Finding Gold in a Pile of Rocks & Pyrite

The Civic Leadership Institute, a special offering of CTD’s Civic Education Project, teaches academically talented high school students from across the nation about active leadership and citizenship. Each Institute combines traditional academics with hands-on community service to help students develop the knowledge, experience, and leadership skills they need to make a positive impact on society.

The remarks below are from Hannah Smith, a senior from Ridgefield, Washington, who spent last summer at the Civic Leadership Institute in Chicago, which is housed in the city on the campus of North Park University.

I learned more at this program than I ever thought possible. When I first saw how many days we’d be in the classroom, I was skeptical. “How much can we learn about community service in a classroom?” I asked myself. Of course, in retrospect, I know how misconstrued my perceptions were. From the first day of the program we learned non-stop — from the classroom, the communities in Chicago and, most of all, from our peers.

Our first speaker was Jody Kretzmann, a Northwestern faculty member and Director of Northwestern’s Asset-Based Community Development Institute. We learned about his Asset-Based Community Development philosophy, which focuses on developing stronger communities by focusing on the skills, resources, and abilities of the individuals and institutions in that community rather than simply all the problems, needs, and deficiencies. This concept was a completely new way of thinking about social problems for me. I was used to examining problems and looking for solutions. Even though I thought I was being an optimist, I now realize there’s a level to positive that had never occurred to me. It’s so easy to look at the problems and needs of anything because they’re always glaring at you directly, winking from the shadows or seductively enticing you to follow them down a dark alley. But to find some gold in a pile of rocks and pyrite — that takes patience and strength like little else.

For our homeless shelter experience we visited the clients at REST (Residents for Effective Shelter Transitions, a homeless shelter for adult men in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood). Interestingly enough these people, who are unfortunate, were more positive than most people I know. When talking about their future the people I spoke with would say, “When I have enough money to travel,” as opposed to “If I have enough.”

When I walked into REST, I know I had plenty of stereotypes. It took face-to-face conversations and the building of a relationship before I could finally disperse them. I’m now confident that when society sees homeless people as people and not undesirable objects, when society begins to understand that they might be on the street someday, then the stereotypes that plagued me — and undoubtedly plague others — will be replaced by individuals and their stories. That’s when changes for the better will occur.

Learning about TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and minimum wage was also a huge eye opener. When we tried to budget with a TANF check, everyone in my group, myself included, began to get snippy; tensions built. But then it occurred to me that the frustration wasn’t really from not agreeing with the other people, it was from knowing that you’ll never have enough. It was hard not having enough for our 20-minute exercise. How could I deal with this every day? How can anyone? Why is anyone forced to live under these conditions at all?

Questions like these fueled the central part of class discussion — where I had one of my greatest learning experiences during the program. Because so much of the Civic Leadership Institute experience is based on sharing and debating opinions, it is crucial that each person feels respected. When others in the class had something to say, each of us let them speak and respected their comments and opinions. From the very first day, we were building the strong, tight-knit community we became. I have never been in a class comprised entirely of such compassionate, intelligent, driven people.Amy Wallace and Sue Han, my Instructor and Teaching Assistant, were amazing mentors. Each had so much experience and insight to share with us. I especially appreciated that neither one spent much time teaching from the white-board. Instead they joined our discussions and allowed us to learn in a much more interactive form.

In conclusion, and at the risk of sounding fantastically trite, the three weeks I spent at the Civic Leadership Institute were a life-changing experience. I didn’t just learn about social issues or the minimum wage rate. I learned about myself and my place in the world, as well.