By April Porter
This winter break I was able to have an awesome experience visiting Charlotte, NC with the Scholar Leader and Hillel communities from Miami University. This trip is known as W.I.S.E (winter immersion service experience) and is held every year for the Scholar Leader community. First semester members of the community worked hard planning and organizing all of our different speakers and events for the trip. The theme of the trip was “power and privilege.” I along with 30 other students attended and we all had a great time listening to speakers, doing fun activities, and touring the city. This was an awesome opportunity for me to learn more about the roles that power and privilege play in society, and how the importance of leadership can truly make a difference.
On the trip we met with members of the Charlotte community including: a Methodist Reverend, two women who work at the Jewish Federation, the director of Leadership Charlotte, and the executive director to the superintendent for the Charlotte school district. Every speaker provided me with awesome insight into the topics. One quote from Rev. Howell really stuck with me: “I rely on the notion that what is true and good and beautiful in this world is alluring to most people.” We were also able to visit the Historic Rosedale Plantation, where we toured the plantation house and heard stories performed by actresses who impersonated two slave women who actually worked back on the plantation in the 1830’s. We visited the Bechtler Modern Art Museum where our tour guide told us the stories of the privileges of the Bechtler family and how they obtained such an extensive collection of art. But the most meaningful experience I had on the trip was our visit to Second Harvest Food Panty. Basically, it is a huge warehouse which serves as the distribution center that sends out not only food but also supplies to agencies that serve the homeless community throughout the entire state of North Carolina. We were able to help sort the day’s shipments (I was assigned to the Walmart aisle). As I stood in this enormous warehouse, filled with items, it was shocking to hear that even all of this was not enough. In fact, all of the thousands of boxes of stuff would be shipped off by the end of the week. It is a never ending process in which they strive to reach every person who needs help and support. These awesome experiences have re-inspired me to use the privileges I have in my life to help make a difference in the world.
This experience is one of the most memorable experiences I have had and being a member of the Scholar Leader community at Miami University made this opportunity possible to me. I was also able to make new friends, members of the Hillel group on campus (since they partnered with us on the trip this year). I look forward to the future follow-up meetings we will have to continue discussion about what we learned and what we want to do to make a change. It amazes me every day how blessed I am to have met such amazing people and had so many amazing experiences so far during my time at Miami. It was an awesome time and a great trip to prepare me for second semester classes starting up on Monday. Here we go!