The Willard Project

Hey all! My name is Wendy Hernandez and I am a junior at UC Berkeley majoring in American Studies with a concentration in Education Policy and Society. I am currently working on restructuring the "Willard Project", a yearlong outreach hosted by Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc (LTA) for 7th and 8th grade AVID students at Willard Middle School. The AVID staff at Willard and LTA have established a partnership that will continue to bring awareness to the middle school students on social injustices that negatively affect their chances of attending college.

The sisters of LTA at UC Berkeley understand the disproportionate amount of Black and Latino prisoners who come from neighborhoods that do not produce high rates of college bound students. These neighborhoods, similar to the ones many sisters grew up in, often do not provide students with resources to become academically competitive students. Instead, they are infested with opportunities for  our youth to be targeted by the police and quickly become involved with the criminal justice system. The disproportionate amount of Black and Latinos that are being suspended from schools also affect students negatively and discourage them from pursuing education as a means of success. With our commitment to establishing meaningful and lasting relationships with our AVID students, we aim to play a role in diminishing the amount of Black and Latino youth incarceration rates and increase the number of them in higher institutions of education.

We will be doing our first outreach in late January/early February, so be on the look out for updates on how these outreaches go! For now, enjoy the video on this link if you are not familiar with the school-prison-pipeline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWDB5uRW6p8

serve

I serve because I cannot stand to see people relegate their goals and dreams to the circumstances they were born into and the expectations set for them through structures of oppression.

I serve because all the 'education' I've attained sitting in the classroom has been enriched tenfold by simply stepping outside of the undergraduate bubble.

I serve because it is the manifestation of my love: for my family, my friends, and community, the world, and greater universee.

nadine argueza

What does Social Justice mean?

Hi, my name is Chika Kondo and I'm a 4th year studying Society and Environment and Political Science.  As a student leader engaged in social justice work, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide my working definition of social justice and what it means to me. 

In highschool, I was never quite exposed to the concepts of social justice, power and privilege, systems of oppression or any of those pivotal terms I find myself relying on now.  Back then, all I knew was that I wanted to help others and treat others the way I wanted to be treated. With that instinct, I participated in various volunteer projects and assistant coached a special olympics tennis team.  However, beyond those projects, I never found myself being critical of the root causes of most of the social issues I was tackling.  I merely volunteered because it helped my community and made me feel good. 

However, over the past 3 years at Cal, I've truly been able to reflect and digest on what service really means to me and why I find social justice work to be my calling.  Having had the opportunity and privilege to participate in programs such as Alternative Breaks and JusticeCorps has allowed me to rethink service and the way I am perceived by others.  I cannot ignore that I have certain types of power and privilege if I want to connect across difference.  I truly believe that service should come in the form of solidarity work rather than charity and that there is so much to learn from others and community wisdoms.  Because of that I am always growing and learning and continuing to question the institutions that are set in place.  I aim to be critical of the status quo and working towards structural solutions for the complex issues surrounding poverty and other social injustices. 

Because of this, I define social justice to be the relationships I build with others where I am cognizant of where I come from and the privileges I posses in order to break down the barriers to truly stand in solidarity in order to close the gaps of inequality. 

Thoughts on Gender and Public Service

My name is Adena, and I'm a senior at the Haas School of Business. I'm originally from Southern California, but I moved up to Berkeley to attend Berkeley City College (BCC). After two years there, I transferred to Cal. I now work as a Program Coordinator for the Berkeley City College Service Community (BCCSC). We are a group that helps students get involved in their communities and assists them with the transfer process. 

I think a lot about the work that I do. It's definitely a huge part of my life. It's something I'm incredibly passionate about, since community college is a part of my identity. To read a little more about why I do the work I do, you can read my reflection: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XmvOWX6NlUo4Shxg6REdSG3TXp4yfYyQMfgImsQSkJM/edit

Something that I've been thinking about a lot recently is the apparent disparity between men and women in the field of public service. I've attended many workshops, trainings, and conferences, and I have noticed that there tend to be very few men. I'm curious as to why that is. My theory is that in our society, children are often taught to conform to gender roles. Girls are encouraged to be nurturing, to prepare them to be good mothers, and boys are taught to be aggressive, to prepare them to protect their families. I find it incredibly unfortunate that more men are not involved in public service. 

Even in my program, we only have two men out of twelve participants. Service should be seen as something that everyone should take part in. Service is a duty that all people have to their communities. I had to navigate the transfer process by myself, and I never wanted anyone to feel the frustration and confusion that I felt when I was transferring. That is why I give back to my community and do the work I do. 

WELCOME

Hello Everyone and WELCOME to the inaugural post of the inaugural class of Peter E Haas Public Service Leaders! I know thats a mouthful, so let me explain.

The Peter E Haas Public Service Leaders are a group of students at UC Berkeley that are actively engaged in off campus public service projects. Through a generous grant from the Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, we are awarded a stipend and receive leadership training and advising throughout the academic year. There is a total of 18 scholars and each one of us is working diligently to foster social justice in the community. I highly recommend checking out the following website not only to read more about this program, but to see all the other awesome public service that is happening at Cal. *ahem* www.publicservice.berkeley.edu

So, whats with the blog might you ask? Aren't we busy making the world a better place? Well, yes, that might be true, but we also wanted to share it with you! The purpose of this blog is to give each student an opportunity to explain and share their project more in depth. Or to explain a concept related to social justice that they find very important. Or to give an update on how their project is going. We want to connect with the community beyond UC Berkeley, and since we cant all get on a place and fly around the world, a blog was the next best thing. 

I am Omri and I am a senior at Cal majoring in Sociology. I got involved in public service through the Alternative Breaks Program, which is a weeklong service learning trip over spring break supplemented by a 2 unit student run class during spring semester. I had always been interested in food and food system issues, so I went on the "Food Justice and Sustainability" trip. And now, I am moving up and stepping into a Break Leader position, which means its my job to put together an awesome Alternative Break by contacting community partners, recruiting participants, fundraising, finding housing, facilitating a class, doing service and reflection, and networking with others in the field of Food Justice. 

Food Justice? What does that even mean?!?!?! Very briefly, the industrial food system in the US is inequitable and tends to favor some more than others. Organic produce is expensive, and many communities are "food deserts" and lack grocery stores nearby. Furthermore, subsidies favor large scale monoculture farms which threaten the genetic gene pool and biodiversity of many crops. The production of produce and meat is very environmentally taxing, and the industrial system does not take this into account, as production is rationalized to increase efficiency and thus profit for a very select few. My goal this year is to educate other students through my trip so they can make informed decisions in the supermarket and create their own "ethics of eating"

At this point, my co-leader and I are drafting up our trip proposal. We have begun contacting community partners and have already received confirmation from Petaluma Bounty where we will be serving! We are also networking with other organizations in Berkeley to find potential guest speakers for our trip and attending training sessions throughout the year. Finally, lots of time is involved staying up to date on happenings in the world of food. 

Thank you so much for paying our blog a visit, and stay tuned for more information from other Haas Public Service Leaders!!!