A Trip to the Inside

How many years has it been that I have been inside a Middle School?

Well, I knew the reason why I got up at 7:30am after Memorial Day and begged my roommate to get up that early to drive me over to work. One of my co-workers, Leslie was going to “graduate” about 40 six-graders from the All Star Program, an alcohol, drug prevention program. She was so excited about this program that I could just see smiles curling up on her lips.

From listening to her on our car rides to various events, I have begun to understand her point of view. Leslie wasn’t the goodie-two-shoe girl in school, but she is tough and won’t let anyone bring her down. She has come a long way in her life and deserves every penny she earns. When she just started this job, she confessed that she didn’t even know how to turn on a computer. Now, she is the administrative assistant and has been in charge of the All Star program since last year. It means so much to her to do a prevention program where she is influencing young kids to make the right decision before it is too late. On the way to New Heights Middle School, Leslie, with one hand on the stirring wheel and one hand over her heart, said to me, “Let me tell you, All Star IS my baby. I tell everyone that don’t no body touch it.”

Once we arrived at the middle school, I feel like I had a flashback of me being in Middle School. I can’t believe that I am actually on “the other side.” I was the one in high heels walking down the hall with a sense of authority. I didn’t know what to think. What are the middle-schoolers thinking? How should I act?

New Heights is not a typical public school. The students wore uniforms of white, light blue, or dark blue polo shirts and khakis pants. Everyone had to form lines when they change classes. I have never been in such a strict setting before, but reports said that the crime rates did not go up ever since the new principal from North Carolina took over the school. It was so encouraging to see six-graders actually taking the All Star program seriously. They were in the stage where they still listened to authority figures, but they are developing their own personalities. No wonder Leslie loves this program.

But happy stories never really end happily. The All Star Program is what they call a “performance-based” program. It can receive funding only if the state legislative sees progress. The students take a survey at the beginning at the program and at the end for the educators to monitor the progress. However, there’s a paradox. If no one in the class smoke before the program, and no one smoked after the program, then the improvement would be none. However, we would never know if this message would eventually help them in the future. If the fund is discontinued for no improvement, I feel that it would defeat the subconscious influence that the program would eventually have. I know that when I have to face decisions, things that I have learned from long, long ago actually kicks in. Plus, kids are influenced by more factor than one when it comes to drinking and doing drugs. How can you measure improvement when other factors may be in play?

Besides touring the school, I also toured the area around the school: Jefferson, and Pageland. It is amazing what I am learning about these places. For example, Jefferson has only one streetlight, and no grocery stores (the nearest one is in 17 miles!). Talk about the difficulty in eating healthy! Leslie also took me to the drag-race tracks. It is THE place to be on the weekends. It looks like a piece of racetrack in the middle of nowhere. At the end of the day, I felt like I am taking lessons on living a small-town life, and Leslie is my person guide to it all.

The Grand Adventures of Rui and Abbey, excuse me, Abinator: Part I

Abbey, also known as Abinator, likes to take walks. One glorious afternoon, we made our way down to the riverside park to enjoy the last rays of sunshine before the night took over. We didn’t know exactly where the park was, but the unknown is always more fun.

The first thing we came upon was a small piece of green area, enclosed in green metal fences. To me, it seemed like it was trying very hard to be a nice little park. There was a black and green swing set, a set of pick-nick tables, and a basketball court. However, it was just too small; the grass was too uneven, and the basketball courts lacked too much new paint to be a park.

Nevertheless, Abbey and I made a stop at the swings. Being on them reminds of me of how I used to play back in “my days.” We didn’t have IPods or Wii or anything like that. What we had was our imagination. I remember my friend and I used to pretend that the swings were an airplane, a boat, a spaceship, and just about any other transportation system that we can ever make up in our heads. We would take expedition across the U.S. in search of treasures. The street would become the Mississippi River, and we would be detectives.

We left the swings and made our way through a neighborhood just before the river. Clean laundry lined the racks to dry in the sun. Broken steps, and pealing paint on the houses formed a stark contrast to the picturesque mansions just three blocks away in the direction of Market Street.

As we walked down the street, I saw a small gas-station-like store (but without window) that had the words “Teal’s Seafood” pained in UNC blue across the top of the wooden door. It looked like a great local place for us to make a stop.

The moment we pushed through the 6ft wooden white door, I felt like I might have just stepped into a movie about the South. The entire store was dimly lighted with a wooden rack in the middle and upright shelves along the walls to my right. The ceiling was so low that even I (5ft 2in) felt tall. To my left, there was a wooden counter connected to an ice-bar, on which various fishes and shrimp were laid out for display. Behind the ice-bar and on the wall were black boards displaying the menus of Teal’s Seafood. “Hot Dogs for $0.95,” read one of them. Two young men, a middle-aged man and an elderly lady sat with their legs crouched behind the counter. From the head-bowing and the back bending, they seemed to be playing some type of card game. It was clearly a family store and restaurant.

“You new here?” Asked a middle-aged full-figured lady as she walked out from the backdoor behind the counter. When we mentioned that we just came to check the place out, and wanted a menu, a frequent costumer dressed in a dirtied dark blue uniform (probably from working in custodial work, or construction work) told us in a strong southern accent that, “Teal’s sandwich 's a meal!” He gestured with his hands the shape of a sandwich that’s about the size of a full moon in the sky. Southerners are always so welcoming.

Anyhow, Abbey and I finally made our way down the river, and it had the most breath-taking view. The setting sun gave a golden glow to he baby green leaves. The river faithfully reflected the beauty like in a painting. There were men sitting on the shore, attempting to fish.

That was where our adventures ended for that day.

First day at the office

Yesterday was the first day, but I was too tired at night to write anything. The office is located in the department of social services in Chesterfield. The working space is very small, and there were 5 of us total in 3 small rooms. Ms. Mitchell was out of the town for the next two weeks, so she left Melinda, Lesley, Megan and Beth to help me get started.

The first task I had was to create the new mailing list. I was thinking to myself, creating a mailing list isn’t so bad. I just need to enter them in. However, the task required more than that. Beth handed me a list of 330 people and their addresses. Some people had an email address, but the majority did not. Thus, I had the job of calling people to retrieve their email addresses. Furthermore, not everyone had a phone number, so I had to find the numbers somehow. Let’s just say that Google was my best friend and is going to be my best for the next week. Although the progress is kind of slow, at least I progressing through the 300 and some names.

After just being around my co-workers, I have begun to notice the frustrations of a non-profit organization. One lady had worked so hard to put on an event to help to improve parent and child relationship, but it was hard to have every organization to do what they had promised. There was also a concern that not many people may show up. If it was me who was holding the event, I would have been flustered because I want that things be on schedule. In reflection, I can see that I am not as flexible as I would wish myself to be. “Flexibility” should be something that I will have to develop in myself this summer as I work more and more with the Coordinating Council.

Ending on a cheerier note, I am looking forward to helping with the Grocery Gap Project and the JumpStart project after Ms. Mitchell comes back. I talked to Melinda, who as it turns out, has a master’s degree in public health. Since I had an interest in public health, she was able to give me a broad picture of public health, like the different areas. I think that I am going to have great mentors for the summer.

Funny thing:

On the first day, Abbey and I helped the town historian, Sarah to catalogue the historical artifacts in the Lyceum in Cheraw. After a dinner of chicken and rice soup, we decided to talk a stroll around downtown. As we passed by the Chinese restaurant on 2^nd street, the owners, a man and a woman, looked intensely as at us. Abbey waved, and I waved too. The moment we passed the restaurant, Abbey turns to me and said with a smile, “I bet you that they were thinking ‘Anther Chinese person!’” Just as she was finishing her sentence, I hear the sound of a door opening. The lady owner of the restaurant bursts out and cries “Chinese girl, Chinese girl!” She has just moved to Cheraw to help her husband manage this family restaurant. A Chinese girl is rarely seen in Cheraw, as it turns out. I learned that there are only 3 Chinese families in Cheraw. She brought out her 4-year-old son to meet us, and we just chatted in mandarin.

One thing that I have noticed in Cheraw (which I am sure occurs everywhere else, but it is just more acute here) is that we relate to people so much easier and better if we are from the same race. I know that I am touching on a very delicate issue, and we have all been trying to avoid that issue of race. We like to think that we are tolerant of every race and so forth, but we are all partial to our own race. Most of my life, I have been the only Chinese girl. So for me to reach outside my race is an everyday thing. However, when I am in a community with just Chinese people, it just feels so much easier to reach out and connect to people. I don’t try to have a preference, but it just happens. Things you share with each other makes you much more able to relate. I believe that the culture and the environment play a big role in these unnoticed prejudices. I would feel awkward talking about a pig picking, but I would be perfectly at ease to talk about stir-frying and dumpling making. I have meet people who are not as comfortable talking to me as they would be if they were talking with someone with their own skin color. Deep down, we believe that our culture is the best, because that is our comfort zone. To over come something like racism in a small town where there’s not much contact with other cultures, one would have to make a leap outside one’s comfort zone, and not judge others so quickly according to our own standards or be snobby. And it certainly is not as easy as it sounds.

The above paragraph is about what I understand at this moment, whether it is naïve or one-sided, I will only know when I look back on it later.

Goals for the Summer

Summer is a time to try out new things, and that is why I am not taking another class in organic chemistry or catching up on physics at Duke. But as I learned from my grandpa and mother, who taught me to make schedules, goals and outlines since the time I began school, I ought to write down all of my goals. I heard from an episode of Oprah (not that she is the ultimate source, BUT) that goals and wishes do come true if you write them down.

Summer Goals for internship:

1. To learn how to organize an organization.
1. By helping the health subcommittee and multi-tasking.
2. To learn how to work in teams and deal with the stress that comes with it.
3. Explore the field of public health

Summer Goals for myself

1. Practicing being more assertive and being more confident in myself
2. Make devotions
3. Learn to live with 3 other people in my house
4. Learn how to make a website! (Making this blog was the first step to eventually get there)
5. Learn to cook and live on my own

I don’t want to make a list of goals so long that I can’t physically do all of them this summer. But what I hope to get out of this internship is to know that I have accomplished something. I want to learn how to have a good attitude and make the best of my situation.

Introduction and Description of My Summer Internship

If you had asked me a year ago if I would be setting up a blog, I would have given you a blank look. However, this year, I have been inspired by the AMAZING blogs set up by my predecessors in the Benjamin Duke Scholarship group. The goal of this blog is to help me write my reflections on my first internship, first time living completely away from home and a meal plan, and first time living with 13 other people. Hopefully, I will provide a personal insight into the first internship and help myself to learn through reflection.

Description of my internship at the Chesterfield County Coordinating Council as I understand it:

1. Grocery Gap Project: As the article "Living in Junk Food County" has shown us, healthy food is hard to come by, especially in rural areas. Could citizens on Food Stamps afford a nutritious diet? I will assist the health subcommittee to determine the typical family, recommend a diet, and compile a grocery list. By pricing the grocery, we will aim to answer the question. I anticipate that I will be conducting hands-on research in the local grocery stores, writing reports to the subcommittee, and creating public awareness tools based on the data.

2. JumpStart Project: Since healthy lifestyle decisions are created when one is young, the health subcommittee is going to set up a JumpStart Family Health Day to provide free screening, fun exercise activities, healthy snacks, and informational booths on how to make healthy lifestyle choices. I expect that I will be contacting the different organizations and helping to plan the JumpStart Art Contest.

3. Perform Webmaster functions such as restructuring the newsletter system to go “paperless,” by creating listservs and so forth.

4. Creating and updating public awareness materials.