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<DIV> the first time i read Darian's article when it was
published, I thought it was very insightful!! after reading it again, I still
feel the same way. Very proud of not only knowning Darian as a friend but
someone who moves and shakes the philosphy of "what it means to be
blind"!!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sincerely,</DIV>
<DIV>Jaime Tomasello</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 3/28/2012 1:23:12 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
dsmithnfb@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>Hi
all:<BR>I ran across this article I submitted to the National Association
of<BR>Blind Student publication "The Student Slate".<BR>In this
article I talked about my expirience in AmeriCorps NCCC<BR>While I have
thought on it a bit and my views on something things<BR>have changed-
just realizing my growth and such-- I wanted to share!<BR>(can anyone guess
the inspiration for the title? - it is a<BR>combination of two tag
lines*smile*)<BR>let me know what you think!<BR><BR><BR>Changing what it means
to get things done:<BR>An AmeriCorps Experience<BR><BR>by Darian
Smith<BR><BR>From the Editor: Darian Smith currently resides in California
and<BR>attends the City College of San Francisco. He also serves on the
board<BR>of the National Association of Blind Students. In this piece,
Darian<BR>chronicles his experiences in AmeriCorps and demonstrates
how<BR>volunteerism and community service can provide opportunities not
only<BR>to better the lives of others, but also for personal growth and
the<BR>education of our peers. Here is his story:<BR><BR>The
Beginning<BR><BR>The Idea of serving one’s country via team-based national
community<BR>service was something that struck me as a very powerful way
to<BR>positively impact individuals, meet new people, better myself
and<BR>change what it means to be blind. The Journey started as a small
yet<BR>ever-present thought that was fostered in the summer of 2002 while
I<BR>was a summer student at the Colorado Center for the Blind. A team
of<BR>AmeriCorps national Civilian Community Corps members and their
Team<BR>Leader spent a project at the center doing construction work on
the<BR>building. After a positive few days of interaction with these
great<BR>people and positive role-models, the then- Coordinator of the
Colorado<BR>summer program suggested I look into the program and its
benefits.<BR><BR>Many years past, and finally, six years later, fate brought
me back to<BR>Denver; this time, a confident blind adult. I was a graduate of
the<BR>center’s independence training program, had been a summer
instructor<BR>in Colorado, and was, soon to be, a fully inducted Corps Member
of the<BR>AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, to serve on the
same<BR>campus as those who first introduced me to the idea of
national<BR>service.<BR><BR>Soon after returning to my home state of
California, I traveled to<BR>Oregon to start training with my first dog guide.
Training was going<BR>very well, and I had reason to believe that I was going
to graduate<BR>from school. Unfortunately, after a planned meeting designed
to<BR>strategize the best tools and techniques to make the transition
for<BR>the dog guide/handler team a successful one, there came
some<BR>noticeable uneasiness and a lot of questions about what a guide
dog<BR>can do (in addition to the concerns of what a blind person can do)
and<BR>concerns about how much accommodation would have to take
place.<BR>Additionally, the question of if I was” 100% blind or partially
blind”<BR>came up. While it may have been, in their mind, for
programmatic<BR>reasons, I felt like the campus was already assuming what I
could or<BR>could not do. After thinking, and realizing the amount of
ignorance<BR>and uneasiness that people had displayed, I came to understand
that<BR>some educating had to take place and that right now would not be
the<BR>best time for a dog guide. So, with that, I bid farewell to
the<BR>friends I gained and the amazing dog I had began work with
and<BR>returned back to the bay area.<BR><BR>Once there, I began the process
of determining how to best go about<BR>educating 200 people I’d never met
before. All the while, counting<BR>down the days until I would begin a new and
exciting chapter in my<BR>life; one that only those who are willing to push
their limits and are<BR>confident about their abilities as a person, blind or
not, would ever<BR>attempt.<BR><BR>CTI<BR><BR>Corps Training
Institute marks the beginning of the AmeriCorps NCCC<BR>Journey. As a Corps
Member, you soon find out that the first couple of<BR>days are probably the
most hectic days one will have in the corps.<BR>The First days were filled
with checking in and meeting your<BR>roommates, the people on your team, and
the people in your unit. I met<BR>a lot of corps members within the first few
hours of my arrival on<BR>campus. For most of these wonderfully enthusiastic
and talented<BR>individuals, who I would come to know as my corps mates and
friends,<BR>it would be the first time they had ever met a blind person. The
same<BR>could be said for the team leaders, unit leaders and office staff
on<BR>campus, as well.<BR><BR>During training, Corps Members travel across
campus to different<BR>trainings and meetings, which are put on to prepare
corps members for<BR>the ten months that lie ahead. Some of those trainings
are diversity<BR>trainings, CPR, First Aid and trainings on how to run a Red
Cross<BR>disaster shelter. They also cover rules and regulations regarding
the<BR>program. The very first days served as a sort of test not only for
me,<BR>but also the other people on campus- as it gave me an opportunity
to<BR>show how a person who is blind travels in both familiar and
unfamiliar<BR>areas; among other things. Being a person who had, just two
months<BR>prior to joining NCCC, been teaching blind youth the freedom and
sense<BR>of empowerment that safe and independent travel bring, I
felt<BR>especially confident in my ability to navigate this new
environment,<BR>and felt the need to prove that traveling and problem-solving
were<BR>things I was very capable of doing.<BR><BR>Campus life is, generally,
what u would see in a university. The<BR>campus has a cafeteria and a set of
dorms. I was assigned a single<BR>room that had a full bathroom and was
located by an emergency exit; as<BR>the staff had a difficult time
understanding (after detailed<BR>explanation) how a blind person can
effectively get from the bathroom<BR>to their room or out of a building given
an understanding of its<BR>layout. So they decided to put me (against my
request) in a “more<BR>accessible room.”<BR><BR>After a few days of learning
about the corps, the campus, and the<BR>people on it, I approached the
Director of the AmeriCorps NCCC campus<BR>about putting on a one-person meet
the blind month event. While it was<BR>not phrased in that manner, and the
conversation was a continuation of<BR>a conversation I had had with her prior
to arrival, it was an idea<BR>that went over well with her. The event was
spread out over the<BR>duration of our month of training and consisted of meet
the blind<BR>month literature that was displayed in the main dorm lobby, a
informal<BR>introduction to goal ball, a question and answer session during
a<BR>corps wide community meeting, and finally an activity which,
in<BR>keeping with the month long theme, I called “Cane Travel Training.”
I<BR>was very fortunate to have been able to get sleepshades and
canes<BR>loaned out to me by the Colorado Center for the Blind. Let me
assure<BR>you that time and energy put into this activity were time and
energy<BR>well-spent. Corps members, team leaders, and office staff
alike<BR>participated in the series of informal trainings. In these
trainings,<BR>they learned how a blind person safely and effectively navigates
both<BR>familiar and unfamiliar areas and does so with a high degree
of<BR>confidence. They also learned about proper cane technique, how to
move<BR>about in a building, go up and down stairs and travel outdoors.
One<BR>activity that proved to be a highlight was a session that took
place<BR>during my unit’s team bonding time at Rocky Mountain National
Park.<BR>Individuals learned how to navigate rocky paths using a cane
while<BR>listening to the birds and the wind through the trees and feeling
the<BR>sun on their faces. Everyone who took part enjoyed the event,
those<BR>who didn’t, express interest in taking part in the event if there
was<BR>to be another one.<BR><BR>Once the month of corps wide training and
team selection process<BR>ended, I sat down with my Team Leader, and as is
normal practice with<BR>team leaders and corps members pre- project round, we
talked about<BR>expectations and goals for the upcoming round in Boulder,
Colorado. We<BR>discussed keeping an open line of communication and she
stressed to me<BR>that she understood that at times it may not be as easy
interacting<BR>with individuals who may not allow me to push myself out of my
comfort<BR>zone and try new things on the work site, as they may feel
nervous<BR>about my participation. She also assured me that, while she knew I
was<BR>a self-advocate and supported my advocacy efforts on my own
behalf,<BR>she was going to advocate for me as best she could, as
well.<BR><BR>My team leader grew up with a friend who was blind. This friend
is<BR>currently in law school; and her positive views of blindness
clearly<BR>have pushed her to this point in her education. It is, I believe,
this<BR>personal interaction with a successful blind person which has
shaped<BR>my team leader’s views on blindness, and that has made my team
leader<BR>one of the more open-minded team leaders, relative to disabilities,
in<BR>our corps. She always worked to keep me in the loop on little
yet<BR>important things. As one Example: When I was first arriving on
campus,<BR>I received a folder that was the same as the ones that all of
the<BR>other corps members in my unit had gotten. However, mine had a
message<BR>in Braille welcoming me to the corps. And who wrote it? My
team<BR>leader. She knew Braille. This was a very nice surprise that meant
a<BR>lot to me. She was always there to listen when I was having a
tough<BR>time understanding a situation, or needing to vent. She sometimes
did<BR>not have the answers, but she would not let me give up on myself
and<BR>gave me time to figure out problems, where other people may not
have<BR>had that kind of patience. When it came to being on the work site
she<BR>always took the time to explain its layout and explain how I might
go<BR>about doing something on the site.<BR><BR>Boulder, Colorado<BR><BR>My
team’s first project was an environmental service project in<BR>Boulder
working with the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain<BR>Parks. On this
project, we worked on building two new hiking trails,<BR>cleared out a few
irrigation ditches, and removed invasive species<BR>(which really just
translates into pulling weeds).<BR><BR>On most of these projects, it was best
to stick with a member of the<BR>team and work on a part of the project
together, as otherwise it got<BR>rather boring and repetitive quite quickly.
When it came to hiking to<BR>and from some of the sites with rougher uneven
paths, I alternated<BR>between traveling alone and traveling with a human
guide. I found that<BR>walking to the site with someone via human guide was
simply a matter<BR>of keeping pace and having a conversation as
well.<BR><BR>On one of our work sites, I was asked to clear grass patches out
of a<BR>trench. The way I went about this was to first have my cane be
stored<BR>in a safe place by a project sponsor, and then, I would walk along
one<BR>side of the trench, feeling with my foot for broken up patches
of<BR>grass and damp dirt and throw them in an area that was pointed out
by<BR>the sponsor. The project introduced me to new tools that I had
never<BR>used or heard of before, such as a rockbar and mcloud. I was
also<BR>educated as to the socio – economic and recreational
considerations<BR>people must think about when developing or not developing
land for<BR>recreational usage or preservation reasons. I learned a lot
about<BR>Colorado and its water conservation plans, as well.<BR><BR>During
this Round, I visited the Boulder Valley Chapter of the NFB and<BR>told them
about AmeriCorps NCCC and the great benefits of giving back<BR>to one’s
country through national service. As one of my team roles was<BR>recruiter,
the concept of talking-up our program was not too<BR>unnatural, but the best
part of it was letting people know that this<BR>program is out there and, yes,
blind people can be a part of it and do<BR>great things as well.<BR><BR>As for
my project sponsors, they were all great helps and enabled me<BR>to learn
while learning along with me. The lesson? Given the<BR>opportunity and
training, a person who is blind can do most of the<BR>same jobs a sighted
person can do, and do them just as effectively as<BR>anybody.<BR><BR>Brazoria
County, Texas<BR><BR>My team and I went to Brazoria County, Texas and started
work with the<BR>United Way. We were told we were going to be doing canvassing
work and<BR>talking to residents in the community about resources which
were<BR>available to victims of hurricane Ike. This, of course, meant a lot
of<BR>walking and a lot of talking. I had two primary roles on this
project.<BR>While in the field, I mainly did most of the communicating
with<BR>clients, as I have a good skill for relating to people. While
away<BR>from the worksite, I would write out weekly progress reports to
keep<BR>track of where we went and what we did.<BR><BR>In this round, my
skills as a recruiter were taken to new heights.<BR>Normally, a recruiter on a
team will research places that would be<BR>good to talk to the youth of the
community and contact those places<BR>and set up a time to come in and talk
about the program. I would do<BR>research (via a laptop with JAWS and an
internet connection) about<BR>these places, call them, and get the logistics
squared away so an<BR>event could take place. During This round I, along with
different<BR>members of my team, would go out to high schools as well as work
with<BR>and talk to venture crews to talk-up the program.<BR><BR>What made
this round so special was my ability to be personable and to<BR>make every
aspect of myself and the program a shining positive. One<BR>thing which
generally made otherwise shy people want to find out more<BR>about the program
was when I would mention all of the great aspects of<BR>the program and all of
the great things I’d been able to do as a blind<BR>person. I don’t know if
they joined or considered joining with the<BR>hopes of meeting a blind person,
or if being confident and showing<BR>your personality makes the program sound
like it’s worthwhile. But,<BR>either way, youth that would not normally have
considered the program<BR>at first glance either seriously considered the
program or planned to<BR>do it as soon as they graduated high school or
college. To me, that’s<BR>a great feeling. I believe that during this round I
showed many youth<BR>that anybody who wants to serve their country can do it;
that ability,<BR>race, creed or anything else does not have to be a reason to
not help<BR>others any chance you get.<BR><BR>Over this round I learned to
work with the skill saw, sawzall, drill,<BR>axe and nail gun on various
construction and debris removal projects.<BR>The best part of this was that
team mates and my team leader had all,<BR>by this point, taken the time to
teach me skills I normally would not<BR>have thought I would ever be able to
learn. As was the case on my<BR>previous project, the people in the community
came in with no idea of<BR>what to expect out of me. In the end they were some
of the best<BR>teachers and best people I worked with during my Corps year.
They<BR>never over reacted, they were always so nice and helpful to
everybody,<BR>and they treated me as if blindness was the last thing they
thought of<BR>when they saw me.<BR><BR>Hale County, Alabama<BR><BR>This
Project round presented an opportunity and a bigger challenge<BR>than most of
the others I had worked on. Hale County is the fifth<BR>poorest county in the
country, and the town I lived in was like most<BR>towns in Alabama, very small
and not notable to anyone who didn’t live<BR>there. The nature of this project
was construction work and painting.<BR>In previous projects I had done both.
The biggest challenge was<BR>convincing a new team leader, team, and the staff
back at my base<BR>campus that I could do these things. Another added
challenge was<BR>convincing them that I could climb scaffolding with ease
and<BR>confidence. Though I could show my team leader and project
supervisors<BR>that I could do the job, the campus management still had their
doubts.<BR><BR>During this round, all AmeriCorps campuses were filling slots
for<BR>their incoming class of team leaders. During this process, I
was<BR>interviewed by four different campuses, who were all considering
me<BR>for open positions. In the end I was not offered a position by any
of<BR>the campuses, with some not even bothering to notify me. One
campus<BR>admitted to altering the general set of questions they ask all
their<BR>candidates, saying they were not confident that I, as a blind
person,<BR>would be able to answer them. It was at this point that I started
to<BR>return to questioning the true belief that this campus
and<BR>organization had in people with disabilities in general and in me as
a<BR>blind person. It seemed to me that they felt a person with
a<BR>disability could certainly become a corps member, but would not
be<BR>able to lead a group of ten young adults on challenging projects.
It<BR>felt to me as if they saw this opportunity as something that
someone<BR>with a disability, especially blindness, could not be trusted to
take<BR>on.<BR><BR>I continued with the project in Alabama, working with
volunteers on a<BR>piece of history in the area; an old Rosenwald school house
that was<BR>ninety-five years old. I also worked in a local thrift store
that<BR>benefited the community members. Most of my job this round
was<BR>recruitment off the worksite, though I still carried out minimal
tasks<BR>on the site. On hot days, which reached 95 degrees, I found
myself<BR>near hot tin pulling old rusted nails out of old two-by-fours,
while<BR>my team mates were climbing the side of the old school house to
nail<BR>or paint. While one can justify this by saying the work had to
get<BR>done and I was doing a job, I often found myself in just the
situation<BR>I had worked so hard to avoid. I didn’t want to be sitting on
the<BR>sidelines while my teammates got to challenge themselves in ways
they<BR>never thought they’d be challenged.<BR><BR>This is not to say that I
didn’t see some really interesting things. I<BR>had been to my first crawfish
boil, and had been through more tornado<BR>warnings then I would have liked.
There were some truly great people<BR>who were working to help people in this
county change their way of<BR>life, and I had been fortunate enough to get to
know some of the best<BR>folks in this small county. I learned that housing
and education were<BR>not the only problems the county was facing. I was on a
ride-along<BR>with a post-grad student from the University of Alabama who
was<BR>testing water purity in the area. The student told Me that
many<BR>residents in the county often drink and bathe in darkened water
from<BR>their pipes and never know how unhealthy it is, nor know
any<BR>different. Overall, I think that our Alabama project was a
very<BR>educational time for me. I learned about my country, what we take
for<BR>granted and the challenges we face in closing the gap between
the<BR>haves and have nots.<BR><BR>Colorado.<BR><BR>In our fourth project
round, I was one of the fortunate few corps<BR>members to be selected to work
in AmeriCorps NCCC’s Summer of Service<BR>program (the only program of its
kind to be run in the country in<BR>2009). The Summer of Service program (SOS)
gives at risk youth the<BR>opportunity to serve their local community and gain
invaluable skills<BR>and an awareness of community needs. It also provides a
small stipend<BR>which the youth often use to support their
families.<BR><BR>In the three weeks prior to the youths’ arrival on campus, I,
along<BR>with my team mates took part in training and then a two-week
camping<BR>trip in the mountains of Jamestown, Colorado. Aside from the fun
of<BR>getting to set-up a tent and hike on this project, within these
two<BR>weeks, my new team and I worked on moving tree limbs to the side
of<BR>the road to be gathered. Most of this involved dragging limbs
from<BR>down a hillside (or “hauling slash”), and using my cane with my
left<BR>arm, sometimes following the voices of my team mates. One fun thing
I<BR>did was use a hydraulic wood-splitter. This machine was designed as
an<BR>easier, less labor intensive way to split wood.<BR><BR>After the two
weeks of work and bonding were complete, we returned to<BR>Denver and got
ready for the Participants. Once the program started, I<BR>was asked to serve
as a crew leader with three other co-crew leaders<BR>overseeing a team of
seven to ten youth. Crew leaders had the<BR>responsibility to supervise the
Participants, making sure that they<BR>stayed on task on the work site and
maintained safe habits and<BR>respectful manners both on and off of the work
site. It was always a<BR>bit of a challenge with the Participants, as they
would often<BR>challenge my abilities as a supervisor. They worked hard and it
was<BR>rewarding to see what great young people they grew into over just
one<BR>month.<BR><BR>Three short weeks later, it was time for each corps
member who had<BR>made it through the long and challenging journey of an
AmeriCorps year<BR>to look around, look ahead, and say goodbye to the family
that they<BR>had for ten months. I, to this day, will never forget the feeling
of<BR>crossing the stage and thinking, “This is it! All of the challenges
I<BR>faced, all of the friends I found, all of the places I’ve gone
and<BR>experiences I’ve had … this is it.” I had finally completed a
journey<BR>that on more than one occasion, I had considered walking away
from.<BR>But in the end, when I heard in the crowd the roar of applause
that<BR>was lead by the very Summer of Service Participants that we helped
to<BR>graduate just weeks before, I felt so many things. When I stopped
to<BR>consider it I felt finality, pride, and accomplishment. I
had<BR>completed this program with so many people whom I had grown to
care<BR>for and respect, and who had grown to respect me. On that day I
felt<BR>like I did change what it means to be blind in the National
Civilian<BR>Community Corps, a program where blindness was truly
uncharted<BR>territory.<BR><BR><BR><BR>-- <BR>Darian Smith<BR><BR>"To dream
what is possible and to put oneself in service of that dream is
the<BR>formula<BR>for a life well lived."<BR><BR>- Dr. Peter
Benson<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Community-service
mailing
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