Although this was an assignment (reflection on Catholic Charities article) given to us only in the past week, I have been thinking a lot about poverty in New York State since mid-August. There were a series of articles about poverty rates in Rochester, the city I grew up in, in our local newspaper. One of the articles gave the statistic that 1 out of every 4 (26%) of Rochesterians live in poverty. They also gave 5 zip codes in the city in which large percentages of people live in poverty (at least 40% of people in area living under the poverty line). One of the zip codes was where I grew up until I was 13 and one of the other ones was the zip code that my elementary school was in. A lot of my father's family still lives within the zip code and so does my best friend's family. Although, like everyone else, I was emotionally affected by the statistics given by the article by Catholic Charities, seeing these places where I had lived and still have such an attachment to down as some of the poorest areas in New York State, really caused me to step back and think about my own life, what I am doing in Bonner and at Siena, and what I plan to do after school. It really does help to have connections with the people we read about and are working with through Bonner, which is why the NAA community day was awesome. If you know the people and the area you are working in it really drives you to do whatever you can and to do the best job you can do. I hope that I get to know the people in the zip codes, counties, and neighborhoods mentioned in the Catholic Charities article as well as I know the areas and people in the zip codes in Rochester. It definitely makes it more real and important to me.