2009 Commonwealth Essay Award Winner

 

REFLECTIONS ON COMMUNITY SERVICE

by Jerome Rogich '09

Reflecting on the past four years of my undergraduate education, I find myself asking, “How did I get here?” If you told me four years ago that I was going to bike across the country for people with disabilities, build accessible ramps  for local people in need, or go to New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity I would never have believed you. In high school, community service was not a major aspect of my life. I was too busy working part-time, doing school work, and hanging out with friends. Community engagement and service has become part of who I am and is something that I will continue doing.

It all started when I joined my fraternity the second semester of my freshman year. My roommate was telling me about the benefits of becoming a founding father of a new fraternity on campus. I argued that I was too busy, knowing full well that I could handle an additional commitment of one chapter meeting a week but not wanting to join a typical fraternity. I should have known better that he, as well as a few of my floor mates who had already joined, were not the type of men to join an average fraternity. At the first chapter meeting I was immediately impressed; not only with the values of the chapter but also its uncommon commitment to community service. It is the only nationally recognized fraternity that manages its own internal philanthropy that works to raise funds and awareness for people with disabilities.

The fraternity and I began doing service projects with the fraternity in the local community and when I reflect on the reasons I initially became involved with service, I recognize that it was not for the right reasons. I liked spending time with my fraternity brothers and it was something I could write on my resume. One day the president of Pi Kappa Phi made a presentation about the team events that are hosted by our national philanthropy, Push America. The Journey of Hope is a cycling trip from San Francisco to Washington D.C., and requires each cyclist on the team to raise a total of $5,000 for the organization. I was instantly interested and knew it was something I wanted to accomplish; however, I was afraid that I was going to fail in raising the money or be unable to meet the physical demands needed to complete the 3,000 mile ride. Every day after cycling the mileage for the day, the team arrives at a disability camp and spends the rest of the day with people with disabilities of all ages. The team then participates in activities with the members of the camp, whether it be fishing, playing basketball, or eating a meal together. I filled out my application, was accepted to the team, and bought my airplane ticket to San Francisco.

Once I was on the road, it became quite obvious the majority of the team signed up for the challenge and not the cause, including myself. The first day we visited a prominent disability center and it was overtly apparent that the entire team felt uncomfortable. We did not know how to interact with people who were quite different from us and it was a real shock to the majority of the team. We left the first disability center feeling pretty down about ourselves and questioned what we were going to be able to accomplish over the course of the summer.

As the summer wore on, we eventually became more comfortable with the people we visited and had a great time hanging out with them for the afternoon. One afternoon as I was waiting for a shower I collapsed on my air mattress on the floor of an auditorium. I began to think "What are we actually accomplishing?" It was obvious that one afternoon was unlikely to have any major impact on the lives of people with disabilities. I knew that they enjoyed our company, but what actions were we taking to better their situation? We were raising money, and handing out grants at the camps we visited, but that was not addressing the root of the problem. I recognized this issue but did not have the vocabulary or knowledge to describe it in depth. I also lacked the tools to examine the root of the issue. My thoughts on the subject were jotted down in my notebook and largely forgotten about. Sixty-four days later, I reached my destination, Washington D.C. I had finally completed the journey I had been working toward for over six months. I was overjoyed when I saw my family and friends who had helped me reach my goal, but I still was left with the nagging feeling that I had not done all that much.

I returned to campus with a desire to continue my service and help people in any way I could. I recognized that short sessions and little commitment are not the ways to impact people's lives in any meaningful way. This sentiment encouraged me to sign up for the Citizen Scholars Program (CSP), as I was attracted to the sixty-hour a semester commitment. At my CSP admissions interview, it was clear that I was in over my head. I had never been exposed to the ideas of power or privilege in high school or in the beginnings of my college career. Unfortunately, this gave me the inability to answer a single question coherently. I sat in the chair dodging questions, giving non-specific answers and trying unsuccessfully to draw meaning out of the service I had done so far as well as my cycling trip. I walked out of the room certain that I was going to be rejected from the program. After a second interview, they offered me a position in the program and I was ecstatic. My apparent willingness to learn had tipped the scales in my favor.

The readings we have covered over the past four semesters in the Citizen Scholars Program have opened my mind and enabled me to piece together my community service experiences. Most importantly it has given me tools that I can use to truly help people and to make impact on a global scale. All of a sudden the feelings and notes I jotted down during my bike-trip made sense. My privilege and power as a white, able-bodied, male was a barrier that prevented me from forming true relationships with the community I was trying to serve. Only once I understood how the disabled community was initially viewing me, could I work to change the challenges they face.

Subsequent volunteer opportunities were no longer about hanging out with my fraternity brothers, a resume builder, or the physical challenge, but instead became something deeply important to me. I now value the time that I spend in the community and empower people to better their situations. I volunteer sixty-hours a semester as part of the Citizen Scholars Program with a wellness center for people with disabilities called FitTogether. Over the past four semesters, I have built the strong, lasting relationships with my community that I desired to find on the Journey of Hope and when I was just getting involved with community service.

For my Capstone Project I am utilizing what I have learned in the Citizen Scholars Program to mobilize the UMass student community to prevent the renewal of an exclusive contract with Coca-Cola. Besides being bad for one's health, the multi-national corporation has been involved with human rights violations, and unethical business behavior. I am working with another Citizen Scholar to help bring alternative venders to campus that provide healthier and more ethical products. In an attempt to bring an international campaign to the local level, we are working on collecting signatures for a petition that will be presented to the Office of Procurement during contract negotiations. Also, our campaign is sponsoring a boycott of Coke day in order to raise awareness about Coke's complacency in the death of eight union members at its bottling plant in Columbia. This campaign has served as an experiment for much of the theory we have learned over the duration of the program. It has allowed me to take what we have learned in the classroom and put it into action. Praxis is intimidating as first but the program also provides a community to support you when you fail, and provides you the resources needed to continue on and learn from the mistakes.

The UMass community has become my home over the past four years and becoming involved and forming new relationships for a greater cause is a thrilling proposition. As a biochemistry major, I am constantly asked why I am so involved with community service. I tell them that it is something that I really enjoy doing, and it has become an integral part of my identity. I know that community service is something that I will continue to do in the future and am thankful that it has been such a large part of my college experience. I have met many great people and lifelong friends. I cannot imagine what my college career would have been like if it were not for Pi Kappa Phi and the Citizen Scholars Program.