Asma: Journal 3

Day 3 (November 2):

Today, my day was cut short due to a doctor’s appointment at noon. However, I was still able to hear the speaker for the day. Her name is Sister Virginia. She’s the director of the Padua Center, which is a place where suspended students of inner-city Toledo go during the day.

The Padua Center aims to empower the children who go to school where the environment isn’t really conducive for success. These are the kinds of places where drop-out rates are high, grades are low, and drugs and alcohol are everywhere. The students, unfortunately, barely receive the kind of education, care, and attention like the students of MV. Hearing about these kids’ predicament made me pretty sad. No kid deserves to be in that kind of circumstance. A combination of stress, unstable family dynamics, financial struggle, and a lack of both motivation and support leads these kids to act out. Their actions get them in trouble at school; therefore they’re suspended. Once they’re suspended, some are lucky enough to go to the Padua Center instead of going home.
All those important aspects to success are given to the kids at Padua. It’s a “safe refuge”, as Sister Virginia phrased it. A place where kids can escape from their stressful circumstance and learn that they have potential to do achieve great things.

While I was listening to Sister Virginia, I couldn’t help but think of all the other kids who weren’t benefiting from their program. Don’t get me wrong- I think the idea of the Padua Center is excellent. It’s always better to help some than none, but it would be even better if more kids were able to have a place like that too. I know that the location of the Padua Center is not the only one that suffers from these kinds of poverty-related problems, and there’s still many children who continue to act out because they don’t have access to someone who will lend them a helping hand.
:
Maybe this is a potential idea for a service-learning project. What if someone where to write a plan on how we can get Padua’s concept more wide-spread? How could we make sure everyone who needs this kind of support gets it? I see this as being a good potential area that could be improved upon even more.

 By: Asma Elgamal