Written at the beginning of the second semester, this reflection outlines my thoughts on the previous semester, my goals for the second semester, and my understanding of a good society: 

Social Justice Musings

After a semester interning at Misericordia, I have finally figured out my position and role as a Social Justice Intern in Personal Effectiveness Program. I get to decide my day to day activities, and help out in any way I see fit. I work with residents and staff daily, and get to interact with a population I never have before. As an intern, not only do I get to learn about the psychological  development of a person with an intellectual disability, but I also get to directly work with those clients and build a relationship with them. Being a part of Misericordia lets me be a part of a community full of loving and talented people, and this semester I hope to make the biggest impact in the little time I have left there.

I have many goals I hope to complete in my remaining weeks at Misericordia. One goal, I have been working on since I arrived, and that is learning sign language. I had not realized how integral American Sign Language (ASL) would be in the classroom. For awhile, I managed it and spoke only to verbal residents or through ASL- knowledgeable staff, and slowly learned a few signs here and there. However, leaving communication for deaf individuals to a select few, perpetuates ableism within a community made for the disabled.

To overcome that tendency, I had started watching short ASL videos and tutorials online, as well as having short conversations with residents during the day. This semester, however, I hope to go beyond short conversations. I hope to have meaningful conversations, with all residents. I hope to move beyond, “How was your weekend?” and “Valentine’s day is coming up, what do you think you’ll do?”, to “What do you like about PEP? What do you like about your home?” to gain insight into the resident’s experience and opinions about Misericordia. By having important conversations with residents, I can gain understanding of MIsericordia as a large non-profit, and give feedback to staff on the resident’s experiences.

Finally, I hope to make the resident’s daily experiences as meaningful as possible in the short time that they are at work. Because the resident’s have varying abilities and interests in activities, I want to create a wide range of activities that the residents can work on independently while in the classroom together. To create effective tasks for each resident, I will need to consult instructors and plan according to their set curriculum and the resident’s long-term goals.

These goals fall into three categories, along with other smaller goals. The first, learning ASL, is primarily an intellectual goal for myself, although it has social benefits. Another intellectual goal I hope to pursue is further studying various developmental disabilities. To do this, I must make time during the day to read the resident’s blue books, or cases, which includes their history of goals at Misericordia and notes about the individual’s behavior. Reading the individual’s cases provides material to study the psychological side of disabilities, and a foundation to build my interaction with residents.

The residents have made every day at Misericordia a cheerful and friendly one. In terms of emotional learning, I have developed a patience and utmost cheerfulness to successfully work with residents. To continue emotional learning, I hope to get to know resident’s families, and their stories. Getting to resident’s experiences through meaningful conversations, as well as getting to know their families, will provide a way to expose myself to different sides of a developmental disability, through the family member’s perceptions. Meeting and talking to family members, however, could be difficult.

To meet resident’s family and friends, I will attend social events. Attending various social events, from Misericordia concerts, to Bingo nights, to Misericordia fundraisers, will also give me a chance to see residents in different settings, and anther way to bond. As a result of such positive emotions interning at PEP, I hope to continue returning to PEP in the summer as a volunteer. In the summer, I can visit residents outside my strict two day a week schedule, and see residents in different settings. Furthermore, I hope to cultivate my relationships with other PEP interns. The PEP interns, students working on their Master’s degree in Social Work, have helpfully shared their knowledge about Misericordia, graduate school, and techniques in working with certain residents. Finally, I hope to expose other students in the community to Misericordia. Misericordia connects with the community through various social events and services. For example, Misericordia residents run a restaurant on campus, as well as a gift shop and cafe that I need to visit, and can easily bring along friends.

In many ways, Misericordia benefits from these intellectual, emotional, and social goals. A book outlining important ASL signs benefits staff and residents, and leads to more meaningful conversations between them as well. Meaningful conversations are conducive to stronger relationships, and more effective lesson plans and services for residents. Studying blue books also leads to more appropriate responses for interaction, and appropriate activities for individual’s respective intellectual abilities. Moreover, strong relationships between staff, residents, and their families, creates more effective treatment for residents. Lastly, attending social events with my own friends exposes other college students to a community they might not have never come into contact with. Bringing two distant communities together, college students and Misericordia, connects distant groups of people, and shares the people and passions of each group.

People sharing their talents and passions with one another are a part of a greater definition of a “good society”. At first thought, a “good society” consists of people participating and taking care of one another in the community, while each using the best of the abilities to further society’s development. While this abstract definition looks good at face value, and perhaps some individuals in smaller communities might consider themselves in a good society, the larger society, especially in the United States, requires people working for social justice. To get to this good society, citizens must work against historical, institutional, and new injustices. Social justice-oriented citizens work towards this good society by empowering, educating, and advocating for others.

To promote a society that protects and promotes every citizen, certain social institutions must be in place. Paul Loeb expects basic ethics from every citizen, driven by an “ethics of caring” (258). He expects institutions, like the U.S. government, to render these ethics in society through policies and actions. A good society, he maintains, ensures a “sense of economic security for all its members” (259).  This social structure has a dynamic relationship with citizen’s values; a secure economy exemplifies a shared value of fairness, and promotes a healthy and happy population unconsumed by work. I agree, a secure economy that promotes economic fairness in chance for development and fairness in distribution of wealth contributes to a good society. Other institutions, like education, healthcare, and office should be accessible and high quality (in terms of resources) as well.

In my present position, I work to educate and maintain a standard of living for a small group of residents. On a larger scale, my position  at Misericordia allows me to interact with people I never had before, and I share that experience with others. In my Loyola community, I hope to bring attention to a group that society does not give much attention to.

In my future work in high schools, I hope to offer high quality service to students and parents, and be an accessible resource for them as well. In high schools, I hope to get involved in after school clubs and be in the classroom, to interact with students and wear down the stigma of talking to a counselor. Participation in the school’s activities will make me approachable and accessible. While I had hoped to live in a culturally diverse neighborhood full of good ethnic foods, I had not considered my role there. Would my presence, as it is now, contribute to gentrification, rather than desegregation? Because I hope to work in high schools as a familiar and helpful figure for students, perhaps participating in their communities, instead of just at school, would be a more effective way to be an accessible resource for them and their families. Like any citizen in a good society, I must further educate myself in able to effectively empower, educate, and advocate with communities.

Works Cited

Loeb, Paul. Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in Challenging Times. St. Martin’s Press. 2010.