Final Project Ideas

My major here at UWM is political science and there are two political issues in particular that face the Milwaukee's hispanic community. Recently Arizona passed the toughest law to date on illegal immigration. Tomorrow on 5th street a protest is to be held and if I get a chance I'd benefit greatly from going and interviewing a few people about the issue. A second, less serious, political issue is that of the recent census. I found audio of the kid's show Dora the Explorer telling the hispanic community to fill it out. I'm looking for more media that explained the importance of the 2010 U.S. census.

Journal 2

I'm very comfortable in Vieau already. I know several students by name since I've tutored them more than once at this point and I know nearly the entire staff. I never thought I would be so pleased that a student like Maria remembered my name after only one tutoring session. Now she always calls my name when she sees me and when we work together I can ask her more accurate questions about developments in her life because I'm getting to know her very well.

In the second half of the after school program I usually work with the science club but recently the science teacher served as a substitute for the gym teacher. Myself as well as other service learning volunteers were given the opportunity to join a soccer game and we did. I started off playing goalie and eventually I was moved out to forward to give others a rest. I played soccer until I was a sophomore in high school and I felt like soccer was a big part of these kid's life like it was a part of mine for so long.

Next time I'll be back at work with the science club and we can make more crazy contraptions.

Artist's Statement

Through my essay I wanted to properly and fairly document the essence of life in Vieau and the neighborhood around it. I’ll admit, when I first arrived I was very unsure of what was expected of me or what I was even going to find but I easily settled in and made some young friends in the process. I’ve gone to Vieau 3 times since I joined the program and each time I start off tutoring any students that haven’t completed their homework yet. Aside from quickly relearning long division, I learned how welcoming even the very youngest students were. I met students of ages that spanned six years and all of them seemed genuinely eager to be there and to learn from me. I haven’t seen work ethic like they exhibited in any other elementary schools I’ve been to and certainly not in my own school. I’ve heard the lazy Mexican stereotype and as much as I would like to believe stereotypes don’t influence me it may be part of the reason I was so surprised at the hardworking nature of everyone, staff and parents included. If I ever come across it again I have learned that it is a generality that should be directly argued against and I now posses the life experience to do so. In retrospect I shouldn’t have been surprised at the work ethic of everyone I met and talked to. After all, many, if not all, are facing greater adversity in their life than I have ever faced and I think they realize that they must continue to work in order to live the lives they came here for. The people in the Vieau neighborhood have a sense of purpose that I find enviable and perhaps it is their strong desire to better themselves that also makes them so friendly.

While working on my project these are the thoughts that kept me occupied. Somehow I had to show all of this with a few pictures and words. This was also my first time using a camera as my means of communication. I learned how difficult it can be to capture grand and intricate ideas with a single visual but I also found the power it could hold if done right. I’m not sure I ever did it quite right but hopefully between 8 photos I can get my message across. With the camera I also learned how constraining framing could make everything. It was stressful to try to fit complex concepts within my tiny viewfinder. I always felt like I was leaving too much out with my pictures but perhaps its better I didn’t get the pictures I wanted where it could have been overwhelming and confusing.