Moving On

By Emily Kirschbaum

Last weekend, I had planned on doing a whole weekend in Washington, D.C., but with all my pending due dates and papers I had yet to finish, I decided to just do a day trip — which ended up being a very good idea. I got to D.C. at around 9:00 a.m. and headed for Capitol Hill, and then walked all the way down the mall to the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.  However, when I got to Arlington my camera mysteriously malfunctioned and wouldn’t turn on!  So I didn’t get any pictures of the cemetery, or the White House, as I was planning on circling back that way on my way back up to Capitol Hill. I ended up going to a bar in Union Station for happy hour as the 90 & sunny turned into 75 & pouring rain, and read a book I had brought until my bus left for Philadelphia. It was nice though, to take this trip on my own, have a day to myself, walking around in the sunshine, and winding down with a nice mango martini to the patter of rain on the colossal columns that are found all around D.C.  

On another note, this is it; the last week.  

God, I am so glad that I listened to my gut and got out of Holland, to a place that I’ve never been, completely on my own.  I’m better prepared for these next few months, which are full of “next steps.” I graduate on Sunday, May 6, and will spend the weekend with my friends who have had a life-changing/defining last semester that I haven’t been able to be a part of. I will see my family, my girlfriend and maybe her mother all together for my commencement celebration. I will travel to Chicago a few days afterwards to go to New Student orientation for graduate school. I will meet up with a mitigation social worker in Chicago to talk about the field and a possibility of an internship. I will spend some time looking for apartments with my girlfriend in Chicago. Then, I’ll return home for my last summer there before moving to Chicago in August.  

It’s kind of crazy.

I’ve also noticed, that for the first time, I’m moving ahead of a lot of people I love. I emailed my mom the other day about where I should apply for a deferment of my loan repayments, and she didn’t even know what a deferment was. In my last City Seminar class on Friday with Deborah, we talked about the “culture shock” that might happen when we go back to our home colleges.  How we may be more sure of who we are, where we’re going, what’s available to us, and what we’re capable of than many of our friends and classmates. I think that’s one of the most honest conversations I’ve had about wrapping up my time here — and I’m honestly a little worried about giving off an air that I’m “better” than others I know because of it. But, I really am so much more confident than when I started this semester.  Not that I was tripping over my shyness, but I had my 10-year plan and I was ready to stick to it, if only for my own sense of security. I was hyper-aware of my role as an intern, and a “lesser” employee in my workplace.  Now, I can walk into work knowing that I actually know quite a lot. I know that the members the community mental health organization where I interned have truly appreciated and will miss my presence there. I also know that in certain areas, I had a lot to give back to them. I can walk into classes knowing that I have a whole lot to contribute, and still a whole lot to learn.  

 
It’s hard to say goodbye to this city, these friends, my tiny West Philly apartment, and especially to all of my mentors here. They’ve seen me grow in ways that no one else, but myself, truly understand. I learned a whole lot of independence here, and I’ve solidified many of my values, self-understanding, and empathy for myself and others. But I’m ready to move on. I’m ready to give this adventure another shot in another (even bigger) city. I’m ready to use the skills I’ve learned here and start this next part of my life more prepared. But, the doors to Philly will always be open, and TPC will be home base if I ever end up back in this (fabulous) city on the East Coast.  

The Final Countdown

By Katie Matresse

To avoid being overly emotional during this last week, allow me to revisit a list format:

 

Things (Last Week) That Blew My Mind:

1. A legal motion that I authored (!!!!!!!) was submitted to the courts to be litigated later this spring
2. The Assistant Chief of my unit offered to write a recommendation letter for me for my law school applications
3. I have been committed to working on three very different cases that are startling and fascinating
4. The final class sessions for my two academic courses, during which each student had the opportunity to leave the class with one final message
5. Reflecting on the totality of my TPC semester as it draws to a close (you can find my story here)
6. A wonderful meeting with Char to discuss my internship and improve my résumé
7. Reflecting with my good friend and TPC alum  about how quickly this monumental semester passes
8. Walking around Philadelphia, trying to memorize how beautiful City Hall is from every angle
9. As always, nerding out over public interest law with my friend who interns at the Defender’s Association’s Homicide Mitigation Unit
10.  THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

It has been very fulfilling to put these stories out to the e-universe (Hi, Mom and Dad!) this semester, and I hope somewhere in my personal reflections there has been a greater lesson to be uncovered.

I could never have predicted how rewarding this semester would be, and now I can’t imagine what my future would have looked like had I been too afraid to step into a new experience. If you’re a student debating this unconventional off-campus semester, remember the advice my community organizing mentor gave me…take fear out of the equation! If you learn to participate actively in the creation of your ideal experience (that’s what the TPC semester is all about!), you’ll have set a positive trajectory for the rest of your adult life.

The End

Dan McCormick 

Here I am at the end.  Yesterday was the last day of my internship at the Legal Intelligencer, and today’s will be my last class with Deborah for Urban and Political Systems Issues and Changes.  Come Saturday, I get into a car and drive back to Hanover, so that I can be back in time for Hanover’s May term.

After class today I’ll meet with Deborah for the close-out meeting, where I’ll turn in my final portfolio.  The portfolio is the last part of The Philadelphia Center’s cycle of experiential learning.  This will include an overview of what I learned during the semester at my internship and on my own, a self-assessment of my goals for the semester, and evidence of the work that I did at my internship.  My portfolio includes a lot of articles I wrote, cut out of copies of the Legal, as well as rough drafts of articles and notes that I took during interviews.

But I’ve also been doing fun things too!  Last weekend I took a train to Atlantic City for the day and checked out the boardwalk there, and a few days before then I went to a punk show at First Unitarian Church in Center City.  I was right up front for Andrew Jackson Jihad.  It was boss. 

Mostly, though, I’ve been getting ready to go home.  My time here is done.  I’m movin’ on.  I’ve been packing and eating the last of my groceries, and I’ve already turned in my last assignment for Exploring Relationships in Fiction in Film class.

The semester really flew by.  Although I’m ready for the summer, it’s going to be strange to walk out of my apartment in a few days and never walk back in.  There are a lot of students in the program that I probably won’t see for a long time, and some I might not see again.

I said goodbye to the other reporters at the Legal yesterday, and I realized that I’d made some very strong connections there.  Everyone offered to be a reference for me if I needed it, and they all wished me luck.  I had really become part of the staff there, it felt like.  Huh.

I had a lot of really great experiences at my internship and with The Philadelphia Center.  I learned how to live on my own.  I became a better writer.  And I met a lot of great people and did some really cool things.  I’m very glad I came.  I know that it’s about to be over, and I’m ready for it to be, but I would not have traded this semester for anything.

Gathering Evidence

By Elizabeth Moreno

As part of our experiential learning objectives, every student needs to create a portfolio that showcases their knowledge, skills and attitudes/values learned from the experience. I have been working on this portfolio for the past week and have already gathered so much evidence from my internship, city living, and academic experiences. For example, in my internship, I wrote my own press release — with a little assistance from my coworkers. I also created my own survey and presentation, which will also go into the portfolio. These are only examples of my internship work, when I include my academic and city living pieces, it’s going to take a huge folder!

Gathering Evidence and Gathering Community -- 2012 TPC Potluck

Many of my city living experiences are documented on this blog, but there are also many that were not. In order to fully show my city living experience I will create a collage of all the different places I visited this semester. I would have never thought that I would have accomplished so much in a short period of time. From going to Washington DC to New Jersey there were so many trips my classmates and I took. It gives me a different perspective on life. Clearly I have the ability to travel and have never taken advantage of it. I can easily take a weekend off and go visit some attractions near my school. It is all possible.

When thinking about my academic work, it was not as expected. I didn’t think that I would be reading books that relate to my everyday life experiences. In school all we did was read from textbooks, there was no creativity whatsoever. Here, I read about social media, brand relevance, being different and creating value. These are the things that matter today, not textbooks.

As of now, I have removed myself far from the student mindset and have set myself on the entrepreneurship track. Here, I have realized that I do not like taking orders. Rules and regulations aren’t for me. I do not need someone to tell me what to do because I know what needs to get done and I will get it done. 

In my 21^st Century Entrepreneurship class, I will have real tangible evidence such as:

• A Nightclub business website
• A business card
• A value proposition for the business
• A plan to execute this business

I would have never had this idea set in my mind if I had not arrived to The Philadelphia Center.

And if it wasn’t for my Urban Political and Social Systems, Issues and Practices, City Seminar, I would not have opened my eyes to the socioeconomic issues we face in the United States. Our health care is out of service and the housing crisis has not been resolved. We see the homeless everywhere and I can’t help but to think that I am privileged and at an advantage because I do have somewhere to live.

Sharing ideas and thoughts with all my classmates is interesting. I love listening to other people when they have something valuable to say. They might see an issue from a perspective that was not even in my mind. Overall, great semester could not have picked a better program! Now back to work on my portfolio.

Globe Trotting

By Emily Kirschbaum

One of the things I was most looking forward to doing while here in Philadelphia, was traveling to New York City and Washington D.C., as I had never been to either city. I was so busy getting settled in Philly, and in my internship, that I really never took the time to plan out a couple weekends to go on these trips. At my mid-semester meeting, my advisor, Deborah, urged me to plan them as soon as possible, because April would fly by far too fast. I went home and booked four Megabus tickets and two hostels for cheap sleeping arrangements.  

Last weekend was trip to New York City. Not only had I never been to New York, but I had never stayed in a hostel, or taken a trip by myself. As I was planning out all the things I wanted to do, and calling my grandma to find out the name of my relatives who were honored at the Ellis Island Museum so I could find their names, I told my mother my plans. She suddenly started worrying about me. She just couldn’t imagine that anything that could be translated into a horror film would be a safe place for me to stay for a weekend, especially in a big city. So, when it finally came down to it, she decided to reserve a hotel room for me for the weekend. I was excited, but it felt weird to be in a fancy hotel room, in New York City, all by myself. My mom had toyed with the idea of meeting me in New York for a weekend, and she brought it up again. “Maybe, if I could get someone to work my shifts, I could come too…” I strongly urged her to come, if she could, and hoped for the best.

Friday came and as I was leaving TPC for my class in Clark Park, after which I would immediately get on the bus, I texted my mom: “You coming?”  About 20 minutes later, she texted, “Yes.”  I was elated! I hadn’t seen any of my family in four months, and the only visitor I had was my girlfriend and a friend-of-a-friend from my home college. Finally. Something familiar.  

We did all the things you’re “supposed” to do, which is not my normal travel style, but, it’s New York, ya’ know? We took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty (which we did not get out for because they were doing construction inside); Ellis Island, where we took photos of my great-great-grandpa’s name on the wall of honor; Times Square; saw a Broadway show (for me, WICKED: The Musical and for mom, MAMMA MIA!); Canal Street for cheap shopping; Soho; cannolis and gelato in Little Italy; Central Park; and The High Line.  

We had a blast running around the city, getting lost on the subway, taking our time walking down the High Line park above the city. But the best part was seeing my mom again after so long, and getting to do some traveling with her, just me and her. It’s getting to that point in the semester, though, where I’m really very done. (Ah, the ever-so transient life of a student!) I wish I was going home next week.  I just feel ready to pack up, leave, and sleep in my bed, go back to my college and celebrate our pending graduation with my friends, play with my puppies, and annoy my little brothers. Getting to see my mom this weekend was a nice way to transition those feelings, and it really helped me be able to stick out the next few weeks as I’m scrambling to become the paper-writing robot that is necessary to complete all the remaining requirements I have, and to say my goodbyes to this city, and to my new friends.

Next weekend, Washington, D.C.!

Three Weeks?!!?

By Katie Matresse

It Can’t be Three Weeks?!?!?!

 Holy cow, people. Wasn’t I just at the Holiday Inn doing orientation week breakfasts like…five minutes ago? Wasn’t I just walking all over Philadelphia looking for a house that could accommodate 8 people? Wasn’t I just suiting up for my interviews and thinking “wow, I really loved the people at the District Attorney’s Office–what would it be like to work there?” Wasn’t I just heading into my first week as an intern and realizing how amazing it would be to do work like that? 

 

Oh, wait…that was the end of January. And now it’s the middle of April and I’m shipping boxes back to Washington state and finalizing my projects at work and LOOKING FOR PHILLY SOUVENIRS. What?! 

Luckily for me, though, the Internship Gods have smiled down upon me this semester and I have had some amazing opportunities even in the last week.  For example, I’m doing interviews of ADAs in other units, and I spoke to one on Friday who gave me some incredible advice on what I should do in law school if I want to build a résumé that will appeal to a hiring committee at a prosecutor’s office like the DA. He even gave me tips on studying for the LSAT!  It feels absolutely unreal to know where I’m headed in my professional life, and I cannot imagine how things would’ve been if I’d stayed on campus for the semester instead.

I’ve also been hitting my stride in my classes and completed the first draft of my project for my community organizing work! I have had some great feedback on both and I’m really looking forward to using the skills learned in those two areas when I get back to Whitman. 

So, what now? How can I use these last three weeks to round out my semester in Philly?

To Be Announced…

Toynbee Idea

By Dan McCormick

This past Friday I went to an art show/film screening at Gallery 309 in Old City.  The film was a documentary called Resurrect Dead, about the Toynbee Tiles in Philadelphia and other cities around the eastern United States, and it was accompanied by a showing of visual art from one of the documentarians, Justin Duerr.  It was really great!

The Toynbee Tiles are embedded into the streets of Philadelphia, and many other cities, showing this message (or a variant of it): “Toynbee Idea – In Kubrick’s 2001 – Resurrect Dead – On Planet Jupiter.”  These tiles first started appearing in the early 80s in Philadelphia, and they showed up in Boston, Washington D.C., New York, Baltimore, and some cities farther west, as well as a few scattered cities in South America.  New tiles appear occasionally.  Nobody is certain who made them, or continues to make them.  The message seems to reference the work of British historian Arnold Toynbee and the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Resurrect Dead shows three men, including Duerr, who attempt to trace the history of the tiles back to the original “tiler.”  The investigation takes them from the files of old newspapers to a street in South Philadelphia to a short-wave radio convention.  The team eventually settles on a hypothesis, but decides to stop the investigation short of seeking out their suspect.  It was really cool to watch the investigation unfold, and the story has a lot of really human elements to it—obsession, empathy, and a search for knowledge.

Duerr and the film’s director John Foy held a brief Q&A session afterwards, and they talked about how much time and effort went into the film, as well as their own theories about what the “tiler” intended the tiles to mean.  Plus, Duerr’s artwork was very cool.  It was a mixture of large, detailed marker drawings and an extended poetic narrative written in bits overtop the images.  Pretty heady stuff.

And yes, the semester is wrapping up quickly for me!  I have only two weeks left at my internship, and soon I will have to finish up and turn in my final portfolio, demonstrating what I’ve learned at work and in class.  I will be busy!

Oh, also, the fountain is LOVE Park is up and running!  Hooray, spring is here!

Love Poetry

By Emily Kirschbaum

And the blending of two of my loves collided this week: poetry and my job.

When I was crafting my Learning Plan for this semester, I wanted to make sure I was able to experience client contact in a way that would allow me to work directly with clients in a therapeutic setting. When I sat down with my advisor from TPC, Deborah, and my supervisor at my organization, during our three-way meeting at the beginning of my internship, Deborah suggested that it might be a good idea to lead a poetry class for this independent experience. I had been thinking the same thing, and my supervisor seemed to think this would be a good possibility.  

A few weeks later, my supervisor approached me and asked me when I’d like to do my first poetry class — in next week’s schedule! I was ecstatic, as images of myself as Robin Williams, jumping on table in Dead Poet’s Society, scrolled through my mind. “You have to make them give a damn! Tell them why they should care about you, because right now they don’t!” screamed my internal Williams. All in efforts of getting these people to enjoy poetry and use it as a form of self-expression of needs, wants, desires, fears, worries, and experiences.  

We set a date, and I did my first poetry session. Only two people were in attendance. I tried to get them to do a moon poem — a format that my writing guru, Heather Sellers, taught me. This went okay, but the members were very apathetic, and I almost gave up. The second week, I decided to do erasure poetry, in an effort to help those who were illiterate (but who had memorized how some common words looked on paper). This group had full member attendance, and many of them were very into it. A few even wanted to write their own poems, free verse, and a couple wrote more than one poem. A few volunteered to share their poems, which spurred them all to want to read, and SO MANY OF THEM WERE SO GOOD!!!!!  I couldn’t believe some of the things they were coming up with. Now, I’ll be real, some of them made no sense at all, and many of them didn’t get the point, but the few that did really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. And I even cracked one of our most resistant members, who came in with a vendetta against poetry and everything I had to say! He ended the session staring up at me with puppy-dog eyes, totally vulnerable over the beautiful and raw poem he wrote.  

I remembered that the organization was hosting an Art Show soon, so I went downstairs to the second floor to speak with the woman who was organizing it. I asked her if there would be space for me to submit some of the members’ poems to the show. She was so excited to incorporate their work, and was amazed that I had decided to try to tackle poetry with them. I gave her some of the poems that were given to me by members who wanted theirs shared and displayed, and she promised to enter them.  

Well, this week was the Art Show. Our member’s poetry covered an entire table, and many people told me that they were so impressed with the work the member had done and how concisely some of them expressed themselves. The Chief Medical Officer even asked me if she could have me talk to some of the members about publishing their work in some of the organization’s official documents and publications.  

It has been so nice to affirm my love for my job, and my personal love for poetry and its ability to be so incredibly therapeutic. (And maybe also to pretend that I’m as incredible a teacher as my own).

Stressing Out and Stepping Up

 By Katie Matresse

Every semester since I’ve been in college, I’ve had a couple of weeks where I feel more stressed than normal, and I can’t figure out where all my time is going. I started having one such week last week, and I fell behind in a few different areas, especially the work I was doing for my community organizing work. I went in to my supervisor’s office on Monday, nervous to tell her that the project I should’ve been handing in was far from complete. I explained how stressed I am and that I really didn’t want to offend any of my supervisors by not meeting their standards. Being in top form, she had some advice for me. “Take fear out of the equation,” she said, “You realize you’re wasting real energy stressing yourself out, right?”

…Wow. What? Of course! I had been spending time and energy on thinking about how stressful my life is instead of taking steps to complete my work. This woman is teaching me how to live…seriously!

I am usually such a high anxiety person, and I do that largely to myself regardless of the fact that I don’t function all that well when I’m anxious. My semester in Philly is teaching me what it means to juggle, to maintain balance in my life, and to accept responsibility instead of passing the buck. When I haven’t done the work that’s due, it’s not because the world is conspiring against me. I learn from that time management mistake and move on to the next task, the new week, and new lessons.

In my TPC semester, I have so many opportunities to see and do and learn — it’s not surprising that I need to be on my A-Game. I have fallen in love with my internship, I’m taking classes that make me think, I volunteer with possibly one of the coolest women in Philadelphia, I live with three phenomenal young ladies who fill our living room with big laughs, and this city is full of things to occupy any free time I have outside of those things.

My life here is the real deal…or as close to that as I could get knowing that I’m hopping on a plane headed west in exactly one month. I love being a student AND an assistant to a kick-ass ADA. I like living in the West Philly community AND running around Center City with my friends. I like that when I lose perspective on my time here, I’m confronted with some beautiful experience that grounds me again. And, in all likelihood I’ll be back in a year.

Sooo…

By Emily Kirschbaum

I LOVE MY NEW INTERNSHIP!!!!!!

Yes, it is so good to be able to say/tell people that.  After the big change, I was a little worried that my new internship would only bring up more doubts about my choice in career and would make me horribly depressed and feel helpless. However, after my first day at the community mental health center, and after being introduced to the members, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. I was able to have conversations with reasoning human beings [Editor’s note: What, you’re saying toddlers aren’t reasonable?!!?], sit in on many support and therapeutic groups, and talk with my co-workers. I instantly felt more comfortable than I had in my previous placement.  

After a few days, I began noticing that I was more comfortable there than I had been in any work environment I had ever previously been in. They gave me so much responsibility and autonomy, that I actually felt I was part of the team. I was included in all staff (and member) activities, and was encouraged to ask for anything I needed/wanted: help on work, more work, less work, etc.  My supervisor occasionally pops into my office and sits next to my desk, and asks, “So, how are we doing? Anything you need? What’s going on?”  She is so invested in my learning, and making sure that I was getting some good experience out of my internship.  

I am so so glad that I decided to step up and ask for something new, to salvage my internship experience and to find one that motivates me in my work, and encourages me to continue with the career I’ve chosen (and that I love).  

I’ve done so much already in the four weeks that I’ve been there. I’ve been on numerous community outings with the members: roller skating, to Reading Terminal Market, bowling, and to a Council Meeting on Broad Street. I’ve started facilitating a group where I teach poetry forms as a type of self-expression. I co-facilitated a meeting with members and their families where I taught them about the different policies they should be aware of with the new (and absurd) proposed Budget Cuts from Gov. Corbett’s administration, and the new law requiring voters to have a Photo I.D.  (Which is a problem for many of our members.) I’ve done one-on-one orientation sessions and intake assessments with new members, and plan to do some more. I also did some research where I surveyed our members on their employment, volunteering, and educational history and goals. I presented this research to a work-group at the Department of Behavioral Health, and was invited back to shadow some macro-practice social workers!  

I’m so pleased with the turn-around, and at how much ownership I’ve been able to take in my work. It only continues fuel my excitement about the field I chose, and the many possibilities ahead of me in my career!