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By Anne Nicole Sosin ’02
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Emily Meier '04 and Rebecca Jennings '03 with a display used in their elementary school education program |
Meier and Jennings present an interactive lesson on poverty and homelessness in classrooms throughout the Upper Valley. Their one-hour visits consist of a dialogue on the issues and an age-appropriate hands-on activity on poverty. In elementary school classrooms, they use a felt- board with a picture of a house. Emily and Rebecca ask the students to fill the house with felt household items, which are color coded according to needs and luxuries. By visually representing this distinction, "We make children realize that some people don't have the option of buy all the necessities and brainstorm why people don't," Emily explains.
For middle school visits, the volunteers ask the students to try to calculate the cost of living for area families. Students will then compute how much an individual will need to earn if they are working full-time and how many hours they will need to work at minimum wage to support their families. "This exercise not only reinforces what the students are learning in class through practical application of math skills, it also hopefully puts the issue in perspective more than a statistic would," Rebecca notes.
Although children in some of the schools come from predominantly affluent families and have little exposure to poverty, the perspective gained for many children is a realization that their families’ situations are not unique. Emily explains that, "Because so many children are affected by these issues, they feel less alienated because they learn it's widespread and in talking with the children, you will learn that they will have very poignant anecdotes about difficulties with poverty. It’s not just homelessness; you can still have a house and be struggling with poverty." In one classroom, students shared their own experiences with poverty. One girl raised her hand and told us her grandmother was living with her because she couldn't live in her house. Another Child was about to be evicted. Yet another was helping his dad build an addition on their house so that he would not have to go back to foster care.
Knowing that many of the children are personally affected by poverty, Emily and Rebecca discuss different options for getting support in the Upper Valley, including Habitat for Humanity. Drawing on their own involvement with Habitat, they describe the Dartmouth House and the role students have played in initiating the project.
Both age groups participate in an activity to think about ways they can become involved in their communities. This fall, younger students have colored fabric squares for a quilt for the family that will occupy the Dartmouth Habitat House. Older students are challenged to think about civic participation by making posters to raise awareness about poverty and homelessness.
Emily and Rebecca both see the Habitat education program as closely related to their own understanding of poverty through community service. Emily has been involved in Habitat from her first term at Dartmouth and has participated in an Alternative Spring Break Service Trip to Conway, South Carolina her freshman year. "I knew that Habitat was what I wanted to invest time in, in part because of my interest in architecture, but also because of my desire to do community service. I’m happy that I did the educational program because I have been able to learn how to do a program and how to effect change," she comments.
Rebecca is the Chief of Public Health for the 2002 Cross Cultural Education and Service Program to Nicaragua. She is also a Big Sister and has volunteered at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in the past. Her involvement with the education program grew out of a desire to establish a long-term service program for her sorority, Epsilon Kappa Theta, where she is the current Philanthropy Chair.
"I've learned to look at the world around me and not be in the Dartmouth bubble," Rebecca reflects. "It's not that Dartmouth is very isolated," Emily adds, "It's just that Dartmouth students are extremely unaware of poverty in general. It's good to be faced with it and bring those experiences back to campus." It’s likely these students and this program will continue to educate both the campus and the community about poverty in the Upper Valley. For as Emily says, "Once you start [community service], you get so hooked on it. You get so much satisfaction because you're getting more than you're giving. I'm always satisfied by community service and like having it as part of my life."
