Margaret Finlay

Ending up on Skid Row is something most of us are told to avoid; however, I ventured to Hollywood, California, with that exact purpose in mind. Along with other students through the Office for Civic Engagement, I traveled to Los Angeles, California, for a week during Wintersession 2018 to serve those experiencing poverty and homelessness. Though it may sound cliché, the week forever changed my perspective on poverty, hunger, and homelessness.

School is beyond difficult, challenging, and stressful for all of us, but I entered L.A. as an English Education major focusing on the Global Theme of Social Inequality and Human Rights, and the education and schooling present in the lives of the children and adults we encountered in our service showed both the efficacy and deficiencies of the American education system.

Throughout our time in California, we saw many efforts toward bettering the lives of oneself and others present in the many people and places we visited. We saw children returning “home” to a homeless shelter after school, with a backpack and fistful of papers in tow. We participated in after-school activities with students from the projects, attempting to fill the “risky” hours associated with the time after school and before parents return from work. We learned about classes that teach former gang members and ex-convicts about parenting, anger management, and getting a high school diploma. For those members of society who don’t mold into “standardized” education, these programs offer new opportunities and hope.

Poverty versus Privilege

Hope: the one word that continues coming to mind even after the time has passed. Those experiencing homelessness and poverty never lost it. Children in the projects talked about it when they imagined leaving their harrowing conditions. Former gang members referred to it when they told stories of drive-bys and death. As many have said before: “Where there is life, there is hope.” No one exemplifies this idea more than those experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles.

Painting fingernails at Union Rescue Mission