Sarah is definitely right about how important it is to contact your representatives. (Your state representatives too. This job has given me a great appreciation for the power and importance of state and local government--they make the decisions that really affect daily life the most it seems to me. Run for City Council in the future, you smart Emory Scholars!) At Public Citizen it really helps us convince legislators to back an issue if we have evidence that their constituents care, like having letters or phone calls.
By the way, the Texas PC office just launched its blog, so if you are interested in issues like consumer rights, energy, global warming, health, pollution, or in reading even more blogs by me, visit http://www.texasvox.wordpress.com!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Finally blogging
Hey everyone, Lilly here. Sorry I've been so horrible about blogging. You don't know how many times I've thought about blogging/started to blog only to be distracted by something else. I apologize for my ADD-ness.
Somehow, in the blink of an eye, SAS is almost over. I started the program with barely any expectations, nervously anticipating the prospect of living with 13 strangers for two months. What if I didn't get along with anyone? What if I did get along with people, but it was just that--getting along without something deeper? But SAS truly surpassed any expectations I could have had; I've met a group of truly wonderful individuals who have come together to form a community. Now I look back and wonder why I worried in the first place. This far into the program, I have had an amazing time with some amazing people.
As for my internship, for you tier 2 folks (the tier 1 people have heard this spiel a million times), I've been working with the Atlanta Asylum Network. We're an organization that sets up physical and psychological evaluations for asylees fleeing torture and persecution in their home countires. The process consists of receiving an intake form from an asylee, conducting an intake interview with him/her, and then setting up the evaluation. This is all done so that the asylee will have a medical affidavit to back up his/her case when he/she goes to court. The intake interview experience is definitely the most intense part of the job. In the intake form that I initially get, I usually get a personal statement from the client as well, a personal statement that describes the torture or persecution that he/she has faced. However, in the intake interview, I must verbally ask the client some very personal and oftentimes uncomfortable questions, such as the duration of the torture, or how specifically the torture was performed.
Aside from the intake interviews, I do a lot of office work most of the time. I'd never realized before how much everything depends on sending out emails and coordinating logistics. For example, I unsuccessfully tried to arrange for an evaluator to meet a client at least three times. On the fourth try, I found a time and place that worked for both of them only to have the evaluator cancel last minute and say she couldn't work with us this summer because she didn't have time. I was frustrated, but the best thing that I could do then was to try to find another evaluator as quickly as possible. I'm pretty happy right now, though, because as I'm sitting outside my office typing this blog entry, a psychological evaluation is taking place inside. Another step towards helping an asylee? Check.
Happy summer everyone =)
- Lilly Zhong
Somehow, in the blink of an eye, SAS is almost over. I started the program with barely any expectations, nervously anticipating the prospect of living with 13 strangers for two months. What if I didn't get along with anyone? What if I did get along with people, but it was just that--getting along without something deeper? But SAS truly surpassed any expectations I could have had; I've met a group of truly wonderful individuals who have come together to form a community. Now I look back and wonder why I worried in the first place. This far into the program, I have had an amazing time with some amazing people.
As for my internship, for you tier 2 folks (the tier 1 people have heard this spiel a million times), I've been working with the Atlanta Asylum Network. We're an organization that sets up physical and psychological evaluations for asylees fleeing torture and persecution in their home countires. The process consists of receiving an intake form from an asylee, conducting an intake interview with him/her, and then setting up the evaluation. This is all done so that the asylee will have a medical affidavit to back up his/her case when he/she goes to court. The intake interview experience is definitely the most intense part of the job. In the intake form that I initially get, I usually get a personal statement from the client as well, a personal statement that describes the torture or persecution that he/she has faced. However, in the intake interview, I must verbally ask the client some very personal and oftentimes uncomfortable questions, such as the duration of the torture, or how specifically the torture was performed.
Aside from the intake interviews, I do a lot of office work most of the time. I'd never realized before how much everything depends on sending out emails and coordinating logistics. For example, I unsuccessfully tried to arrange for an evaluator to meet a client at least three times. On the fourth try, I found a time and place that worked for both of them only to have the evaluator cancel last minute and say she couldn't work with us this summer because she didn't have time. I was frustrated, but the best thing that I could do then was to try to find another evaluator as quickly as possible. I'm pretty happy right now, though, because as I'm sitting outside my office typing this blog entry, a psychological evaluation is taking place inside. Another step towards helping an asylee? Check.
Happy summer everyone =)
- Lilly Zhong
Sarah's 4-?th Weeks
"It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation."
-Mountains Beyond Mountains
Sorry its been so long since I last posted.
I'm still raising money and trying to get people to donate, which is still a rather draining process but we got a local Armenian church to partner with us so when all is said and done we will be sending at least $5,000 to the support the Kounoungo camp. It still doesn't feel like enough, but I guess it won't until the tragedy has ended. Though even the money we are raising seems almost defeatist since it will be going towards secondary school education for the younger populations. Setting up an education system, though clearly necessary, imbues the camps with a sense of permanence. I understand the need for realism, but (sorry for sounding immature) reality can really suck.
I've also begun sending off the dozens of letters signed letters to President Bush as well as Senators Feinstein and Boxer. This experience has made me become more politically active not just on this topic but on others that I am passionate about. I hope everyone realizes how much power their voice has, our elected representatives are their because of us and have a responsibility to consider our opinions; they can't do that if you never give them. I encourage everyone to send an email to their senator or House Representative about whatever issue you feel is important , a relative few number of people take advantage of the opportunity so your voice has a lot of weight ( http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml ).
I continue to read and be intrigued by what everyone else is writing. Though I haven't really had to deal with the administrative v. face to face problem myself (consider all my "clients" are thousands of miles away) I empathize and remember having the same struggle when working at hospice last year. I found that after my internship was over and I was just a regular volunteer during the school year I got to do a lot more of what I wanted as a volunteer without the restrictions of having a supervisor, so just wait it out a few more weeks.
-Mountains Beyond Mountains
Sorry its been so long since I last posted.
I'm still raising money and trying to get people to donate, which is still a rather draining process but we got a local Armenian church to partner with us so when all is said and done we will be sending at least $5,000 to the support the Kounoungo camp. It still doesn't feel like enough, but I guess it won't until the tragedy has ended. Though even the money we are raising seems almost defeatist since it will be going towards secondary school education for the younger populations. Setting up an education system, though clearly necessary, imbues the camps with a sense of permanence. I understand the need for realism, but (sorry for sounding immature) reality can really suck.
I've also begun sending off the dozens of letters signed letters to President Bush as well as Senators Feinstein and Boxer. This experience has made me become more politically active not just on this topic but on others that I am passionate about. I hope everyone realizes how much power their voice has, our elected representatives are their because of us and have a responsibility to consider our opinions; they can't do that if you never give them. I encourage everyone to send an email to their senator or House Representative about whatever issue you feel is important , a relative few number of people take advantage of the opportunity so your voice has a lot of weight ( http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml ).
I continue to read and be intrigued by what everyone else is writing. Though I haven't really had to deal with the administrative v. face to face problem myself (consider all my "clients" are thousands of miles away) I empathize and remember having the same struggle when working at hospice last year. I found that after my internship was over and I was just a regular volunteer during the school year I got to do a lot more of what I wanted as a volunteer without the restrictions of having a supervisor, so just wait it out a few more weeks.
Monday, July 7, 2008
the ongoing administrative vs. face-to-face issue
as awful as this is going to sound, it's wonderful to hear that y'all are dealing with these issues too. this last week is the first time it really came up at my internship, and it was really tough to handle. it's nice to know it's not just me. my internship has actually been mostly face-to-face interaction up to this point. a little bit of computer work on the side, but for the most part i've been dealing with a one-on-one basis with our homeless and low-income clients. however, this week, my supervisor asked me to focus on the "bigger picture" issues, i.e. creating a better client database. i've known it's been coming for a long time, and i was eager to get started. i knew it would be a little tedious, but i was ok with that. however, it turned out to be a lot harder for other reasons. there is VERY little separation in our resource center, so basically my "office" is a computer desk in the corner of our main room. what i found is that all the homeless and low-income clients i've been working with started getting all peeved that i wasn't paying attention to them anymore. i'd told all of them i would be sort of working on some other things and other volunteers would be taking over a lot of my daily interactions with clients. however, when they saw i was still in the office they thought i'd abandoned them or that i chose to "leave" their cases. they're already dealing with so many abandonment issues that i didn't want to ignore them, so i tried to juggle working on the database and keeping up with my former responsibilities. the result was that i couldn't really focus on either. struggling to satisfy everyone was really stressful, and it felt like everyone was unhappy. i guess it's a little different than the overall administrative vs. face-to-face dilemma, but how do you deal with these things when they're both immediately pulling you in different directions? ug. i wanted to do both, but i think in the end it made more sense to focus on one at a time.
anyways, just thought i'd share my two cents on the matter. adios until next time.
joy
anyways, just thought i'd share my two cents on the matter. adios until next time.
joy
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Perhaps I can make a ripple,
that will make a wave,
that will make a tide,
that will make a change.
- stolen from fellow Emory Scholar Julia Thayne's facebook page
I am really interested by the whole administrative/face-to-face struggle that Helen posted about. Last summer I had a face-to-face type internship working as a counselor, even though it was certainly not as challenging as Helen and Richelle's sounds, it was definitely very fulfilling to be able to help my kids by talking and playing and interacting directly with them. But the thing thats really frustrating sometimes about non-profit work is that sometimes to do this grand, glamorous good you have to do some filing.
For example, right now I have an admin side internship. And I'm working on a big project that I think will really help my organization become more efficient and effective, and it is totally and completely tedious. We have all our contact information in random folders and you can't find anything you need, so we have trouble contacting our members to mobilize them when we need to. So I created this database (by doing a very amateur hack job at Microsoft Access), and now all the interns and myself have to move all the data into there. There are SO many files! But it really has to be done. I have the same feeling of helpful boredom anytime we do a mailing. Label label label label label...ugh. But we are getting potentially influential information to decisionmakers, and that's what its all about really, so you gotta put on the labels. Oh and don't worry, I do a lot actual intellectually-stimulating work too. Like yesterday I learned about ports and wind turbine vessels. Annnyway...
A lot of what I do on a daily basis has no tangible result--we had a tough day today when a coal plant was approved despite everyone's efforts, the same as if we had done nothing. So that's hard. But I like the quote I just happened to find a minute ago that's at the top of this post, cause if you can make a website better, maybe that will make a ripple that will make a change. Profound, I know.
Peace out ATL.
-Natalie
that will make a wave,
that will make a tide,
that will make a change.
- stolen from fellow Emory Scholar Julia Thayne's facebook page
I am really interested by the whole administrative/face-to-face struggle that Helen posted about. Last summer I had a face-to-face type internship working as a counselor, even though it was certainly not as challenging as Helen and Richelle's sounds, it was definitely very fulfilling to be able to help my kids by talking and playing and interacting directly with them. But the thing thats really frustrating sometimes about non-profit work is that sometimes to do this grand, glamorous good you have to do some filing.
For example, right now I have an admin side internship. And I'm working on a big project that I think will really help my organization become more efficient and effective, and it is totally and completely tedious. We have all our contact information in random folders and you can't find anything you need, so we have trouble contacting our members to mobilize them when we need to. So I created this database (by doing a very amateur hack job at Microsoft Access), and now all the interns and myself have to move all the data into there. There are SO many files! But it really has to be done. I have the same feeling of helpful boredom anytime we do a mailing. Label label label label label...ugh. But we are getting potentially influential information to decisionmakers, and that's what its all about really, so you gotta put on the labels. Oh and don't worry, I do a lot actual intellectually-stimulating work too. Like yesterday I learned about ports and wind turbine vessels. Annnyway...
A lot of what I do on a daily basis has no tangible result--we had a tough day today when a coal plant was approved despite everyone's efforts, the same as if we had done nothing. So that's hard. But I like the quote I just happened to find a minute ago that's at the top of this post, cause if you can make a website better, maybe that will make a ripple that will make a change. Profound, I know.
Peace out ATL.
-Natalie
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
"I'm not saying I don't cry, I just laugh in between"
First of all, I just really like that quote from Garden State. Anyways-
I was kind of in a bad mood at work today. I went to go visit some of my usual patients, and each one of them was confused. Mr. S told me his remote for the tv was broken, well that's because the remote was a phone. Ms. T. who is known for yelling out into the hallway was quiet today- but she kept moaning and moaning, like she was in pain, but she couldn't talk so there was nothing I could do for her except hold her hand and talk to her and hope she could hear me. I left her room, and went to my special lady- Ms. M.- I visit her every day, sometimes for hours at a time, talking about anything or sitting in peaceful silence. She's been bad, very close to death, but has gotten better, but today she was confused. Just yesterday, I told her about dinner with my house of 13, and she asked me to make her cookies and told me she loved me when I had to leave for the day. But today, I'm pretty sure she didn't know who I was. Maybe I shoulda brought the cookies.
I think what I'm getting at is that the situation frustrates me. It would frustrate anyone. I know they're going to die and I can't do anything about it.
There are some patient care volunteers and there are some administrative volunteers. Some volunteers help out with the officework and choose to not interact with patients. I actually had a lady tell me that she used to visit patients but couldn't anymore.
This is where I get confused though, I understand about getting depressed or frustrated about the situation, but don't you think that the patient is alot more depressed than you are? And if they have so much strength that they have come to terms and are still able to look positively on life, can't you do the same?
It's not that I want to especially go see these people in pain. On good days, I'm happy to go see anyone, but there are definitely days where I would be happy to be ignorant to what's happening in those rooms, how many beds are emptying. If I wanted to, I could sit up at the front desk all day doing work and not seeing a single patient. I just can't not go see and talk to the patients.
I'm not trying to rant or condemn people that choose to not visit these patients, even though I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I sound like. I just felt really frustrated today and I wanted to try and figure it out. I still don't fully understand. I guess I'm learning about what kind of person I am and what kind of things I want to be doing in the future- something where I can really do something for people, face to face.
I saw one of the social workers today enter a room and instantly look in the eyes of a wife who was soon to be widowed in the next day if not the next hour and be able to comfort her and make a difference. People like that inspire me. I was telling Richelle earlier today that it's amazing how many remarkable, optimistic people work at a place where it would be easy to see the worst in the world. Occasionally, I see a nurse or two that's in denial of what's going on around them, but that's just ridiculous. These people deserve to be cared for by people that not only will face the situation, but will hold their hand and tell them it's ok too.
On a better note, YAY Richelle! Richelle hung out with David today- for real. Apparently, he needs a hearing aid, he wasn't just trying to ignore us, haha. It took a lot of guts to do what you did, and it was a really really good thing to do.
-Helen
I was kind of in a bad mood at work today. I went to go visit some of my usual patients, and each one of them was confused. Mr. S told me his remote for the tv was broken, well that's because the remote was a phone. Ms. T. who is known for yelling out into the hallway was quiet today- but she kept moaning and moaning, like she was in pain, but she couldn't talk so there was nothing I could do for her except hold her hand and talk to her and hope she could hear me. I left her room, and went to my special lady- Ms. M.- I visit her every day, sometimes for hours at a time, talking about anything or sitting in peaceful silence. She's been bad, very close to death, but has gotten better, but today she was confused. Just yesterday, I told her about dinner with my house of 13, and she asked me to make her cookies and told me she loved me when I had to leave for the day. But today, I'm pretty sure she didn't know who I was. Maybe I shoulda brought the cookies.
I think what I'm getting at is that the situation frustrates me. It would frustrate anyone. I know they're going to die and I can't do anything about it.
There are some patient care volunteers and there are some administrative volunteers. Some volunteers help out with the officework and choose to not interact with patients. I actually had a lady tell me that she used to visit patients but couldn't anymore.
This is where I get confused though, I understand about getting depressed or frustrated about the situation, but don't you think that the patient is alot more depressed than you are? And if they have so much strength that they have come to terms and are still able to look positively on life, can't you do the same?
It's not that I want to especially go see these people in pain. On good days, I'm happy to go see anyone, but there are definitely days where I would be happy to be ignorant to what's happening in those rooms, how many beds are emptying. If I wanted to, I could sit up at the front desk all day doing work and not seeing a single patient. I just can't not go see and talk to the patients.
I'm not trying to rant or condemn people that choose to not visit these patients, even though I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I sound like. I just felt really frustrated today and I wanted to try and figure it out. I still don't fully understand. I guess I'm learning about what kind of person I am and what kind of things I want to be doing in the future- something where I can really do something for people, face to face.
I saw one of the social workers today enter a room and instantly look in the eyes of a wife who was soon to be widowed in the next day if not the next hour and be able to comfort her and make a difference. People like that inspire me. I was telling Richelle earlier today that it's amazing how many remarkable, optimistic people work at a place where it would be easy to see the worst in the world. Occasionally, I see a nurse or two that's in denial of what's going on around them, but that's just ridiculous. These people deserve to be cared for by people that not only will face the situation, but will hold their hand and tell them it's ok too.
On a better note, YAY Richelle! Richelle hung out with David today- for real. Apparently, he needs a hearing aid, he wasn't just trying to ignore us, haha. It took a lot of guts to do what you did, and it was a really really good thing to do.
-Helen
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