On Tuesday morning, Aug. 17, Freshmen Linden Jennings and Malea Otranto — partaking in Freshman Service Experience — were delivering groceries to an elderly woman when, overcome by the heat, the woman fainted mid-conversation.
Last week, all across D.C., over 650 freshman from AU fanned out across the city to log over 14,000 hours of service.
Some, like Jennings and Otranto, got a taste of some of the difficulties D.C. residents face.
The freshmen visited 52 sites across D.C. and carried out a wide variety of service projects such as moving furniture, assisting the elderly and renovating elementary schools.
Opening ceremony At the opening ceremonies for FSE, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., urged students to embrace D.C. and give back to the community in the keynote speech of the FSE opening ceremony.
She explained to the students that D.C. is a very culturally diverse city of many different ethnicities and communities. Norton urged the students to abandon any preconceived notions they might have about D.C.
“You might have come to D.C. in elementary school and seen the National Mall, but now that you live here, get all that postcard stuff out of your heads,” Norton said.
Norton expressed confidence that the service work of AU students could make a significant impact in distressed neighborhoods across D.C.
“There’s an educational benefit to volunteering that you can’t get in any classroom,” she said.
Service sites AU volunteers could be found working long volunteer hours this week in Shaw and Columbia Heights.
FSE groups in Columbia Heights worked at the Latino Federation and at the Columbia Heights Education Campus, which consists of Lincoln Multicultural Middle School, Bell Multicultural High School and the Multicultural Career Intern Program, according to the school’s website.
The group at the Education Campus set up classrooms, helped out in the school’s administrative offices and renovated large parts of the campus.
Spanish-speaking FSE volunteers partnered with the Latino Federation to canvass door-to-door, encouraging voters to turn out in the upcoming election.
In the Shaw neighborhood, FSE participants at the Emmaus Services for the Aging delivered groceries to the elderly residents in the surrounding area and gave them tips on how to stay cool and safe in the D.C. summer heat.
Shaw In Shaw, volunteers delivered groceries to elderly residents.
Jennings and Otranto, who had been delivering groceries when the woman they were talking to fainted from the heat, quickly carried her to her bedroom and let her cool off next to two fans.
The fans were the only source of air conditioning in the hot apartment because the apartment's current policy is to turn the air conditioning off in August.
The woman eventually recovered from the fainting spell, but the incident inspired Jennings, Otranto, and FSE Site Leader Abigail Kaiser, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, to take action and prevent this from happening to other elderly people living in the Asbury Dwelling. The three sent a letter to the management of the apartment complex urging them to reconsider the policy of turning off the air conditioning.
“The policy as it is now is unacceptable for a home with so many elderly people,” Kaiser said.
The FSE group at Emmaus is applying for an Eagle Endowment grant so that they can continue service there later.
Columbia Heights FSE site Leader at the Columbia Heights Education Campus, Devon Huntley, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she wanted to make sure the freshmen got a comprehensive look at diversity and culture in D.C.
She also wanted the freshmen to be able to get a better understanding of how people live in D.C.
Huntley’s co-leader, Meg Fisher, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, wants the freshmen in her group to be able to form a lasting connection with the Columbia Heights Education Campus and that D.C. neighborhood.
“It’s hard to get into [community service] and set up a base without knowing people first,” she said. “This program makes it easier for [the freshmen] to set up contacts and hopefully come back to do more service in this area of D.C.”
A few blocks over at the Latino Federation, FSE participants were placed in pairs, with at least one Spanish speaker in each group. The freshmen informed potential Latino voters about the election, gave them instructions on how to vote and gave them directions to their nearest polling station, according to FSE Coordinator Althea de Guzman, a senior in the School of International Service.
The Latino community in D.C. has not historically had a large turnout in elections, according to Rodrigo Leiva, the executive director of the Latino Federation. The Federation aims to give D.C. Latinos a stronger voice in local politics and local community issues, with the help of volunteers like AU students.
Leiva said he has greatly enjoyed working with AU students.
“AU has been very supportive of us, and has been sending great students to us for the past three years,” he said. “I’m happy with their enthusiasm and their passion.”
Evening programs FSE participants had a choice of two evening programs on Tuesday night and three programs on Wednesday night, all tied into the themes of “Discovering Culture” and “Developing Community,” part of this year’s overall FSE theme, “A Passion for D.C.”
On Tuesday night, some FSE participants went to a performance by 2Deep the Poetess, KaNikki and Joseph LMS, three local spoken word artists. Students listened to the artists recite poetry and also had an opportunity to share their own words and experiences in the open-mic portion of the event.
Other FSE participants attended a panel discussion from the National Coalition for the Homeless Speakers’ Bureau. The students heard from Mary Virginia, David Pirtle and Donald Whitehead, three people who were formerly homeless.
Virginia lost the apartment she shared with three other women in 2006 after one of her roommates set up credit cards in Virginia’s name and ran up over $25,000 in debt. Pirtle became homeless when he developed schizophrenia in his early 20s while living in Arizona.
Whitehead’s struggle with drug addiction took over his life and caused him to lose his home.
“I cried myself to sleep most nights in the homeless shelter because in high school, I had been voted most likely to succeed,” Whitehead said. “But I had only succeeded in becoming homeless.”
After a long process of getting himself into a homeless shelter and getting over his addictions, Whitehead became involved with the National Coalition for the Homeless and eventually served a term as its executive director.
Whitehead pressed the students to keep working for disadvantaged people in the future.
“You might think you will not see the tangible effects of your community service,” he said. “But all three of us [speakers on the panel] are here today because of the work of volunteers like you.”
A third group of FSE freshmen enjoyed a performance from the Beat Ya Feet Kings, a D.C.-based go-go dance group. The dancers performed to a medley of hip-hop and pop songs performed by local D.C. band, Black Alley.
Diallo Sumbry, the founder and manager of the Beat Ya Feet Kings, shared a few words of advice with the freshmen before the performance.
“Keep it safe in the city, but don’t be afraid of the people and the culture on the other side of Massachusetts Avenue,” he said. “While you are here getting your degree, don’t forget to get an education.”
Closing ceremony AU President Neil Kerwin commended the FSE participants for their extensive volunteer work in the FSE closing ceremony on Thursday night in Bender Arena.
“You have made your own statement about AU’s principles in the volunteer work you carried out this week,” Kerwin said. “You have showed the D.C. community the true spirit of AU.”
jryan@theeagleonline.com
