Name: Ana Vieira-Gerbracht

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Education: Dropping Out

Date of Fieldwork: December 7, 2018

Name of Organization: College Bound Initiative

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Jon Roure

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

we did an interview with Jon Roure about his work to help people go to college. He is an expert on poverty in education. we went to his office in Chelsea, at the College Bound Initiative offices. we met with college advisors that he works with.

What I learned:

I learned that one of the reasons for generational poverty and dropping out is not having peers and family members that had the college experience around you. nobody is pushing these kids to reach their goals and to get out of their comfort zones. Another reason is that even if kids have already done a couple years of college, and they have student loans, they often drop out. dropping out after you’ve already payed some of your loans is a waste of money. finishing college, getting a better job than you would before, and then paying back you loans is a much more rational thing to do, but people don’t realize because they are the first generation to go to college on their families.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

Jon Roure said that in order to have change you need to care. then you have to volunteer in order to feel what the people are going through, to motivate you and inspire yourself. then you have to make allies, and get donations. people need to help each other out.