CR1: [Give an original title]

Service-learning is a chance for students to go out into their community and see the injustice that is happening for a vast group of people, most of whom are minorities. The purpose of service-learning is to understand what type of social justice is happening not only in Marin but all over the world as well. This is proven to be more difficult than we realize because our definitions of social justice can vary by each individual. Sensoy’s and DiAngelo’s article “Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education” points out that “social justice studies is focused on the gap between the ideals of social justice and the practices of social justice” (xx). As a service-learner in the community, we are not in a place to judge the way people live and determine the way they should live. We are instead supposed to observe their lives and try to understand how they ended up in their situations, whatever that may be. Last year I volunteered at Laurel Dell Elementary and met many fifth graders that came from low-income Hispanic families. The minority within this population were White kids. I remember that during lunch a lot of Hispanic girls had the free, unnutritious, lunch that the school provided or went hungry. Meanwhile, the few White kids in their grade had packed lunches filled with sandwiches and fresh cut fruits. This could be because “social groups that are valued more highly have greater access to the resources of a society” (Sensoy, DiAngelo XX). This is a subtle distinction that let me know that some kids came from families that took the time out of their day to pack their kid’s lunch and other parents who may not have had the time or resources to do this for their child.

Because I’m taking two service-learning classes, I’ve decided to participate in two different service-learning programs: Canal Alliance’s ELS learning program and the Rotacare Clinic of San Rafael. ELS classes are for adults who have English as their second language. They primarily help Latino immigrants to communicate and break barriers for them. The Rotacare Clinic of San Rafael is a free clinic that serves people that don’t have health insurance or health insurance that doesn’t cover enough. The majority of people that come to this free clinic are Latinx immigrants that do not have health insurance because they can’t afford it or because of their immigration status. Based on what I know about these programs, I’m excited to engage in my community by getting to know the people that take advantage of these programs. I want to be able to use critical theory and analyze “social conditions within their historical, cultural, and ideological contexts” (Sensoy, DiAngelo 23). I also like the fact that the majority of people that use these programs are from the Latinx community because as a Latina, I want to get to know this community. I can communicate with them by speaking Spanish. With our current political climate, I can only imagine how Latinx immigrants are facing the impact but now its time to see it for myself. “The politics of the social justice movements aligned with academic research showing that society is structured in ways that marginalize some to the benefit of others” (27).