This post was written by Sabrina Rangi, a 2008 alum of CTD's Civic Leadership Institute (CLI) and student at Yale University. CLI is a three-week summer service-learning program for outstanding high school students completing grades 9 through 12. The program combines hands-on education, meaningful service, powerful speakers and seminars and an unforgettable residential experience for a summer that students often describe as “life-changing.” This is her story.
I never had to face many urban issues growing up – well, perhaps I did, but in an altered sense of the word. I am from a small, rural, and conservative town in Michigan. Although there was homelessness, poverty, racial and wealth gaps, it was never to the extent seen in large cities and it was something I didn’t really comprehend. As I got older, I began to realize the importance of civic education and became specifically interested in how communities differed from my own. I decided to attend the Civic Leadership Institute the summer after my freshman year of high school. Had I not attended CLI that summer, my understanding of the world would have been stalled. CLI catalyzed the formation of how I viewed the world and the place I sought after within it. I have many memories from my experience in Chicago, but there is one that guided me through high school and especially now, as a student at Yale University.
We had just spent a few days in class learning about homelessness and the complexity of the issue – how homelessness is not an issue that can stand alone, rather, it is composed of layers which contribute to the final societal product. But what I remember the most is going to a homeless shelter for women and children. We were encouraged to meet some of the people and I sat down next to an elderly woman. Without hesitation, she began telling me the story of her boyfriend, the cop, who was traveling the country. He would be back for her, she told me, don’t worry. He had left her only for a few weeks but she knew in her heart that he would come for her. I learned from her frantic demeanor and the state of her affairs that her story was fabricated. It was in that moment I really understood the complexity of homelessness, and in a sense of many urban issues. In this case, I learned that one layer that exacerbates being homeless is untreated mental illness.
This memory has been guiding me as I begin to decide the future of my studies at Yale University. As a freshman at Yale, I have decided to study Psychology and Neuroscience. It is interesting to note that outside my dorm window is Occupy New Haven. What was once a political movement, has become a gathering for the homeless. I am reminded day to day of the many layers surrounding societal issues, and the work that still needs to be done.
Is your gifted high school student looking to do something meaningful this summer? CTD is now accepting applications for our Summer 2012 Civic Leadership Institute at Northwestern University’s Chicago Loop Campus. In partnership with Johns Hopkins University, Civic Leadership Institutes are also held in Baltimore and San Francisco. Apply now! Apply now!
