slim to none, leading to those families suffering from food insecurity. In addition to food insecurity, the Tennessee Department of Health notes that “People living in food deserts tend to consume less nutritious foods and have poorer health outcomes” (Yenerall). According to Nashville.gov, Nashville itself is home to four food deserts: North Nashville, East Nashville, South Nashville (Edgehill), and Napier-Sudekum (Nashville.gov). In addition to food deserts, a second significant contributor to food insecurity is food swamps. The principle of a food swamp is very similar to that of a food desert. Whereas a food desert is a shortage of healthy food sources for a household, an article from Emory Health.org notes that a food swamp “refers to neighborhoods saturated with fast-food chains, corner stores, and other unhealthy food providers” (Emory Health.org). According to the US Department of Health, access to healthy and reliable food sources are measured in at least three ways: Accessibility(distance to nearest store), Availability(number of stores nearby), and Affordability(the price of food in nearby stores). Thus, while building a grocery store in a neighborhood in need sounds like a logical solution to food insecurity caused by deserts and swamps, the price of groceries would be an issue that would prevent families from purchasing healthier food options.

Additionally, the TN Department of Health points out that some families would rather travel beyond the nearest store in order to purchase the cheaper option, even if it is less healthy.

Seniors: The issue of food insecurity affects many different demographics, but not all to the same degree. One of the biggest demographics affected by hunger is seniors.

According to The United Way of Williamson County, “60% of households led by older Americans must choose between buying groceries or paying utility bills” (United Way of Williamson County). The United Health Foundation, an organization providing statistics for the national health of the United States, reports that due to a lack of resources for food, roughly 8.6 million seniors aged 60 and older in 2016 faced the threat of hunger (United Health Foundation). This data means that the food intake of seniors was reduced and/or their eating patterns were disrupted. The United Health Foundation’s data goes on to report that from 2001 to 2016, the threat of hunger to people the age of 65 and older increased by 27 percent. Furthermore, the organization projects that the prevalence of food insecurity among seniors is expected to increase through 2050 as baby boomers continue to age. As to why senior citizens are suffering from food insecurity, The United Health Foundation cites a lack of reliable social support, a lack of reliable transportation, and not being able to afford food as explanations to the issue. Additionally, The United Health Foundation acknowledges that food insecurity among senior citizens is also associated with an increased prevalence of health problems such as a heart attack, congestive heart failure, diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, and depression, which can limit daily activities of living.

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Essay: Charlie Mahanes

Children: In addition to senior citizens, a major demographic affected by food insecurity are children. As children rely on their parents or guardians to provide for them, they are dependent on the food given to them, meaning that the quality and quantity of the food are dependent on the conditions of the household, such as income and vicinity to healthy food sources. According to Feeding America, 1 in 5 children in Tennessee are struggling with food insecurity, which translates to over 285,000 children who struggle with hunger in the state. As a result of food insecurity and their continued development, children experience several adverse effects caused by food insecurity. According to Feeding America, food insecurity is linked with a poorer physical quality of life for children. “Children struggling with food insecurity may be at greater risk for stunted development, anemia, and asthma, oral health problems, and hospitalization” (Feeding America). Additionally, food insecurity may prevent children from fully engaging in daily activities, may lead to them falling behind their more food-secure peers both academically and socially, receiving lower reading and test scores, and may lead to them exhibiting behavioral problems, such as hyperactivity, aggression, and anxiety (Feeding America).

Minorities: A third important demographic that is impacted by food insecurity are minorities.

According to a blog post from Move for Hunger, an organization dedicated to fighting the issue of hunger, minorities still make up the majority of the low-wage workforce (Move for Hunger). In fact, the average wealth of white families is seven times higher than that of black families. In 2016, the average liquid retirement of white families was three times that of Hispanic and African American families. According to Healthy People. org, in 2016, African American households were nearly two times more likely to be food insecure than the national average (Healthy People.org). Reasons for this disparity of wealth are that minorities do not have access to sufficient wages, reliable jobs, and have fewer assets than whites (Move for Hunger). In a study done in Detroit, data showed that people living in low-income black neighborhoods were more food insecure than whites, as the nearest supermarket was found to be about 1.1 miles farther than for people living in low income, predominantly white neighborhoods (Healthy People.org).

The Nashville Food Project: The Nashville Food Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting the issue of food insecurity in Nashville. The organization was originally founded in 2007 centered around a mission: “To bring people together to grow, cook and share nourishing food, with the goals of cultivating community, and alleviating the threat of hunger in our city” (The Nashville Food Project). The Nashville Food Project accomplishes its mission through three central purposes of their organization: organically growing food, preparing and cooking made-from-scratch meals, and sharing their food with those in need. In their gardens, the Nashville Food Project supplies itself with over 25,000 servings of organically grown fruits and vegetables. While in the garden, volunteers support all aspects of growing, including turning the ground, planting seeds, weeding, and harvesting fresh produce. The organization also recently moved

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into a new headquarters last year with a brand new state-of-the-art kitchen. In the kitchen, volunteers work to prepare meals that the organization plans, using both fruits and vegetables organically grown from the garden as well as donated food as ingredients. As part of the delivery team, volunteers over 18 can ride along while the food project is delivering the freshly cooked food to local programs and shelters in need. Equally important to the Nashville Food Project as the desire to fight hunger in Nashville is the organization’s desire to strengthen the sense of the community in our city. Through their garden, the Nashville Food Project encourages the sharing of knowledge about growing among staff, volunteers, and visitors. In the kitchen, the Nashville Food Project encourages building connections with others while working, saying “On any given day, you will find a diverse group of volunteers assembled for meal prep -- college students elbow-to-elbow with formerly-incarcerated men and women, right next to a couple of seasoned seniors and a volunteer from a tony Green Hills address. Each one gladly shares the space, and their combined presence makes the preparation of our meals incredibly rewarding” (The Nashville Food Project).

Through its delivery service, the Nashville Food Project aims to build connections with other organizations, strengthening the Nashville community one meal at a time.

My Role: While volunteering at the Nashville Food Project, I teamed up with my friends and classmates, Tommy Gaither and Lily Martin, and worked in the kitchen doing meal prep. The shifts we worked were either two or three hours, and when we walked in were always greeted with smiling faces and immediately assigned to a task.

These jobs ranged from making lettuce wraps to cutting up fruit for fruit salads to organizing the freezer. Time always managed to fly by for us, as there was always great music playing off of someone’s phone, and every volunteer and staff member socialized with each other. During one of my shifts, I was working at the same time as a rather large group of Latino women who have all been friends since childhood and meet once a month to volunteer at a local organization. When I started talking with them, they said that it is difficult for them to all be together at the same time with their busy lives and that the days when they volunteer are mainly when they are all together. That experience helped me understand the sense of community The Nashville Food Project works to strengthen, as I understood the comradery people feel while working at this organization. People are brought together through volunteering at the Nashville Food Project, and everyone leaves feeling closer to the people around them. One of the other aspects of volunteering that I loved about the Nashville Food Project was that there was always something for us to do. If we managed to finish making over 160 sandwiches before our shift ended, it was easy for us to be assigned to a new job and contribute. I feel a strong sense of purpose while working at the Nashville Food Project, knowing that what I am doing is making a strong impact. I feel incredibly lucky that my friends and I have had the opportunity to contribute to fighting the issue of food insecurity in our city.

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WORKS CITED “Accessing Healthy Food.” Nashville.gov, Nashville.gov, www.nashville.gov/NashVitality/Healthy/ In-Your-Community/Accessing-Healthy-Food.aspx.

“Child Food Insecurity.” Feeding America. PDF. “5 Facts About Hunger in Tennessee.” United Way of Williamson County, United Way of Williamson County, 16 Oct. 2019, uwwc.org/2019/10/16/5-facts-about-hunger-intennessee/.

“Food Deserts.” Food Empowerment Project, Food Empowerment Project, foodispower.org/access-health/food-deserts/.

“Food Insecurity.” Food Insecurity | Healthy People 2020, US Department of Health and Human Services, www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/socialdeterminants-health/interventions-resources/food-insecurity.

“Food Insecurity in America: Causes and Solutions.” Feeding America, Feeding America, www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/food-insecurity.

“Hunger Is a Racial Equity Issue.” Move For Hunger, Move For Hunger, www.moveforhunger.org/hunger-racial-equity-issue.

“Nashville Food Project.” Nashville Food Project, www.thenashvillefoodproject.org/.

“Public Health Impact: Food Insecurity - Seniors.” America’s Health Rankings.org, United Health Foundation, www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/senior/measure/ food_insecurity_sr/state/TN. “The Difference Between a Food Desert and a Food Swamp.” Destination HealthEU, 4 Dec. 2018, emoryhumanhealth.org/2018/11/20/the-difference-between-a-food-desert-anda-food-swamp/.

“What Hunger Looks Like in Tennessee.” Feeding America, Feeding America, www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/tennessee.

“What Is Food Insecurity in America?” Hunger and Health, Feeding America, hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/understand-food-insecurity/.

Yenerall, Jackie.“Food Deserts and Food Access Overview.” TN Department of Health. PDF.

REF LECTION: CHARLIE MAHANES NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT For the past year, I have had the opportunity to volunteer at the Nashville Food Project in the organization’s meal prep team, along with my friends and classmates, Tommy Gaither and Lily Martin. The Nashville Food Project is a local organization founded in 2007 dedicated to fighting the issue of food insecurity that affects so many people in our city through growing organic food, cooking meals, and delivering those meals to people in need.

My volunteer work in the meal prep team consisted of me working 2-3 shifts preparing several different foods, from making sandwiches to chopping fruit. These meals that we made were then shortly taken in a truck to be delivered to the group in need that day, from homeless shelters to summer camps in need of lunches. While working at the Nashville Food Project did not necessarily require any prior knowledge, I do feel that Ensworth has effectively prepared me with a strong work ethic and a desire to help those around me that made it very easy to work. I was lucky enough to have previously worked at the Nashville Food Project several years before starting my Service Scholar Project. My mom has been a regular volunteer for years, and I have been volunteering with her occasionally since I was in middle school. By working with my mom, I was able to develop a deep appreciation for the

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Nashville Food Project’s mission as well as a love for their community early on in my life, which made my decision to choose my Senior Service Project last spring very easy.

The community at the Nashville Food Project is one of compassion, positivity, and fun that is contagious and draws you in. As soon as you step into the kitchen, you are met with smiling faces, laughter, and the sound of classic pop hits playing from the kitchen’s speaker. The ladies in charge of the Food Project are so kind that I was almost instantly on a first-name basis with them to the point that I did not even need a name tag. These may seem like minuscule comments to be made when talking about a Service Project. However, it is the little things like these that I believe are important when dedicating your time to an organization, and I felt even more motivated to help out when working in such a warm and inviting community. People always say that when you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. I never truly understood what that felt like until I had the opportunity to work at the Food Project. Whenever I volunteer with my friends or family, time seems to fly by. With the number of hours required as a Service Scholar, this aspect of the Nashville Food Project gave me not only the motivation but the excitement to go back and volunteer again and again.

Equally as important to me as the environment I am working in is how much I feel that I am making an impact on my community. Luckily, the Nashville Food Project is an organization where I feel I am making the most meaningful contribution that I possibly can by dedicating my time. When working at the Nashville Food Project, every job a volunteer performs serves a direct purpose. Whether my task of the day is to make chicken sandwiches or a fruit salad, I leave after my shift, knowing that what I made just directly helped another person in need. As volunteers, we are creating physical items that are going directly to those who need it most. For me, the knowledge that I am making something that I know is directly helping another person is what drove me to pick this organization for my Service Scholar project the most. Food is a precious resource that every living being needs to survive, and no person in this world should have to go to bed not knowing where their next meal is coming from. There is a severe hunger problem in the United States and Tennessee, with 1 in 7 Tennessee households suffering from food insecurity and not knowing where their next meal is coming from. Therefore, to be able to dedicate my time working at the Nashville Food Project, knowing that what I am making is a meal that is directly helping someone who needs it desperately and making a direct fight against hunger is a message that continues to resonate with me to this day.

I genuinely feel that my experience working at the Nashville Food Project has transformed me into a better version of myself. Every day I left work with a profound sense of accomplishment and my heart felt fuller knowing that I just made something that could mean the world to the person receiving it. This project has reminded me of the basic things in life that I take for granted such as food and has made me thankful for not only being fortunate enough to have 3 meals a day, but that I have been given the opportunity to make such an impact on someone’s day. The Nashville Food Project was an organization that was not previously showcased as a partner with Ensworth’s Service Project, so I hope that with these words, I can inspire someone else to follow in my footsteps and contribute to this great organization.

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Essay: Julia Moody

ESSAY: JULIA MOODY M C DOWELL COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA: THE HISTORY, COAL MINING, SOCIAL ISSUES, AND BLACK LUNG a. McDowell County, West Virginia Welch is the county seat of McDowell County, located at the most southern part of West Virginia. The area was first settled in the early 19th century by inhabitants of neighboring states. Inhabitants of central Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and western North Carolina are among the most prevalent and notable of the settlers of Welch.

The small town, largely occupied by hunters, began to make a name for itself when geologist Isaiah Welch visited. The town was named for this explorer’s visit in 1873 when he noted the bountiful resources of timber and high-quality coal throughout the valleys. These valleys are distinguishable due to Welch’s rugged topography of narrow contrasting hills and valleys. Word of these natural resources spread fast throughout the region, therefore prompting people to move to West Virginia in search of work and wealth. b. Coal Industry Isaiah Welch’s report led many hopeful coal entrepreneurs to relocate to McDowell County. This movement was so astute that Norfolk and Western Railway Company extended their railway line from Mercer County to McDowell County (Gillenwater).

This railway is still present today and can be seen when driving through McDowell County. However, this was just the start for Welch as many entrepreneurs quickly began constructing a network of coal mines, establishing Welch as a service center for coalfields. These networks brought prosperity to McDowell County making it one of West Virginia’s most successful counties during the late 1800s through the mid-1900s. Locals in Welch today still reflect on these prosperous times, a time they were proud of as mining is a family business, some people with three or more generations of miners. From many personal experiences and conversations with locals, I have had the opportunity to hear the heartwarming stories of the community formed and prosperity once present in Welch. c. Peak and Downfall Sadly, McDowell County’s great success and prosperity did not last forever. The population of Welch was at its highest in 1950 at 6,603 people (Gillenwater). At that peak time, miners made a good salary - a year’s salary would cover the cost of a four-bedroom and three-story home (Handwerker). However, now the current population of Welch specifically is 1,715 with an overall poverty rate of 24.65% (World Population Review). This graphic shows the median household income of McDowell County, surrounding counties, West Virginia as a whole, and the United States; McDowell County’s median family income is less than half of the median United States family’s income, $25,595 versus $57,652 (Datausa).

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This drastic change in living was caused by a decreased demand for both coal and jobs regarding the coal industry in the 1960s. As the mining industry as a whole became more competitive, with new mines being utilized around the world, manufacturing spread to other countries and Welch’s local mines could not keep up. This inability to compete made it increasingly challenging for mines to stay open. Further technological advances and improved mining techniques led to a sharp decrease in employment within the mines. To put this change into perspective, Handwerker notes, “15 workers in two shifts have double the capacity of 50 workers 25 years ago” (Handwerker). These advances left Welch behind, as the mining industry progressed further and left residents of McDowell County to suffer the consequences to this day. d. Welch Today Driving through the narrow streets of Welch today further solidifies the idea that McDowell County has not recovered from or grown since the downfall in the mid-1900s. For reference, the nearest corporate establishment is a Wendy’s, about a 45-minute drive from the heart of Welch. As stated earlier, the population of Welch is exponentially smaller than it once was at its peak, with nearly one out of four individuals reportedly living below the poverty line. Currently, life expectancy is lower than what it was 35 years ago, with many factors at play (Handwerker). e. Social Issues Firstly, nearly 52% of children are not raised by either of their parents or have parents deemed “not suitable” for children, leaving local kids “homeless”.

Further, the opioid crisis has taken an evident toll on McDowell County and the local water system utilizes wooden pipes over a century old. Most notably of all, is the lack of resources for the inhabitants of Welch. Teachers and

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doctors, both vital components for the success of younger generations, have no inclination to move to Welch. Currently, the town does not have a single doctor and the hospital employees commute into town three times a week. From an educational standpoint, most teachers do not last more than a year in the schools (Handwerker). This lack of healthcare, education, and mentorship leads to a never-ending cycle between generations of McDowell County. This lack of growth is demonstrated by a conversation I had with a local last summer. This mother of one, whose identity will be kept anonymous, described how she knew the importance of setting a good example for her elementary-aged son. She gave up smoking nearly ten years ago and made sure he kept up with his schoolwork, as she wishes she had done. However, her son is exposed to hard drug use and violence at school. At the time of the conversation, he was not in school, due to summer break, but described how kids in his sixth-grade class would sell substances to others and would physically bully him until his teachers finally took notice just before the end of the year. Overall, today Welch still suffers tremendously from the economic downturns of the coal industry nearly half a century ago and likely will continue to suffer due to their lack of growth in community values and resources. Therefore, due to the lack of quality healthcare, education, and familial values, the community of McDowell County is stuck in a cycle. The few people who find success, attaining a college degree or advance further than the immediate Welch community typically leave and do not return.

This trend establishes Welch as an abandoned town, as people are not actively moving to McDowell County and the people with the ability to better the town leave (Handwerker). f. Moving Forward Youth Conference Ministries provides young Christians of middle and high school ages with local community service opportunities and experiences to further their faith. Since their start over 30 years ago in 1977, they have grown from a single conference with 300 attendees to 20 conferences throughout the nation and internationally with over 5,000 participants. The specific brand of Youth Conference Ministries that works with McDowell County, West Virginia, is Son Servants. Son Servants was founded in 1972, with its goal to provide Christians with short-term mission experiences around the world. This branch hopes to foster a love of service within a community and inspire a lifelong passion for helping others while furthering individual faith. They do this by partnering with “local agencies, pastors, and missionaries in providing labor and funds for work projects” (Cornett). The local church Son Servants partners with is Panther Christian Outreach (“Panther Christian Outreach”). Located in an abandoned elementary school, Panther Christian Outreach pairs visiting groups of students with service projects in the local community. Service projects vary by needs in the local community ranging from simple home repairs such as new paint jobs to extreme changes like plumbing repairs and bridge construction. The degree of physical labor varies by whatever work will better the lives of the local community.

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g. Black Lung Black lung is a lung disease that commonly affects miners or those living in regions where coal mining is present. This presence is due to the fact that “coal workers’ pneumoconiosis” is caused by exposure to coal dust in the mines. When inhaled, especially in areas lacking adequate ventilation such as mines, dust builds up in the lungs leading to inflammation and eventual tissue death. The name “black lung” comes from the fact that this dust build-up can cause the lungs to appear black in color (“Pneumoconiosis Symptoms, Causes and Risk Factors”).

At a molecular level, when the coal dust accumulates in the lungs, a coal macule can form. A coal macule is a build-up of coal dust and macrophages, white blood cells that digest other particles and work closely with immune responses. Over time, these macules can cause larger coal nodules. A coal nodule is an abnormality in lung tissues which can lead to emphysema and fibrosis. These macules and, even more so, nodules can obstruct or altogether cease airflow throughout the airway (“Black Lung Disease”).

Therefore, when affected, people describe a “drowning” sensation as they try to breathe because their lungs cannot function properly (Lilly, Todd, Douglas).

Black lung is a disease that onsets gradually, meaning it takes time to develop and diagnose. The symptoms of black lung - pulmonary emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and tuberculosis - typically appear 10-20 years post-exposure to coal (Encyclopedia Britannica). The severity of black lung varies from case to case.

Many factors play into how each individual is affected. Among these factors are the type of coal dust inhaled, how much dust was present in the air inhaled, and the length of exposure to said specific air quality (“Black Lung Disease”).

Black lung is not a new issue by any means. A German mineralogist, Georgius Agricola noted lung disease in the coal mining industry in the 16th century. Since then, the disease has grown to be well-known, especially in regard to occupational illnesses (Encyclopedia Britannica). Attention and interest in the coal mining industry and black lung has grown too, as miners have strived to take action against the grim disease. Back in the 1960s, miners strived to organize a means to end their chronic conditions. Their actions were successful as Congress passed laws with the intention to make black lung a disease of the past. These attempts were not successful; however as the disease is still prevalent as ever among the mining communities. Currently, at least 2,000 miners are dying because of the black lung epidemic (Lilly, Todd, Douglas).

Some of these affected individuals live in Panther, West Virginia, and I have had the opportunity to talk to them regarding their experiences in the coal mines and life outside, with black lung. My first trip to McDowell County, the summer of 2016, a local man who had retired from the mines talked to my group. He was living with black lung disease and described his terrifying reality. He had been retired from the coal mining industry for a few years, one of the leading causes

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of his retirement being his declining health from years of working in less than adequate environments with a lack of healthcare. He talked about how simply breathing was a challenge, let alone walking, laughing, and talking. His daily struggle was evident because I could barely hear him; he struggled with talking to such an extreme degree he spoke in almost a whisper. He also discussed how hard it was to access healthcare and find people to administer his necessary treatments to make living with black lung a bit more peaceful, as there is currently not a cure. This links back to the social issue of poverty referenced above as the lack of medical professionals in the area affects the entire population, but specifically those struggling with debilitating diseases like black lung. My experience hearing this man’s story is what prompted my interest in and research of black lung. His story has stuck with me for over four years now, and I often find myself asking, “what I can do to help?” I have had the opportunity to go back the past three summers and see him remaining in good spirits despite his condition. My interactions with this man not only shed light on the social issues in question and connect the research of black lung but also embody the importance of service. I traveled to Panther, West Virginia, hoping to make a difference in the community there; however, I know that the community there equally if not more so impacted myself and my fellow Nashville community.

WORKS CITED

“Black Lung Disease.” HealthLink BC, 13 Dec. 2018, www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/ug1566spec.

Cornett, Robin. “Son Servants Archives.” Youth Conference Ministries, 2020, ycmhome.org/program/ss/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Black Lung.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Mar. 2018, www.britannica.com/science/black-lung.

Gillenwater, Mack H. “Welch.” e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 16 February 2016. Web. 02 March 2020.

Handwerker, Haim. “Far From the American Dream in West Virginia.” Haaretz.com, Haaretz, 24 Apr. 2018, www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-far-from-the-american-dream-inwest-virginia-1.5433539.

Lilly, Jessica, et al. “Black Lung Disease Back and Worse Than Before, Inside Appalachia.” West Virginia Public Broadcasting, 23 Aug. 2019, www.wvpublic.org/post/black-lung-disease-back-and-worse-insideappalachia#stream/0.

“Median Household Income.” Datausa, datausa.io/profile/geo/welch-wv.

“Panther Christian Outreach.” Youth Conference Ministries, 2020, ycmhome.org/people/panther-christian-outreach/.

“Pneumoconiosis Symptoms, Causes and Risk Factors.” American Lung Association, 13 Mar. 2018, www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/pneumoconiosis/pneumoconiosissymptoms-causes-risks.html.

“Welch, West Virginia Population 2020.” Welch, West Virginia Population 2020 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs), worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/welch-wv-population/.

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REF LECTION: JULIA MOODY PANTHER, WEST VIRGINIA For my senior service scholar project, I traveled with my church, First Presbyterian Church of Nashville, to Panther, West Virginia. My church partners with an organization called Son Servants, a group that specializes in organizing short-term mission trips for high school students. Panther is a tiny and remote community, where poverty is overwhelmingly present. This poverty is due to a combination of factors including the flawed coal mining industry, lack of medical care, and lack of education.

I am so lucky to have gone to Panther for the past four summers, each time with my church, therefore fully immersing in the community and seeing the long-term effects of service on said community.

My first impression of Panther was utter awestruck - I was at a loss for words. My church stays in an abandoned elementary school that lacks central plumbing and water reeks of sulfur. However, that initial fear and anxiety quickly turned to respect and love for a community. Despite the conditions the Panther community lives in, they are the most welcoming and loving group of people I have ever met. An important realization I had in Panther is that communities less fortunate than my own do not want my pity; they want my respect. I strived to give Panther that sense of respect and equality every day on the worksite and off. They are quick to open up their homes for prayer or lunch and offer a hand when needed on the worksites.

For the service portion of the trip, my church community splits into small groups of about ten students and two adult volunteers to do physical work throughout the community. The needs range anywhere from installing new toilets and redoing a roof to building bridges and painting shutters. Although I am not the most well-versed in the construction realm, I strive to help out wherever I can in order to improve the Panther community’s quality of life.

As a senior, I was tasked with the challenge of leading one of these workgroups both on and off the worksite. This leadership role brought many challenges, enabling me to improve my problem-solving skills and leadership qualities. It can be challenging to get a group of teenagers, some just one year younger than yourself, to respect and listen to you. For myself, a not particularly vocal person, this proved challenging as I had to learn to speak up and make myself heard. I typically lead by example, but by forcing myself to learn to be a vocal leader, I furthered my leadership qualities, which ultimately prepared me to take on my role as a senior this school year. Also, I gained a lot of respect for those who lead myself and my peers on a daily basis in school, at church, on the field, and beyond.

Although I faced some difficulties, my experiences in Panther also were incredibly enriching. I went to Panther to make a difference in others’ lives; however, it was my life that has been exponentially changed from my experiences over the past four years.

Despite any initial discomfort and fear, Panther is now a place I call my second home.

From the conversations I engaged in and to the work I put in, I feel that Panther has changed my perspective on what “service” and “community” mean to me.

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Essay: Rylie O’Neil

ESSAY: RYLIE O’NEIL TIME TO RISE

Before I embarked on my service journey this past year, I didn’t know what organization I wanted to work with. Throughout high school, none of the groups on service day inspired me and spoke to my interests. I have always loved working with kids, and when K.K. Wynn emailed me asking if I would be a part of Time to Rise, I immediately said yes.

Time to Rise has impacted me in so many ways. I view socio-economic backgrounds from a different lens, I treat others with more compassion and love, and I strive to make an impact in kids’ lives who need extra guidance and support. Time to Rise strives to help kids (grades 4-6) continue their studies during the summer. These kids come from low-income families in Nashville, TN, and are considered “at risk youth.” For my senior service scholar project, I want to go further and research more about these kids’ lives and the struggles they face now and as they continue to grow older. I am researching literacy rates of 4th graders in Nashville compared to the US literacy rates for 4th graders. I am also researching how class size and student to teacher ratio affects how well children learn in school and succeed later in life. Finally I will look into a question: If kids in 4th grade are behind in school (reading level) how does this affect them in adulthood (incarceration, job status, income level etc.)?

“Children who reach fourth grade without being able to read proficiently are more likely to struggle academically and eventually drop out of school” (Patch). Literacy Rates is defined as the total population of an area that has the ability to read and write.

Attending a private school for 13 years, reading and writing is a skill a student must have to succeed at Ensworth. Before I embarked on my journey with Time to Rise, I was unaware of just how many kids don’t know how to read/write or aren’t confident in their skills. Beyond this, many kids are able to read/write but do so behind their grade reading/writing level. I experienced this lack of confidence and lack of ability with the 4th graders at Time to Rise. According to the website “Patch,” as of 2017, 65% of 4th graders were not proficient in reading. This means that only 35% of 4th graders were able to read as of 2017. This fact is astonishing, but “Patch” also records that, about 8 in 10 children who are African-American, American Indian, and Latino weren’t reading at their grade level (Patch). Reading proficiency by the end of 3rd grade is a key milestone in a child’s school career and overall learning. Time to Rise focuses on rising 4th graders, from all different backgrounds, during the summer to decrease this percentage of kids that are not proficient in reading. 65% of 4th graders not proficient in reading is the national literacy rate, but Nashville’s literacy rates, especially in low-income areas, are completely different.

“Two out of every three children exit third grade off-track in literacy” (Tennessee).

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Third-grade reading levels is an important milestone for students, which is why Time to Rise focuses on rising 4th graders before they enter the 4th grade at their respective schools. In 2019, 7 out of 10 third graders in Nashville Metro Public Schools could not read at their grade level - which is approximately 4,500 children (Scarlett Family Foundation). The Literacy Rate for third graders in Nashville Metro Public Schools is 28.8%, but this doesn’t include every demographic. The Scarlett Family Foundation states that only 15% of economically disadvantaged students and 20% of Black/Latino/Native American students are reading on grade level.

Literacy rates are at their lowest in the Pearl Cohn cluster, 13%, an area in Tennessee that is home to low-income families and at risk youth. Along with Pearl Cohn is the Hunter’s Lane cluster, also a troubled area, with literacy rates of third graders at only 15%. Contrastingly, Hillsboro (59%), Hillwood (34%), and Overton (37.5%), see higher third grade reading proficiency levels but still not up to par for kids this age.

Most kids from Time to Rise come from schools such as Robert E. Lillard (14.8%), Rocketship Elementary (12.5%) , Robert Churchwell Elementary (7.8%) , Hickman Elementary (22.7%) , and East End Preparatory (23.9%). This connection between literacy rates and geographic location points to a very important issue in our city. No third grade child’s academic future should be dictated solely on the location of where they live. Now we pose the question: How does Tennessee fix this glaring issue of third-grade literacy rates? The answer isn’t simple, but there have been strides in finding a solution to this problem.

I am blessed to go to a school where there are roughly 16 kids (or less) in each of my classes with a student to teacher ratio of 7:1. I know this isn’t the case for everyone, especially if you go to public school, but why is it so difficult to make class sizes smaller in all schools? The answer to this question goes beyond the classroom and into each state’s legislature. CRS, class size reduction, are legislative mandates to reduce class sizes within schools. These mandates have been extremely popular within state legislatures, but recently, CRS has been re-worked. According to the website “Brookings,” “increasing the pupil/teacher ratio in the U.S. by one student

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would save at least $12 billion per year in teacher salary costs alone, which is roughly equivalent to the outlays of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federal government’s largest single K-12 education program” (Brookings).

Therefore, increasing class sizes and student to teacher ratio will save our country billions of dollars. The Student Teacher Achievement Ratio or STAR, conducted a study in the 1980s in Tennessee that justifies the CRS goal. In the STAR study, students and teachers were randomly assigned to a small class size, 15 students, or a regular class size, 22 students. “This large reduction in class size (7 students, or 32 percent) was found to increase student achievement by an amount equivalent to about 3 additional months of schooling four years later” (Brookings). So what are the other benefits to small class sizes? Small class sizes have the most positive effects on elementary students. According to NCTE, “Students who have smaller classes in early elementary grades continue to benefit from this experience even if they are in larger classes in upper elementary or middle school” (NCTE). Not only do these students benefit later in their schooling, but students in smaller classes tend to be as much as one to two months ahead in content knowledge, and they score higher on standardized assessments. Smaller classes directly benefit minority students, at-risk students, and students who struggle with English literacy. Smaller classes not only help the student’s performance, but also their engagement. Students in small classes are more likely to interact with the teacher rather than listen passively. Students are also more likely to behave well in small classes, and teachers have the ability to work one on one with each student in their class (NCTE).

After doing extensive research, I have learned that smaller class sizes have an extremely positive effect on students, especially elementary school kids, but are the Nashville public schools that Time to Rise students attend able to keep this small class size? Robert E. Lillard has a student to teacher ratio of 15 to 1, with 335 students in K-4. Rocketship Elementary has a total of 544 students in K-4 and a 20 to 1 student to teacher ratio. Robert Churchwell Elementary has a student to teacher ratio of 15 to 1, with 391 students in K-4. Hickman Elementary has 560 students in K-4 and an 18 to 1 student to teacher ratio. Finally, East End Preparatory has a 19 to 1 student to teacher ratio with 633 students in K-4 (Niche) Within these 5 public Nashville elementary schools, the average student to teacher ratio is 17.4 to 1. Metro Nashville Public Schools have a student to teacher ratio of 16 to 1, which means the schools Time to Rise 4th graders attend are above the average student to teacher ratio in Metro Nashville Public Schools. These Time to Rise 4th graders don’t get that “one on one” attention that they need during the school year; therefore, we provide them with that assistance during the summer, knowing how important it is for their success. In each Time to Rise classroom is around 7 students with one teacher and 2-3 counselors. Time to Rise provides a new environment for these 4th graders and lets them grow into more confident students and kids.

The final portion of my research is answering this question: If kids fall behind in school before 4th grade, what happens to them later in life? There has always been a strong connection between falling behind in your level of schooling and how the

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rest of your life plays out. After doing lots of research, graduating high school as a student is extremely important. Not having a high school diploma can make the rest of your life difficult, and there is a significant milestone at 4th grade. According to the website, “Reading Partners,” “Children who are not reading at a proficient level by fourth grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school before graduating.

Students growing up in low-income neighborhoods who cannot read with proficiency are six times more likely to leave high school without a degree” (Reading Partners).

Lack of confidence and ability in English Literacy is an important issue that Time to Rise addresses because the struggles an adult who did not complete high school faces are immense. Incarceration rates are directly linked to what age you dropout of school. At state prisons in the United States, 68% of inmates do not have a high school diploma (JFP). On the other hand, High School dropouts are ineligible for 90% of jobs in America. Sadly, Roughly 55% of African-Americans and Hispanic Students complete highschool, leaving 45% to never graduate with a diploma. In fact, a high school graduate’s income is 50 to 100% higher than a high school dropout’s. There is so much information on how completing or not completing high school can affect the rest of your life, but I did not know that this all begins in 4th grade. Who knew a 4th graders ability to read at a 4th grade reading level can be a factor in determining what you do with your life?

After concluding my research, I have learned so much new information that relates to the lives of the kids that I care about deeply. Participating in Time to Rise for the past two summers has allowed me to take a step back from my world and my life path, and focus my energy on someone else. These at risk rising 4th graders need cheerleaders in their corner. They need to feel confident in their abilities going into their 4th grade year at their respective school. I know how I have made a difference in these kids’ lives during the summer, but how is the world and our community trying to change the world these kids live in? According to the “Tennessean,” a new education commissioner plans to launch a fifteen million dollar literacy initiative. The goal of this initiative is to, “invest in a proven, coherent, statewide literacy program that includes high-quality materials, coaching and shared diagnostics for data review” (Schwinn). This program will provide district grants for the purchase of materials, evaluation tools, family resources, and support from an approved vendor to put in place programs. I am very excited to see someone like Dr. Penny Schwinn recognize our state and country’s massive issue and try to make a change. She is making sure funding and attention are set aside to tackle this literacy rate issue, and I will continue to do my part to make a change in the lives’ of at risk 4th graders at Time to Rise.

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Essay/Reflection: Rylie O’Neil

WORKS CITED “11 Facts About Dropping Out.” DoSomething.org, www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-dropping-out.

Chingos, Matthew M., and Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst. “Class Size: What Research Says and What It Means for State Policy.” Brookings, Brookings, 10 May 2017, www.brookings.edu/ research/class-size-what-research-says-and-what-it-means-for-state-policy/.

“Explore East End Preparatory School.” Niche, www.niche.com/k12/east-end-preparatoryschool-nashville-tn/.

Gonzales, Jason. “Under New Education Commissioner, Tennessee Will Focus on a New Early Grade Literacy Initiative.” The Tennessean, The Tennessean, 18 Nov. 2019, www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2019/11/18/tennessee-education-new-earlygrade-literacy-initiative/4230136002/.

Hampton, Daniel. “Two-Thirds Of U.S. 4th Graders Are Not Proficient In Reading.” Across America, US Patch, Patch, 18 June 2019, patch.com/us/across-america/two-thirds-u-s-4thgraders-are-not-proficient-reading.

“Nashville’s Third Grade Literacy Challenge: Where Do We Go from Here?” Scarlett Family Foundation, www.scarlettfoundation.org/what-we-are-learning/nashvilles-third-gradeliteracy-challenge-where-do-we-go-from-here/.

Waibel, Elizabeth. “The Dropout-Crime Connection.” The Dropout-Crime Connection | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS, www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2011/oct/19/the-dropoutcrime-connection/.

“Why Class Size Matters Today.” NCTE, ncte.org/statement/why-class-size-matters/.

REF LECTION: RYLIE O’NEIL TIME TO RISE I have worked with Time to Rise for the past two summers, and my experience working with rising 4th graders has been amazing. Time to Rise impacted me so much that I wrote my college essay about my experience and how incredible the program is. My essay and reflection is my personal story with a camper along with what I encountered while working Time to Rise: “ Isabelle and I sat across from one another in the cafeteria, our eyes locked. Breakfast had ended an hour ago, and Isabelle refused to eat. We were playing a game of battleship, one bite at a time. Little did I know we would repeat this routine every morning for the rest of camp.

For two summers I worked at Time to Rise, an organization that strives to keep underprivileged youth in Nashville out of harm and in the classroom. Working with kids like Isabelle broadened my outlook and inspired me to make a difference in children’s lives. During my first year as a counselor, I had the privilege to experience my kids’ growth first hand. Helping Zecheriah with fractions and Madison with grammar, I learned how I could guide the kids to reach their full potential. In my second summer, the camp directors asked me to increase my responsibility as an administrator. In

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this role, I arranged field trips, communicated with parents, and planned the final banquet. My position as an administrator gave me real work experience, but I missed being one on one with the kids. Over my two years, I realized that engaging with rising 4th graders who struggle to read, speak in front of their peers, and follow directions is challenging; however, the swarms of hugs, notes, and smiles at the end of camp make every day worthwhile.

After four weeks of hard work the day had finally come. Parents watched attentively as I passed out awards for “Best Mathematician” and “Most Improved Bookworm.” After I called the last name, my eyes found the ground, not wanting to see Isabelle’s face for the last time. She sprinted my way with arms wide open. We stood there, her head resting on my chest, and my arms wrapped around her. Slowly, she handed me a slip of paper decorated with pink hearts and yellow flowers reading, “You impacted my life more than you know. Thank you.” As Isabelle let go, I thought I would feel relief because the rounds of battleship were over, but as she walked away, a surprising smile curled up behind my tears. I realized how much I had allowed myself to care for her and how much more love my heart could hold than I expected.”

Time to Rise has changed my outlook on life in so many ways and I will always cherish the memories I made with campers similar to Isabelle. I plan to continue to work with at risk youth and help them in their path towards a successful and an enjoyable future.

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Reflection: Mae Mae Wallace

REF LECTION: MAE MAE WALLACE KIDS ACADEMY

My work with Kids Academy initially started as a surprise when Coach Whit asked me to be the co director of the program and completely redesign the organization. Honestly, junior year was going to be hard enough without the extra task of being in charge of a whole summer program, so I was reluctant to accept the task. However, after hearing more about Kids Academy and its mission, I realized that working on it would not be a burden, it would be an outlet to pursue something I am very passionate about. With my love for kids, my desire for education equality, and my passion for social justice, I embarked on a service learning journey that taught me more than I could have ever imagined.

As co-director, I worked on Kids Academy for several months and completely designed the program, as well as ran the actual camp during its two week period. Kids Academy is a summer camp to assist local middle schoolers with their academic skills. The camp includes 4 classes: reading, writing, math, and science. It also includes daily fun activities, enrichment classes like acting and yoga, as well as a few field trips. The entire camp is facilitated by Ensworth high school students who serve as the kids’ counselors and teachers. In 2019, Kids Academy partnered with John Early Middle School in North Nashville. Thirty kids from the ages of twelve to fourteen were brought to the Ensworth High School campus to participate in this free, nonprofit program to ultimately give them assistance with their academics, as well as give them a positive summer experience.

Logistically, Kids Academy was the most difficult thing I had ever done in my life. My work began in September of 2018 and continued until June of 2019. The motto of Kids Academy is “by kids for kids,” so Shealy Mischinski and I were tasked with the entire designing, planning, and preparation for the camp with very minimal help from adults.

Some of our work included creating schedules and curriculums, contacting John Early’s principal and teachers, recruiting and training high school counselors, recruiting campers, booking field trips, organizing transportation, budgeting supplies, and much more. Part of the goal of Kids Academy is to provide the high school students a chance to learn how to run an organization without any help, and with this freedom came a lot of mistakes. I learned so much about running a program and what things are essential for success. I learned that organization and teamwork are crucial, and I learned to always be overprepared. I will take the lessons learned throughout the planning process with me for the rest of my life.

In addition to lessons learned through planning the nonprofit, I learned even more valuable lessons when working the camp and serving the kids. My experience with Kids Academy has completely changed my outlook on service and nonprofit work. At

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Reflection: Mae Mae Wallace

the start of the two weeks, I had no idea how many relationships I would build with the kids as well as with my peer counselors. Although the camp was intended to help the kids with their academics, in turn we were able to give them friendships and mentorships that some of them had never experienced before. Each day they arrived ecstatic to spend time with us and each afternoon they left yelling “I’ll see you tomorrow!” What I realized throughout the process was that we were providing something far more valuable than help with math or reading, we were providing genuine love and support that some of these kids had never experienced in their life. Throughout Kids Academy I learned that service is not just about improving statistics, it’s about creating genuine human connections and bridging gaps. It is not only about making an impact in the lives of others, but allowing yourself to be impacted as well. When asked if Kids Academy was successful, I like to quote one of our camper’s letters from the last day of camp. She says, “Counselors, I admire you all. You all [are] great leaders for young scholars. Y’all make us feel important. You show us how we are supposed to act and treat people. You prove that there is a way to do anything in life.” This note truly illustrates the depth of the relationships that we were able to create with the kids, and to me, it is the ultimate trophy of success. I am incredibly thankful for Kids Academy and the opportunity it gave me to serve the community while learning valuable lessons about hard work, service, and gratitude.

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NON-P UBLISHED SERVICE SCHOLARS AND RESEARCH TOPICS The following students chose not to publish their work but are recognized for their work as Service Scholars:

BRY’NHYIA BRAZIER ATTITUDES TOWARD EDUCATION BASED ON CLASS KIDS ACADEMY / PRESTON TAYLOR MINISTRIES

LILLY LUCAS FEDERAL PROGRAMS FOR LOW INCOME CHILDREN / PRESTON TAYLOR MINISTRIES

BARRETT MC F ERRIN EFFECT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION TIME TO RISE / RED SWEATER PROJECT

SHEALY MISCHINSKI CURRICULUM BUILDING AND FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS / KIDS ACADEMY

NEELY MOORER FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO LOW LITERACY KIDS ACADEMY / PRESTON TAYLOR MINISTRIES

JANE ANNA VICKERY SEXUAL ASSAULT PUBLIC POLICY SEXUAL ASSAULT CENTER

EDITOR’S NOTE Students submitted these essays before spring break March 2020. The Covid 19 pandemic was just emerging in our lives, and Middle Tennessee had just experienced the worst tornado event in recent history. A month later at the time of final proofing for publication, our world is still in the midst of this global pandemic, and people are still displaced from the tornadoes. In this context, before final publication, my opportunity to reread these essays and reflections written by the Ensworth 2020 Service Scholars who chose to publish is more thought provoking than ever. These essays illustrate the incredible capacity of the Ensworth service experience to facilitate the promise of the Ensworth mission to encourage students to use their talents to the fullest, be contributors to society and exercise their intellectual vitality.

These essays have inspired me, and I expect that will be a shared experience for all who read them. Enjoy the read.

In Search of Truth

MISSION STATEMENT Ensworth is a kindergarten through twelfth grade, coeducational independent school. The School promotes academic excellence and inspires students to be intellectually curious, to use their talents to the fullest, to be people of integrity, and to be contributors to society.

VISION STATEMENT We envision a school community dedicated to following the highest principles with the greatest love, as characterized by moral integrity, intellectual vitality, discipline, compassion, humor, and joy.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT In order to realize the goals of our Mission and Vision, Ensworth must actively strive to be a diverse and inclusive community of learners that engages collectively In Search of Truth. The presence of different perspectives and life experiences plays a vital role in the development of our students, enhancing classroom and extracurricular experiences in meaningful ways. As a school, we are committed to cultivating an environment in which all members of the Ensworth community experience a true sense of belonging and are empowered to be active participants in the life of the school. These efforts are essential if we are to foster the growth of all students in line with their potential, and to equip them for lives of purpose that extend far beyond their time at Ensworth.