Assignment Makeup... I am indeed a noob

Please blog about how the Siena Bonner Service Leaders Program fits into the mission of the college, specifically relating to the following:
"As a Franciscan community, Siena strives to embody the vision and values of St. Francis of Assisi: faith in a personal and provident God, reverence for all creation, affirmation of the unique worth of each person, delight in diversity, appreciation for beauty, service with the poor and marginalized, a community where members work together in friendship and respect, and commitment to building a world that is more just, peaceable, and humane.

The Siena Bonner Service Leaders Program made an effort to get to know each applicant on a personal level in the interviewing phase. Not only that, but I, the applicant, was able to really find out what Bonners do and what their mission is. I really felt as though they valued me as a person and not just another body to volunteer. The Bonners fit so nicely with the mission of Siena College because service is embedded into the Franciscan tradition. The Bonners pride themselves in diversity in not only race, but also gender, religious backgrounds, and all those other things we talked about in the Diversity training workshop. Obviously, we as Bonner Leaders are a close community just as Siena is. But better. We are all committed to doing our own little part to shape the world into one that is more equal as well as peaceful.

Blogging Assignment: Winter Placement

Hello Team,

This week's assignment is to blog about your winter placement. We spoke at the last meeting about your vacation homework, which was to set up your Christmas break service. Please report out about these meetings and your site.

Include the following: service job description, agency, confirm that it is a non-profit.

Kudos to Bernadette for being the first one to blog this week!!

Blove!

Gretchen

christmas break placement site

I will most likely be volunteering at Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) over Christmas break. The mission of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is to fund research to find a method of early detection and ultimately a cure for ovarian cancer.

Here I will help patients and their loved ones understand the disease and its treatment, and provide outreach programs to raise public awareness.
The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization.

blovin'

Bernadette

Happpy Holidays!!

Hope everyone is enjoying break and family time!! See you all sooon! =)

b-looove. <3
aprilllll

Happy Thanksgiving Bonners!!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

I hope everyone has as restful and peaceful a vacation as I have before the push to finals!

Ben

Response

As Bonner in the Siena our goal is to serve the community and in the future have an impact with our service. We try to serve all types of people from the poor, elderly and the abused. We work together as a B-Family and have time to get to know each other, bond and build relationship while serving others. We as Bonner do not do service to simply do service one time but to make an impact and build the world into a better place. We believe with one person volunteering we can make a difference and all of us together can most defiantly make a difference and impact people lives.

an interview with Dr. Santilli

1. Can you tell me about a significant ongoing, or academically relevant service experience in your life?

Dr. Santilli worked as a mentor/ESOL Teacher at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for about three years. (I didn't know this until the interview!) She worked with the same family, but once she moved further away and started working at Siena, her time dedicated to volunteering diminished.

2. Why/How did you decide to become a faculty member?

She originally worked at Russell Sage College as an English professor until she went into retirement. A few months later, a spot for an English teacher opened up as Siena and the college invited her to come and teach.

3. How did you decide to pursue your field of study or discipline?

Dr. Santilli said that she always knew that she would be a teacher. "I never had to decide anything," she said. "Life decided for me."

Blogging Assignment: Faculty Challenge

Happy Monday Bonner Team!!

New Blogging Assignment due Thursday!!

For those competing in the Faculty Challenge, please report out. Your response must address the following questions:

1. Can you tell me about a significant ongoing, or academically relevant service experience in your life?

2. Why/How did you decide to become a faculty member?

3. How did you decide to pursue your field of study or discipline?

New Bonners:

Please blog about how the Siena Bonner Service Leaders Program fits into the mission of the college, specifically relating to the following:

"As a Franciscan community, Siena strives to embody the vision and values of St. Francis of Assisi: faith in a personal and provident God, reverence for all creation, affirmation of the unique worth of each person, delight in diversity, appreciation for beauty, service with the poor and marginalized, a community where members work together in friendship and respect, and commitment to building a world that is more just, peaceable, and humane.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Have a stellar week!

Gretchen

SCBSLP FACULTY CHALLENGE

Please post your Faculty Challenge as a comment on this post. If you need the questions here is the link:

http://sienadeepservice.pbworks.com/Faculty-Member-Challenge

-Tai

it's thursday and you know what that means...

so i know that i've been blogging like crazy, but i'd just like everyone to know that i'm super excited about our gigantic bonner love team meeting tonight!
: )!

lots of b-love,
michelle

ps. i found the button fitting.

We're the Bonner Hand Clapping Band...

i just had the song stuck in my head and i thought i'd share it with you guys.
: )
also! if you check out our ning and your e-mail, you'll find an e-mail that i sent out about volunteering at the uscri with our upcoming children's holiday party. we'll be in charge of wrapping, decorating, contacting the company who is donating gifts, and helping out the day of.
so if you like kids, presents, holiday spirit, and some extra hours added onto your service report, why not come out to help?
we'll be having an informational meeting this upcoming thursday after our b-love meeting for about a half an hour, so stay around for a few afterwards and shoot me an e-mail knowing if you're interested.

b-loving it everyday,
michelle

hey ho hey ho go bonners, go bonners go

hello all,

i just wanted to say that i thought this past weekend was awesome!

welcome all new bonners! i hope you're feeling the love

: )

just a reminder, bwbrs training session this friday for all newbies

and

a uscri garage sale team meeting will be taking place this thursday after our b-love meeting.

hope you all have a good week!

lots of b-love,

michelle

Youtube vid

so once upon a time in our lives there was this beach ball, and on this beach ball were a bunch of ridiculous questions. One of the random questions on that semi-deflated beach ball was "what's your favorite youtube video?" and michelle answered with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA
Enjoy! and laugh a lot

1. How would you explain the disproportionate incarceration rate for minority groups generally, and black males specifically, in America today?

Im not exactly sure how to answer this question. I would need to know more information about this. It may have something to do with their upbringing and the whole poverty cycle that we have previously talked about. They are stuck in this poverty cycle that may force them to go to extremes to achieve money or food or shelter.

2. What are the effects, on communities, families, and individuals, of incarceration?

At the presentations that we attended one of the members read us a letter from an ex convict that was unable to come to new york because of her probation. She explained that she had request a few months ago to get permission to come to new york to be a part of the presentation. She was denied this request. She has also been denied her request to go to another state to visit her family for almost 4 years. This is just one example of how ex-prisoners are not being integrated back into society. They feel alienated and frustrated. They served their time and fulfilled their debt to society yet they are still being punished.

3. What should be done to address the challenges of incarceration faced by communities, families, and individuals?

I believed there need to be more programs like the one we got the opportunity to see. These types of programs can raise awareness about the wrongs of society concerning ex-convicts and the issues they face. These programs need to travel to schools and communities alike to spread awareness to all age groups and come up with a plan to find a solution.

4. As a member of the Siena Franciscan Community, and a Siena Bonner Service Leader, how can you be an ally to, and imagine working to address the challenges faced by, formerly incarcerated people at some point in your Siena career?

We can raise awareness about the issue right here on the Siena campus. We can see if the presenters we saw would be willing to come to Siena and reenact what they did for us. I think so many students on campus will be very concerned with this issue and have a lot to say about it. We may be able to come up with some sort of plan or atleast take a step toward bettering this problem.


B-Love

hey everyone,
first off..sorry this is late. I have had a very stressful week.
second..im sorry i wont be around this weekend for Bonner Orientation. i have some family issues that i need to deal with.
third..if i read the assignment right, im supposed to discuss how i felt about "and still we rise"
so here goes.
when i got to the auditorium to see the play i instantly noticed the amount of diversity in the room. there were so many different races and different age groups. there were professionals and those that came simply because they were interested. there were a lot of introductions and then the show started. the way it was set up was a little difficult to understand and some of the stories were brief and a little confusing but i seemed to be the only one in the room that didnt understand. even the younger people around me got it. in one particular scene a man acted out getting raped by an older boy. i did not understand this until after the show when we got to ask questions or comment on this and one person mentioned it. i literally had no clue. thinking about this later i thought that probably most other people did get it because of where they were raised. i was brought up in a small town where things like that rarely ever happened. i am not accostomed to seeing that, it is not something i have ever had to deal with.
there were other things in the show that really stood out to me as things that i did not have to deal with as well. i never witnessed someone being murdered or shot. i never even knew someone who has been killed. almost everyone on the stage and i assume over half the people in the room knew at least one person that had been killed. it was amazing to me. i cannot imagine the pain of losing a close friend or family member in that way. also a lot of the people had to deal with poverty. i grew up in a middle class town and there were very few people that were poor. most everyone had everything they needed. this poverty related greatly to incarceration.
another thing that interested me was that almost all of the people on stage were either black or hispanic. Dr.J talked to us after about why we thought that there were higher rates of people of color that were incarcerated. i think part of it is their culture; where they are brought up, the types of lives they have and their education level. i was raised in a small town and given many oppurtunities that they may not have been. for example, if a black male is brought up in a single parent home where he lived in poverty, i beilieve he has a higher likeihood of acting out or doing something that could get him in trouble. another aspect of it is that often times police are told to patrol black neighborhoods so it is not like white kids arent doing the crimes, they are just not being caught and/or punished for them. in order to adress this issue i think we should move into schools in underprivelaged areas and provide support for the kids and their families to prevent. then i think we should fix the system because a lot of times it is the system's flaws that are causing people to be victims once they are incarcerated.

overall the show was great and it impacted me greatly. although i think some of the stories could have been portrayed better, it was very powerful.


BLOVE <3 Lindsey

researchhh

1. How would you explain the disproportionate incarceration rate for minority groups generally, and black males specifically, in America today?

I don't think that enough information was provided for me to make an accurate assumption as to why this disproportionate rate exists, because, like Michelle said, I would need to know the statistics involved, but I think it has to do with the transition from crime to drugs, etc.

2. What are the effects, on communities, families, and individuals, of incarceration?

The primary effects are that the individuals released from incarceration feel as though they are being rejected by society, even with their own family members, so the process of building themselves anew, so to speak, is halted because they have no support to fix their lives.

3. What should be done to address the challenges of incarceration faced by communities, families, and individuals?

Personally, I would encourage the implementation of reconstructive programs to help those that are being re-integrated within our society after being incarcerated because this would give them the confidence, tools, resources, and connections to establish an honest and productive life away from crime. One cannot expect someone to help themselves when they have been away from the real world for so long, and the possibility for relapse is much higher.

4. As a member of the Siena Franciscan Community, and a Siena Bonner Service Leader, how can you be an ally to, and imagine working to address the challenges faced by, formerly incarcerated people at some point in your Siena career?

I think the most effective way to understand these individuals' situations and circumstances is to listen to their own accounts of life in prison and be an active listener, as in not just feeling sympathetic, but to think of ways that we can aid them and play significant roles in their lives. The next step would be to volunteer in these said programs to help them rebuild their lives.

This was very factual information that truly opened my eyes to the struggles that individuals face after being incarcerated. At first, I found it difficult to feel empathy towards these people because they did commit crimes, no matter how "minor", but once I realized that they recognized their past mistakes and they were simply trying to seek redemption in their community.

B LOVEEE,

CHELS

I think there are several reasons that more young black men are incarcerated than white men. First of all I think that racial profiling does play some role in this. A white police officer is more likely to stop or arrest a black man than a white man. Another huge part of this however, probably bigger than the racial profiling is the simple fact that there are more police officers in areas that young black men live in. If you are committing a crime in an area with 20 police officers rather than in an area with 5 you are more likely to get caught.
When someone is incarcerated it affects not only them but their families and communities as well. It can often be embarrassing for families who have incarcerated members and when the incarcerated person gets out of jail they sometimes receive little or no support from their families or from their community. when they get out of prison they have no opportunity for jobs and sometimes no home to return to, so they end up committing crimes again and are often reincarcerated. In order to help fix the problem we first need to help make people aware of the problem and tell people why it is happening. we also need to start implementing more programs that help or serve people coming out of the prison system. We need more programs that help former convicts adjust to life outside of prison, by helping them find jobs and homes.

T.J.

b-love research

here you go!

1.    How would you explain the disproportionate incarceration rate for minority groups generally, and black males specifically, in America today?

I don’t think that this can be solely based upon racial profiling, but in order to explain this, I would need to know the statistics on every black male that has committed a crime, what kind of crime, etc. As was highlighted in these sources that we read, the switch from the war on crime to the war on drugs, terrorism, and immigrants grouped most black males together under these categories, thus bringing in a higher amount.

 

2. What are the effects, on communities, families, and individuals, of incarceration?

As seen in the pieces on the different stories of various people released from prison, their families primarily disown them, ashamed or unwilling to forgive them for what they have done. Communities often see them as  the eyesores of society, unwilling to support them in restarting their lives. The individuals are support less, having no one to help them start fresh, not even their families.

 

3. What should be done to address the challenges of incarceration faced by communities, families, and individuals?

I think the only thing that we can really do to further aid these individuals, their families, and the communities that they’re a part of, is to help get them back on their feet. Whether that means enrolling them in G.E.D courses, finding them jobs, working on their job skills, housing them, etc. Helping the incarcerated is like welcoming a refugee into the U.S; they have nothing and just need guidance and care as they start over again.

 

4. As a member of the Siena Franciscan Community, and a Siena Bonner Service Leader, how can you be an ally to, and imagine working to address the challenges faced by, formerly incarcerated people at some point in your Siena career?

Simply reading over this material and attending the performance is the first step in understanding the challenges of incarcerated people. In terms of helping them, I believe that we should place some of our Bonners at the Center for Law and Justice in Albany, where we actually have a VISTA.

and btw tai, i really like the website. good job!

: )

b-love,

michelle 

Hi everyone!

I am a computer science minor and for my course this semester I had to design a mini web site as one of the assignments about anything I wanted. So I picked BONNER! Check out my site (it works best in Internet Explorer but Firefox is also compatible) Let me know if you like it or not. :-)

Bonner Love,

Tai

http://ares.cs.siena.edu/~t12reve/index.htm

Rockefeller Drug Laws

Hi all! I thought that this would also help us explore more of Dr. J's assignment. So checkout the video and checkout the site too!



http://www.droptherock.org/

Guys,

Remember that you need to answer the questions that Dr. Johnson posted below for your blog due Thursday:

******************************************************************************

DIRECTIONS:

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/hardtime/index.html

http://www.correctionsproject.com/prisonmaps/intropart_frame.htm

Log on to the web site above. Spend at least 30 minutes exploring EACH of the sites . Answer the following in your blog post:

1. How would you explain the disproportionate incarceration rate for minority groups generally, and black males specifically, in America today?

2. What are the effects, on communities, families, and individuals, of incarceration?

3. What should be done to address the challenges of incarceration faced by communities, families, and individuals?

4. As a member of the Siena Franciscan Community, and a Siena Bonner Service Leader, how can you be an ally to, and imagine working to address the challenges faced by, formerly incarcerated people at some point in your Siena career?

Explore Fully!

Think Deeply!

Write Freely!

Drj.

sorry all,
i know we agreed to respond as a comment to the blog rather than opening a whole new one, however, I tried to do that twice and each time it told me that "my tag was not closed"(???) basically I lost what i had written twice and am getting a little frusterarted. So I'm going to try a third time....
If I understood the directions correctly, since I went to the event, I am just sharing my thoughts and feelings on it, correct? okay, I'll give it a try:
I went into the "And still we rise" event knowing close to nothing about it, incarcerated individuals or how the prison system really works. When we got there and sat down, Dr. Johnson pulled us all aside and said that there was going to be a question and answser session and the end of the performance. I finished his sentence by saying "so you want us to be thinking of questions to ask?" he corrected me by saying he wanted us to think twice before asking any questions. I didn't quite get what he meant by that until the performance started up. The performance itself was very powerful and moving as formerally incarcerated individuals acted out moments from their lives. I was overwhelmed with sympathy for these people who had been through so much, but I found that empathy did not come as easily. I felt that I could not relate to being in prison for 24 years or being a crack addict that hit rock bottom. I felt very ignorant and sheltered because I had no idea that some people lived like this. When the lights came up and it was time for the discussion, I observed the amount of diversity in the room, I felt that our little section of Siena Bonners was a minority and most of the audience shared that they had similar experiences to those that had just been dramatized. The person that had been standing in front of me in line testified to having a cocaine addiction and was now clean. I was shocked as he shared his life story, and I had been standing right behind him in line an hour ago and knew nothing about his past. Next, a boy behind us, who was younger than me, shared that he was in a program and would be facing some serious jail time if he didn't turn his life around. I couldn't get over how he was younger than me and was facing this kind of decision. The producer, who was also a professional actor, said that as a middle class white man who had never been in the prison system, he found it a little difficult to relate. However, he said that as an actor, he has been trained to "open himself to experiences that weren't his own" and that is what I really took away from this whole expereince. In my life, there are always going to be people that have experienced things that I can hardly relate to, so how could i possibly judge them? I don't know their whole story and have no right to be making assumptions about who they are and what they have done. I can only open myself to their experiences and be and understanding as possible.