Mission, Values and Engagement

Question 1)   Given what you know about this topic so far, please reflect on the heritage and values of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in the context of your own values and belief system. 

In the two years at NDNU, I can now reflex on the heritage and values of the sisters of NDNU and how it relates to my values and belief system.  NDNU is my 8th college.  My first college credit was in 1988.  It was accredited with the Community College of the Air Force and followed by the University of Maryland, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona FL., Trident Tech in Charleston SC, Southern Illinois University and College of San Mateo. I was in my senior year with SIU in 2001 before 9/11 2001. I knew so little about the sisters my first semester in Aug 2017.  They have shown me what it is like to live a life fully devoted to God. I spent Spring Break in Los Angeles and stayed a week in the Notre Dame Convent.  The humble spirit of all sisters was similar.  I believe that when a person loves what they do for a living will never have to work. It is doing their passion and it so happens to earn an income to live life comfortably.  I can see in the materialist view that less is more.  The sisters live so much by faith.  I found out that income/pay is unpredictable.  They have the spirit to work for God and not for man.  I can relate and feel as though my happy place in life is to serve. 


Question 2)   What opportunities have you had at NDNU to develop relationships that honor the dignity or sacredness of each person or each being, including human and non-human beings? Why is this important? Can you apply this concept to the kinds of decisions you may have to make in your future professional career? Have any of the Community Engagement activities you’ve done this semester given you opportunities to develop in this area? 

The most recent is also during spring break. I spent the day preparing food, serving anyone that wanted a meal (most were homeless and regulars to the "Hippie Kitchen")  Over half of the guest kept to themselves but the small amount that had a conversation with me seemed very interesting. I enjoyed the conversation with Joseph, Morse and a black man with the nickname "White Boy." White Boy was raised in Florida in an all-white neighborhood.  He served in the Marine and is in transit to where life takes him.  He has been in LA for the last 3 years. Morse went to Stanford U and was working for a pharmaceutical company.  He was a "whistleblower" for a harmful genetically modified organism that the Food and Drug Administration was hiding studies from the public. A lot of shady stuff happened to him and his choice is to be living on the street, for now. Joseph had a good sense of humor and knowledge about so many things.  I would not doubt if he spent some time as a professor or philosopher. I was told as a child from my mother that homeless people have drug problems.  My own discernment thought different and as I got older that there is so much unknown about everyone is homeless.  Some are temporary, for others, it may be many years. 
Dignity is important because every person is the same. No one was asked to be born yet here we are living on the same planet. We were all at one time a part of a family. We all might be for the same family tree. We are more similar than different.  We are all the same species.  A team is strong than one individual.  Fact is that we all share the same air and will all pass away someday. In the time we all have on earth should be filled with more harmony and less division.
I want to find my second career and a way of life of service.  I think I could be an emergency medical technician,  search and rescue team member, firefighter, a law enforcer, or even a therapist.  I want to help others and not work a day in my life. 
My community engagement with Sun Work did not develop any opportunities in this area but being around the people in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Butte County, Santa Rosa and other placed did.

Question 4)   Have you, in the context of this or any class at NDNU, had opportunities to apply your classroom learning to address community or social problems? If so, did this make your classroom learning more successful in any way? In what ways, if any, did you find Reflection-Action-Reflection to be a useful model for combining classroom learning with social engagement in this way?

My classes have given me a different view that honed my skills in research, patience, and initiative.  A social problem that I see in the local area is homelessness.  I have volunteered over 10 times serving food or cleaning tables and helping in the kitchen since I moved to the area in 2013.  I must have spent over 200 hours being a volunteer delivering food with Food Runners in San Francisco. I think I want to focus on one person at a time.  If I could plant a seed to help one person off the streets, that would be one more than I have helped my entire life.  This problem has over 668,000 people not earning enough and classed at poverty and about 7,500 homeless which is a low estimate.  This has helped be motivated to help fix the problems without giving up.  Homelessness starting in SF in the 1970's.   Dianne Feinstein was the first mayor to address and focus on the issue. We are looking at a problem that had grown in 50 years. It will take many years to find a better solution.  I like the saying of "How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time"  We as a community need to keep biting at the issue (s)

Question 5)   How do you personally define diversity? What have you learned during your time at NDNU about the challenges and rewards of embracing diversity? Is embracing diversity of value to the human and larger Earth communities?

Diversity in having all the possible options/differences. I love to eat and everyone needs to eat.  A city block or food court is my example.  I love Japanese sushi, Italian pizza, Mexican burritos, Southern Mississippi fried chicken, German pork schnitzel, Cantonese dim sum, fresh French pastries, and the list goes on. This is why I love the San Francisco Bay area.  Another positive way like to embrace diversity is family.  My first wife is German and Mexican.  My daughter looks Chinese and speaks German. I have visited and lived in over 50 countries in the world and I would live in Japan for the rest of my life because I prefer the culture.  By embracing diversity were are embracing our brother or sister.