Blog Post #12

Our project has not progressed what so ever. We were supposed to meet with our mentor this weekend and she had to cancel due to other things that came up for her. But she said she can meet us this week, which is a must. We have to have to meet with her. It is vital to our project that we get this interview finished. We are in the final weeks of our project, and I have to say, the things we experienced during this project really opened my eyes to what is really out there and how thousands of people, not only in our country, but around the world are living in the worst conditions due to poverty. I really hope our project finishes off the way it should.

Blog Post #11

     Our project has not made progress since we last worked on it. We have not met with our mentor, due to the fact that she is very busy from working her non profit organization to helping with the programs at our school. Although we haven't met with our mentor does not mean we are not going to. We plan to meet with her this Sunday, after her church. Like before, we're going to ask her what she has done to help, what we can do, what motivated or led her to be the person she is today, what advice she has for us, what moment or who was the biggest impact on her life, and any other questions that may come up during the interview process. We are hoping that this interview will give us a big help to our project, since she herself has made her own project to help people, similar to ours. Also, today I realized that I have seen our mentor and she works at our school, so that's pretty cool.
     We have not seen the old man we met at the park, which worries me a little. But I'm positive that he is okay. The nights have been a little colder so I hope he has found some warmth or shelter. I'm really optimistic about our project. I just think we need a little more help on how to help. If that makes sense. I'm positive that we will have a pretty good outcome with our project, grade wise and community effective wise.                                            

Blog Post #10

     We have yet to meet with our mentor due to her busy schedule but hopefully we will this week. Therefore, we do not have an interview nor the interview reflection but we should have one soon. As for the man we met last week, Lissette and I went to go look for him but we didn't find him. We're thinking since he is a slow walker, he probably didn't make it to Reid park yet. We are hoping to ask him some questions and get a voice recording of it to use in our presentation (he declined to any photo or video due to having problems with it during the war). As for our mentor, we're hoping she will help us meet more people that need help so we can help them, maybe even become apart of her project.

     Our project is slowly but surely getting a move on. I think we'll be able to learn from this project and it will show us and our audience to be more humble and to be grateful for what they have. We want to hopefully motivate our viewers to give more than receive because all everyone wants to do is receive, which causes greed, etc. We want less greed and more give. We truly want to contribute into making peace in the world.

Blog Post #9

   With this past weekend, I feel our project has finally taken a big step. On Friday, April 15, Lissette and I went to Reid park and we saw this elderly man walking with a large suit case. At first we thought, "oh man he's a murderer kidnapper, walk fast" and then I started thinking, "wait, what if this man has Alzheimer's and he's lost?" so I told Lissette, "let's wait at the stop light for him and see if he needs help." As we were waiting, the old man stopped and looked like he was in pain. So I walked over and asked if he was okay, and the man looks up and tells me ," I'm okay, my bones just hurt, I've broken nearly every one of them." And so I asked if he wanted us to call someone or if he needed to use a phone to get home and he looks at me with tired, worn out eyes and says, "this is my home, I'm homeless." I teared up, and my heart broke. I held onto my last dollar in my pocket and gave it to him. I told him "here, its cold, go buy yourself a coffee" and he says "are you sure? I don't want to bother" and I said "of course I'm sure, here." and he took the dollar. Then Lissette says, "I have more money in the car we'll go get it and buy you some food, whatever you want" and the man says, " Just a plain cheeseburger from in n out will be good, please." Lissette and I go to In n Out and come back, and he says, "you know, I didn't think you guys would come back. People don't really come back. Thank you so much, you've made me so happy." Lissette and I decided to stay and converse with the man while he ate. He tells us how he was in the Vietnam war, and how the government put him out on the streets, and how he has been homeless for thirteen years. It was a really touching experience and the man agreed to help us with our project. I can't wait to work with him, I'm glad this happened to us.
   Now the progress on our project is going great. Tomorrow or sometime this week we are going to meet with our mentor and do our interview. Then we are hoping to interview the old man and the park. I really have high hopes for our project to be successful.

Blog Post #8

    So far our project has made no progress except for the fact that we found a mentor. We are really behind, mostly because our group does not really attend class often, and when we do, one or two out of the three group members aren't there. We should work on meeting outside of class. Today, April 11, we are going to work on our interview questions for our mentor. I think it will be interesting because we will be able to see our topic spoken through another point of view. Not only that but from someone with more experience and can help guide us.
    Today's goal is to write our interview questions. Our questions will revolve around our mentors work, experiences, any advice she may have for us, etc... We are looking forward to positive responses from our mentor and more guidance for our project. Also we are looking for new reasons from our mentor, more than just are own, to motivate us to keep this project going. We haven't given up on our project just yet !

Our mentor, Desiree Cook,  works with many different people and has her own nonprofit organization that helps empower people to help with their self esteems. As seen, Cook is also a beautician. http://www.iamyou360.org/foundersbio.php

Blog Post 1

      Our group talked about things we're passionate about. Lissette said she was interested in helping immigrants, Tia said she wants to help the community, and I agreed with Tia that I also want to help the community. So, to include everyone's ideas, we combined the idea of helping people searching for a home and those in need, so we decided to help feed the homeless. It's a simple and achievable task.
We plan on coming together and going to a park and feeding the homeless people or to join an organization that already does so and also take part in the community activities that they do.
      Our goal is not only to help the homeless in our community but to also change someones day. That person could be having the worst day of their lives and that small, simple gesture of genuine kindness could turn around their whole day. Not only make their day better but influence these people to make better choices. A small gesture could go a long way.

Project Proposal

Project Proposal                                                                                                             Claudia Martinez

          Poverty is amongst us. No matter how much we try to prevent and help people in poverty, it will always be apart of society. Usually, people who live in poverty have less to eat, less clothing, etc... My group (Lissette, Tia, and myself) are doing a project to help homeless people, to help create a small solution to a huge problem. Our goal is to help feed the homeless so they don’t go hungry. We’re interested in this topic because we all want to help our community. We all have seen, in one way or another, people struggle at their lowest. From personal experience, I’ve seen people starve so others could eat because they do not have enough portions to feed everyone. I want to help have one less hungry stomach. I feel that if we do this, it will encourage people to start helping others and hopefully, the message of “give more than you receive” will be passed onto the rest of the world. But first we have to start small, and I believe that starting with the small but strong community we have in Tucson, our goal can be reached. The main question we want to answer is, “How far are you willing to go to help?”
To do this research, we will need to first understand what it is like to be homeless and to know what it is like to wonder when our next meal will be. To do so, we can do stimulation such as a hunger fasting. Next we will need to find out about how many homeless people are there are in Tucson, which area in Tucson we will be giving out food at, how much food we will need, what we will serve, how much we will serve, and what day will be best to serve food. To find this information, we could visit food banks and speak to the organizers, we could go to churches that feed the homeless and speak to the head of that area, also we could go to just restaurants in general generously feed homeless people. We could ask these people what motivates them to do this and why  they do what they do.
The outcome of this project that we are hoping to get is to teach and motivate other people to try and help too. We want to make a difference in the community and a difference in someones life. This is a viable topic because it is so easy to achieve. Homeless people are found almost everywhere and getting off and at least buying them a small meal could turn around that persons day. It is not hard to have some compassion and to share kindness. That is the base of our project, kindness. To share kindness, even in the smallest of ways, can slowly but surely, change society.