Serving Ourselves: How the Discourse on Community Engagement Privileges the University over the Community by Kathleen Bortolin

This article was interesting in many ways. I had never before thought that service learning could be a way to glorify the Universities instead of the communities. I think that may be due to the fact that our class in particular has been very much aware that we are here to serve the community of the Robert Weaver neighborhood. The more shocking part of this article though was all of the excerpts from previous articles that prove there are many service learning programs that are truly more about the students and the universities over the communities.
In particular, I thought this quote was ridiculous:

"To increase community partner commitment to projects, local community goals must align with the goal of the initiative (Poindexter, Arnold, & Ostenhout, 2009, p. 65). "

This basically says "We will go out and help communities only if they need the kind of help we want to give." This is completely not the point of service. Serving someone means letting them tell you what they need and how you can help and going it no matter what. Being a servant doesn't mean you do something for someone if its convenient and you want to do it.

Overall I thought it was an interesting article and I agree that it is important to call attention to this issue in Service learning. We must be able to hold each other accountable to the true meaning of service.

Project Update

Rebecca and I have contacted both Lori and Amory Baril regarding our historical timeline of east Austin project. I'm not sure if we have heard back from Lori but Amory has put us in contact with the officers of The Project and we are now waiting to hear back from them on the best way to make sure all the volunteers for The Project are able to see our informational slideshow. Rebecca and I are meeting tomorrow to work on the actual slideshow/Prezi.

Blog Post #4

After reviewing the material about gentrification listed in Blackboard-Course Documents, discuss an example of gentrification in your own home town, or another city or state in US or in another country. 

• I am from San Angelo, a town in west Texas. The topic of gentrification is an interesting one when it comes to San Angelo because it isn't a large city like Austin or San Francisco. What's different about San angelo is that many neighborhoods actually want gentrification to occur. many of the neighborhoods don't have any small businesses or restaurants and the communities believe they need gentrification to have true success in revitalizing their neighborhoods. The only area I can think of in San Angelo where gentrification is becoming negative is in the neighborhood of Santa Rita. Santa Rita was at one time a predominantly low income, mostly Latino area. Now, many wealthy families are renovating the spanish style homes and moving in the area, causing the property values to rocket upward. When driving through the neighborhood it's amazing how different the houses can be. You'll see a house barely being held together with cardboard for windows, then a few houses down there is a two story newly renovated expensive home with a wealthy family living inside. The good thing about SanAngelo though is that if these low income families are pushed out out the Santa Rita neighborhood, they only have to move a mile or two in any direction to find affordable housing. 

How is gentrification affecting cities around the world?  

• The articles we read about San Francisco, South Africa, and London were honestly really sad. Gentrification seems to be having a similar effect around the world. Families are being evicted from their homes and neighborhoods without a care from the wealthier people taking over the area. the culture is forgotten and replaced like those lives and that history never mattered.

Is Austin's gentrification unique in some ways?  Yes or No, explain.

• I believe Austin's gentrification is unique because it seems like even with the hurricane of gentrification happening, there are a lot of people who do care about preserving the culture and the histories of the areas. I think the idea of conscious gentrification isn't often seen and it's pretty cool that there are still people in Austin who want to try to preserve the East Austin communities as much as possible while still allowing gentrification to happen. 

What did you learn about gentrification during the East Austin van tour that is informing your view on gentrification?

• For me, the tour of East austin was less about what I learned and more about the emotional impact it had on me. It was eye opening to see first hand how these communities are being dramatically changed. The mix of modest little homes and three story luxury homes was crazy. Knowing that those two and three story homes stand on a lot that used to belong to a member of the community was really sad to think about. Overall, the tour really opened up my eyes to the effect gentrification really has on urban communities.