Well...it is the last day of April and I am in my last lap in terms of the race to finish this school year. I cannot believe I am half way done with my college experience! Time flew by. Next year is definitely going to speed by since I will go abroad second semester. This semester has definitely brought many good things. I was cast in the mainstage production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," so that was fun. I am officially done with my acting review scenes, which is a big relief. I also was able to establish myself in the Ithaca community, which was very important. I started volunteering at BJM Elementary school conducting poetry workshops for a fifth grade class. That was a really great experience. I also performed and did workshops at Ithaca High School, Boynton Middle School, and Dewitt Middle School. It felt really good to expose different people to the various aspect of spoken word poetry and help them to express themselves in poetry as well. Right now I would really just like to go home. It was a good year, but I am tired. Today we found out that a student, who was missing since Friday night, was found dead in the pond right by Public Safety. That is definitely an ironic location for him to be found. I am saddened by this news and am praying for his family and friends. Well, on that sad note, I am off. I have a paper to turn in tomorrow. I can't wait until this is all over!!!

-Jaylene

“Education should equip us with the power to think effectively and objectively…Education should cause us to rise beyond the horizon of legions of half truth, prejudices and propaganda. Education should enable us to “weigh and consider,” to discern the true from the false, the relevant from the irrelevant, and the real from the unreal.”

This above excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s essay, “The Purpose of Education,” written during King’s junior year at Morehouse College from September 1946-January 1947, encapsulates the profound impact that being a MLK, Jr. scholar has had on me. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar program at Ithaca College has served as my vehicle for developing my critical thinking skills, which is my purpose of education. In his essay King explores the dual function of education. My education as a MLK, Jr. scholar has consisted of several critical components. Through engaging in thought provoking conversation with fellow scholars, staff, and faculty my perceptions have been altered. As a result of our domestic and international travels my cultural and racial identity has been redefined. By working with members of the Ithaca community I have been able to gain a firsthand understanding of how disparities in health, housing, employment, and education are not only byproducts of systematic inequalities, but how these inequities contribute to an accumulation of disadvantage. Collectively these educational opportunities as a MLK, Jr. scholar have helped shaped the “discipline of my mind,” King’s first purpose of education. However, I have become aware of the importance of a set of morals, the second component, in which King cautions that education is “a ship without a compass.” Overall, my experience in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar program at Ithaca College has enabled me to become a question asker, answer finder, and critical thinker.

The travel experiences offered by the MLK program have been some of the most unique opportunities during my time at Ithaca College. They have enabled me to interpret different spaces closely and carefully, and taught me how familiarity and foreignness can be interchangeable. Having been to program seminars in the southern United States, London, Seoul, Granada, and Rabat with a focus on history, politics, economics, and culture, I have had to discern among the ideas presented around, before, and within me.

I have had to question why people do what they do, and why am I doing what I’m doing, traveling to these cities, concerned with that which I claim to be. Travel time extends beyond the days spent on unfamiliar ground. Time spent away from the comforts of home continue to cause me to question my consciousnesses, helping me to grasp definitions about and meanings of humanity.

    There are several opportunities for the scholars to get involve inside and outside of the community as individuals. Many choose to focus on a specific area of social justice that pertains to an interest they may have. On March 29th, 2008, several of the scholars got to participate in a group community service in Relay For Life at Cornell Uniersity. We put together a team, or joined other teams of our own and met up at 7pm Saturday night. Each individual signs up with a team online and donates ten dollars towards research for a cure to cancer. The teams find a spot in the middle of the track as a rest area, but keeps one person walking around the track until 7am the next morning. 

    It is important to us as scholars that we show support for varying aspects of community service, whether directly related to social justice or not. We love to jump at the opportunity to work as a team towards common goals. The success of Relay for Life was apparent in the multitude of people that filled the Cornell track from Ithaca College, Cornell University, and the greater Ithaca area. We even saw live feed of another Relay for Life event in Syracuse, New York, further displaying the large collective effort we were allowed to partake in. 

In January of 2008 the sophomore, junior and senior Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars traveled to Morocco and Spain (first year students go to Alabama and Georgia for a civil rights tour). Before traveling abroad we took a one-credit social justice seminar to prepare us for what we would encounter during our travels. The seminar covered everything from language barriers, to cultural differences, to socio-economic differences in as much detail as the limited amount of time would permit. At the conclusion of the semester we each submitted a research proposal focused on the countries we would be traveling to. This is a great opportunity for us because it allows us to apply the scholarship program to our specific interests. With a minor in economics, I decided to focus of the impact that remittances, money sent back home by emigrants, have on the Moroccan economy.  Some interesting things I learned…

• Globally, remittances total more than double the level of net official assistance that less developed countries receive.
• Remittances to Morocco presently match roughly seven percent of the nation’s total GDP; therefore, Morocco’s export of labor is regarded as a vital segment of the national economy.
• Through remittances, Moroccans are able to alleviate poverty, participate more effectively in trade due to greater availability of liquid assets, and thereby accelerate development.