Stanford University Urban Studies &
Urban Summer Fellowship
Student perspectives of community-engaged learning and research across the United States
Hi Everyone! As a quick reminder, my name is Marisol Zarate and I have been interning at Fostering Media Connections. We focus on solution-based journalism in child welfare and juvenile justice. This essentially means we report on current issues of injustice in the child welfare system, but we also offer feasible solutions and practices.
This summer has been one of hectic highs and lows, but it has definitely been one of tremendous growth. From the ins and outs of just working in Los Angeles to producing quality journalistic pieces, I have learned so many valuable things that have reminded me to work hard and to stay humble. First and foremost, I have felt so inspired and humbled by the stories of the foster youth and at-risk youth whom I have met. I have never seen as much resilience as I have seen in them this summer. These youth have taught me to keep working hard even when you are at your lowest. My favorite quote from a former foster youth who now has his own course on resilience, was when he explained what resilience meant to him. “You hear that resilience is ability to bounce back, but I don’t believe it is. Here’s why, because if you have nothing but traumatic experiences as a child, what are you bouncing back to? I define resilience as the ability to go through adverse life experiences and still have a sense of hope for a better future, and have a strong belief in your abilities to get to that future. It is the hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel, even when all you have experienced is darkness.” I initially applied for this fellowship because I wanted to improve my writing and learn about juvenile justice. I am thankful to say that throughout these nine weeks I feel my writing has improved and my confidence in my work has increased. Coming in, I was very self-conscious about the work I would produce, but with continuous feedback and experience as well as reading the dense literature, I began to form a sense of confidence and appreciation for what words allow you to do. Meeting with these people made me realize that writing (no matter how eloquent) is a tool, and can have great ramifications. Meeting with different stakeholders in the justice system and learning about the stories of foster youth have given me a passion for advocacy through writing. I definitely think I am going to pursue where journalistic writing may take me. After this summer, I hope to bring back what I learned to discussions in classes. After all the research I have read, I am truly amazed that we have not once have talked about foster care policy or juvenile justice policy in class, and I want to change that. During my time as an undergraduate I also hope to work through the Stanford in Washington program advocating for foster youth and/or juvenile justice policy in some manner. The research I studied on juvenile justice is directly related to what I want to work in for the future. I want to be a juvenile public defender and I hope to use what I learned to better serve youth. I also hope to be able to help influence policy that is more research-based. I am really thankful for the relationships I formed at my organization. The group at FMC is a group of wonderful and supportive individuals. They fostered my growth and pushed me to my potential. They showed me that my words have worth if I believe in the power to say them and/or write them down.
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AuthorThis blog is authored by Stanford University students engaged in summer fellowships through the Cardinal Quarter and the Program on Urban Studies. All writings and thoughts belong to the Fellows and do not represent the opinion of the sponsoring programs. Archives
September 2018
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