Mogilevsky: Alternative Student Break's impact is only skin deep

As a recent alum of the NU philanthropic community (what you kindly named the "rich kids society"), I've seen my fair share of outrageous articles written in this "newpaper" that have clearly been placed to enrage, incite discussion and boost severly declining readership. However your article was sent to me by a current enraged undergraduate and, Miriam, it has done what few other articles have ever done. You have, very simply, disgusted and horrified me. This is the mindset of the students being accepted into the university community I once called home? These are the underhanded tactics the Daily is now taking to lure students to read? First I should note that the rest of the commentors here have outlined a vast majority of the most important factual inaccuracies and assumptions. Beyond that I feel compelled to address your portrayal of what it means to volunteer; to make a difference.

Clearly you yourself have never volunteered. If you had, you would understand that volunteering is not solely about changing the entire system, but rather, changing the system for one person. You grew up, as you state, comfortably middle class. I assume you cannot imagine what it is to be born into a family with a home unsuited to support a family. I assume you cannot imagine what it means to have a group of strangers build you a home that will provide a living situation more conducive to living, learning and growing. Regardless of whether you ever see these strangers again, regardless of whether these strangers ever do volunteer work again, I assume you cannot begin to feel the difference these strangers have made in your life.

I will never begin to downplay the points you made regarding the importance of mentoring a child, of forming a lasting relationship with another person to help them, or of fully engaging yourself in a cause to fight the deep-rooted causes. To that I counter: you have taken a microscope to a tiny sector of the world of volunteering and engaging and made a vicious attack without evaluating how ASB is a vital cornerstone within the world of volunteering. It takes millions of cells to compose a functional organism, just as it takes millions of actions to fully address our societal problems. It requires a diversity of work, on large and small scales and both with the roots and the symptoms of causes, to solve problems. And there are Northwestern students engaged in fighting these battles on all ends of the spectrum. Take LEND, the Living Wage Campaign, NCDC site leaders (to only name a few) and the number of these students also participating in ASB. But you seem to have disregarded these facts.

Do not, for one second, assume that those participating in groups such as ASB are only rich kids looking to make themselves feel better. There are hundreds of students every year that participate, in conjunction with the other activities they do on a daily basis, to make this a world that supports the standard of living and education that you have taken advantage of your entire life. All of this while you sit in your comfortable chair on the third floor of Norris writing articles admonishing these very students.

I can not begin to reiterate my disgust with this article, Miriam. I beg you, as you continue in your journalism career (that you are lucky enough to be afforded with from this institution that so many others can only dream of without IMMEDIATE help from organizations such as ASB) to do research before you write your future work.

Sincerely,
A Disgusted Alum

Miriam,
I am not going to state my opinions, nor will I give facts as to why yours are misguided, because so many other ASB supporters have done a beautiful job at outlining the numerous pros of volunteering with the organization. I will, however, say this:
I bet you didn't foresee this kind of feedback, eh?

To your comment that ASB neglects local problems, Illinois ASB organized a trip called "Illinois Reality Check" during which participants volunteered at 3 different organizations throughout the state. Further, every single participant of Illinois ASB is required to volunteer locally at pre- and post-break events, at various organizations that deal with similar issues to the ones students encounter on their trips. In fact, the main component of Illinois ASB trips is education, and there is a position on our Planning Board that deals specifically with showing participants that these problems exist in our own communities as well.

Students give up their breaks to devote their time and effort to organizations in need, and their hard work should not be diminished by your ignorance. I really hope that all of these comments make you realize how wrong you are about this organization, and that you apply for a trip so that you can actually experience this organization and understand the good work that thousands of students have done for hundreds of organizations across the country.

I enjoy watching Fox News because of the entertainment value of unfounded vitriol. And here you are offering me an even more relatable version of garbage journalism: "To put it less charitably, it's a way for rich kids to feel good about themselves." I don't go to Northwestern, so I could not care less, but IS THIS REALLY YOUR SCHOOL NEWSPAPER, NORTHWESTERN? AWESOME. JUST AWESOME.

A friend of Northwestern at UChicago,
Anon

You say "I'd stop short of viewing ASB as some grand act of charity, which is the way that many students seem to view it."

As made clear from the numerous other comments, I would also like to note that this claim lacks an understanding of the mission of ASB. As an organization, ASB stresses the importance of "service learning." I would say it is more heavily oriented toward the learning component. In fact, on each of the four trips in which I have participated, we, as a group, have discussed what service learning actually means and have articulated in some way that our presence and impact surely is not "grand." It is hard to believe that even a few students (much less the "many" that you claim), would ever say that their work in a week of pulling weeds and planting tomatoes could feed thousands of people in an inner-city food desert. That would be absurd.

"Domestic ASB trips cost a least several hundred dollars."

This is a factual error. Domestic trips generally range from $150-$250 (in in the few hundreds as you claim). in fact, this often costs significantly less than a flight home. So urging people to volunteer in their hometowns instead proves to discredit your own argument.

"It means starting a ripple effect by helping people raise themselves up, so that they will keep rising long after you're gone."

You argues that ASB does not produce this ripple effect, but actually, ASB might produce a ripple effect even more far-reaching than the one you suggest can be accomplished through micro-finance. Here's how I see it:

On the side of the organization: 1. Volunteers come for a week to do administrative work, pick weeds, build houses, play with kids etc. 2. The staff members (keep in mind we're talking nonprofits so these people are generally underpaid and overworked) are no longer bogged down by administrative work and site upkeep, thus they have more time to devote to developing sustainable programs (ones which might actually "raise thes people up") 3. The people the organizations help can "keep rising"

Simultaneously we have this ripple effect: 1. Undergrads volunteer in these organizations but also LEARN and DISCUSS the social issues that are creating these societal problems 2. These students return to campus and share their experiences with their friends and classmates. 3. These students (and their friends and classmates) become interested in these issues and pick up longer term volunteer opportunities. They continue to learn. 4. These students graduate from Northwestern, disperse throughout the world, but carry the knowledge of their experiences into their careers and daily interactions.

Sure, not everyone who goes on ASB trips starts his or her own non-profit, but I know for many, ASB creates a spark. It gets them thinking about how they can be socially conscious and civically engaged far past college.

So I ask you you, try not to demonize volunteerism. Clearly as a society, we are turning away from paternalistic, hand-out style efforts toward remedying society's worst of the worst problems and turning toward more sustainable asset-based, capacity building alternatives. But the band-aid approach must work simultaneously. There still exists an immediate need. My studies and first-hand experience with community development work have taught me that community development relies on 4 strategies (which Rebecca articulately described). Volunteerism is one of strategies. Think of it as a four-legged table. If you get rid of volunteerism leg, the table fails to stand.

After six ASB trips and a two-month volunteer engagement with a non-profit microfinance NGO in Bolivia, I think all the time about the impact I had on the organizations, people, and communities I interacted with. I probably helped a bit. Maybe, though, I didn't help very much at all. I constantly think about why I participated on those trips, what impact I had, what impact the trips had on me, and how I will move forward in the world of civic engagement.

I agree with you, Miriam, that ASB participants, site leaders, and executive board members may get a little carried away at times talking about the 'good' we do for others. However, the true mission of ASB is to introduce students to service-learning, to educate them on social issues they may not have known about previously, and to encourage students to pursue a life of civic action. ASB is an "on-ramp" for many people that go on to do great things for this world. I have the opportunity to work with the founder of ASB at Northwestern almost every day, and trust me, he is doing incredible things at Northwestern University to promote a lifelong commitment to civic engagement and social action amongst students.

Again, there was potential, Miriam, to professionally explore the limitations of ASB. Unfortunately, you were anything but professional here. But maybe it wasn't your intention to be profession and this is exactly what you wanted. However, I hope the criticism and backlash you've received help you grow as a journalist.

Thank you for bringing this up. It is a fantastic debate, of which you have only scratched the surface. Sincerely, I would recommend reading Rebecca TeKolste's above. And please, I beg you, do not brush off the comments above as "ASB fanatics" that will only defend ASB to the death - I've been involved in several NU groups that are "trying to make a difference in the world," and from the bottom of my heart, I can tell you I have met the most genuine, and, just as importantly, open-minded people through ASB. Most points I would say have been touched on, so I'll just state one.

When you were a baby, were your first steps a full out sprint? When you became a Journalism student, was your first article mind-blowing? When you got behind the wheel of a car for the first time, were you a great driver?

ASB provides the first steps into an unfamiliar world of volunteerism for a lot of people who, I promise you, will make a difference in this world.

When you fulfill your JR, where will you go? When you decide, please don't ignore all of the issues you could explore, right here, in Chicago. According to your article, there would be no sense in paying to go elsewhere.