Category: Experiential Reflections Page 4 of 5

Experiential Reflections Week 1

On February 15, 2024

Our first visit to the detention center was very different from my initial expectations. I imagined us all in one large room with all the juveniles and dividing into small groups for discussion. We did end up splitting up into groups, however, we were split up into separate classrooms with little guidance as to what activities to do with the juveniles. Luckily, Professor Dolson told us on the ride there some of the questions we may ask as a group. For example, “What is your favorite movie.” Although the beginning of our visit was unorganized, we were able to straighten things out once we started conversing with the students.

During Will S. and I’s conversation with the juveniles (9th and 10th graders) I did my best to make the environment feel as casual as possible. I could tell by making eye contact with the juveniles that they were uncomfortable with newcomers, especially people closer to their age. By the end of the visit, however, the students seemed to be very comfortable with us, and I began to feel very comfortable talking to them as well. Another factor that played a role in our communication was that all the students wore masks. I would’ve wished to see their facial expressions and what they actually looked like, but like I stated earlier, I analyzed how comfortable the group felt by their eyes. Some of them looked very curious, others looked relaxed, and some eyes wandered around the classroom giving off the sense of being uncomfortable.

Some topics of strong conversation were music and art. For 20 minutes, our group shared their taste in music. Most of them connected with each other through which songs they liked. One student particularly was very passionate about music, so much so that he would sing all the verses to multiple different songs. With the limited amount of activities available to them, music seemed like a very strong coping mechanism. Along with that, was the student’s interest in anime, whether it be drawing or watching. When Will and I had mentioned the Book art studio, most of the group seemed excited to make a song, or use their artistic gifts to tell stories. As you spend more time with the students you begin to grow empathy for them because in a social setting, they’re sociable, funny, and charismatic.

One last observation I made from the visit was of the detention center itself. Although it had some elements of a prison, like the barbed wire above the basketball hoop outside, I came to understand that they prioritize education. The prison felt close to a public school with pictures and posters on the walls. Rehabilitation is a heavy focus considering that the prison did its best to make the center more welcoming with murals.

Week 1 Reflection

By Mitchell Parker

On February 15, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, Mitch

Even though the first in-person visit to the detention center was chaotic and unexpected, it still felt great to interact with those that I’ll end up working with for the next few weeks. We didn’t talk much about stories (or stay on-topic much at all), but I liked the freedom I was able to have. Beyond just talking about college life and payment logistics, all three of them discussed happiness in their lives and within the detention center, more so among themselves than specifically at me. I was extremely grateful for the laid back atmosphere of everyone in the room; the students, teacher, and security guard all contributed to making me and each other feel comfortable in the face of that new experience for all of us. The most important thing I could take away from the whole interaction was how self-aware the students were. They knew their situation, and knew not to get themselves too down about it. They knew everyone makes mistakes, and that everyone comes from different experiences. I’m so glad I wasn’t too sick to make it.

2/09/2024 – Detention Visit 1

By Nicholas Javier

On February 10, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, Javier

Upon arriving at the detention center, it was a bit of a different experience than I was expecting. Part of what was additionally shocking to me was the subtle reminders of where they were, such as the barbed wires in the yards. It brings to reality that although this place is a school, it is also a much darker place than that. I love the murals within the location, but at the same time, it’s not particularly easy to overlook them in the face of the rest of the details, like their rather limited rooms.

My group was a certainly interesting batch. Two of them, J and K (I don’t exactly know how to spell it) seemed to be the jokesters of the group, and although things were tense at times with the teachers, they seemed friendly enough. The others in the group such as the pair of Jhs were a bit quieter but they seemed to interact alright with one another. They were generally dismissive of the project rather than open to it, and maybe part of it was that I had not adequately prepared, as I was not expecting 5 students at once.

Interestingly enough, one of the other teachers in the room seemingly had experience with the book-making project before and produced a past copy that she distributed for them to read. They did not exactly take it seriously, but they seemed to still be having fun. I think their age group is around 17, maybe a year younger. They seem like bright kids, but part of their attitudes shows that they really aren’t taking the project seriously, so hopefully I can change their minds about that.

Detention Center Week 1 Reflection

By Kristine Nguyen

On February 10, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, kristine

The first thing I noticed when pulling up was the court building next to the detention center, which we were told was connected so that’s how I knew we had arrived. I was a bit surprised at how we needed permission to enter each doorway we came across. While the atmosphere made it clear it was a detention center, I liked how there was art and paint on the walls and doors which made it feel less so. The staff were friendly but when it came time to separate me, the only girl, from everyone else, I was a bit nervous. I entered a classroom with three girls and was immediately unsure what to do. I sat down feeling out of my depth but tried my best to smile. I was definitely thrown for a loop because being separated was not in our expectations for how this would go.

I talked with one girl who I had a good time chatting with. At first we didn’t even talk about stories, but our interests and college life. She was very curious about college life and my major. We had an animate discussion about books because we both love reading. We both like sci-fi and talked about some of that genre. I can tell she loves learning and she told me about her ambitions for college. When we did talk about stories, she followed the storytelling model perfectly. I went first and talked about something hard I did for the first time, which was working out. She followed up with a story about roller blading.

While I had a rough start, I felt much more confident by the end and although I didn’t talk much to the other two girls in my group, I enjoyed talking with one of them. I think my group is more willing to do storytelling so I think I can handle it myself in the next few weeks. As I left, I said goodbye to my partner and said I hoped to see her again next week and she said I would. It is my hope that my presence brightens up their day as we continue visiting.

Post-Visit Thoughts

By William Sheets

On February 9, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, Will S

I do think our first day at the detention center could have used a little more structure to it. Brice and I spent time with five 9th and 10th graders. We talked about our project and the structure of what we were going to do over the course of the five weeks, but that only took up a little bit of our time. After that, we just talked with them about a bunch of random topics like music and college life. It was actually pretty fun and the kids seemed like they were having a good time, but I think it would be really hard to create a storytelling project with the group as is. I think if we plan activities that can fill the time we’re there it can take away some of the problems we might potentially run into if we leave the project so unstructured. Some of the kids in our group seemed to express an interest in graphic novels, so I think our best bet might be to focus on that as a means for our storytelling project. We could use markers, pencils, and other craft supplies and have the artistic kids pair with some of the less artistically inclined kids. We would have to see if having one big group graphic novel or multiple small groups works better, but I think one of those would be our best option.

a few observations of the first day at Henrico

By Theresa Dolson

On February 7, 2024

In Dolson, Experiential Reflections, Uncategorized

I was surprised by how different the justice complex looked in the dark, and I had trouble finding my way to the right building entrance. And then when I had to get Angelos from the other side of the campus, I was glad I had driven my car! SO the beginning of the night got my adrenaline going, but in a way that was actually helpful.

I was most surprised at this: some of the youth who are there have been taken there into “protective custody” because of violence or abuse at home. And they are in the same mix with violent offenders and non-violent offenders. They are all just young humans who have experienced more than their fair share of trauma. But It made me think how hard it would be to work as one of the guards/guides there. I wonder what they think of as their goal with these short-term visitors with different issues…

I was pleased the youths there warmed up quickly to the idea of stories. As always, I was impressed by the intelligence and curiosity of many of the kids. I didn’t get to hear many stories as I bounced from room to room, but I saw lots of good sharing going on. Hearing Haven and Angelos’ stories in the car on the way back about the kinds of stories the girls told was very interesting. Looking forward to reading more in everyone’s posts.

1st Day at the Detention Center (Feb 6, 2024)

By Kaylee Wyrick

On February 7, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, Kaylee

Our first day at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center was great. I was looking forward to it all day and I was very happy with the experience. When we arrived, the many locked doors and checkpoints were a little jarring. It started to sink in more that the kids we were meeting with really didn’t want to be there and this was highlighted during our mini-orientation. We talked with a worker and he explained that we needed to be careful with the kids because at the end of the day, they allegedly committed a crime to be there, and they might try to take advantage of our age and kindness. The importance of not giving them a pen or pencil was also stressed which made sense, but it set the tone a little darker. We also were informed that we had to split into groups because one of the female juvenile participants had triggers when it came to being with a large group, and about 7 to 8 juvenile boys decided to take part in the program yesterday. This reminded me of how “the body keeps the score”

I ended up talking with the male participants, which I was nervous about at first because I wasn’t sure how well we could relate and whether or not they would take me seriously. I was wrong, and everyone was extremely attentive and nice. We went around the room and introduced ourselves, and we asked the boys about their dreams. Many wanted to stay in school, pursue carpentry, or be musicians. Many of them also mentioned that they hoped they never ended up back at the center, because for many this was not their first time. We eventually moved on to more storytelling, and I was grouped with two boys. I asked them to tell me about a time they were proud. One of the boys explained a football game where he scored 4 touchdowns, but the other boy felt that he didn’t have any proud moments and started to share some more personal feelings and stories. I was thankful that they shared and had a nice time talking to them.

I noticed how young many of the boys were. We were told that the center housed kids from ages 11 to 17. The boys I met with were on the older side of that, closer to 15 or 16. One of the boys was 16 and had two full sleeves of tattoos and neck pieces, which was suprising to me. When talking to the other boy I worked with I noticed that he talked to himself a lot and repeated certain phrases over and over. He was the one who shared some more personal details with me and I once again was reminded of the reading from “The Body Keeps the Score”. The boys were called to take medicine right before we left, and as we said goodbye I asked one of the workers if it was ok to shake the boy’s hands, and I was told that fist bumps were preferred. I gave the boys fist bumps and invited them to meet again if they were still at the center next Tuesday.

Prep Note 02/07

By Angelos Charalampos Bouras

On February 7, 2024

In Angelos, Experiential Reflections

It was fascinating! There are so many things that surprised me and made me reflect yesterday. First of all, I was concerned that the teenagers would not be willing to share information with us but in reality, they were really curious about listening to our stories from people from the “outside”. Moreover, I had the preoccupation that they would not be willing to change their lifestyle, and to a large extent that is not true. On one hand, they do have a really specific lifestyle that is different than ours but that does not make it less valid or less normal. In reality, they also wanted to have more freedom like traveling, being outside, and studying but not have the same lifestyle as us, we grew up different, we have different values, and priorities in life and that is ok.

Regarding the stories that one of them shared, I was surprised how quickly they would reach serious topics in depth. One of them shared how she used to have arguments with her mother and escape the house late at night and once she got caught and run over by the police who stopped her with electric shock since she was carrying a knife. She wanted to focus on how the police were treating her, how unfair and scary it was but I kept wondering how did she end up there? Why would she have the need to fight with her mother, threatening her to leave the house and carry a knife? She also shared how she was homeless for a while, transferring from hostel to hostel and shelter to shelter and eventually, she grew up because of her siblings. She is so close with them that she would get into physical fights with other kids to protect her little brother. She also shared one attempt of kidnapping that she experienced while she was young.

One of the most surprising things was the attitude toward their sayings. The laughter was loud and constant even during serious topics like kidnapping, family abuse, fights, and policing. They would switch from laughing, to sharing something serious and then laughing again. My assumption is that this is their coping mechanism that is developed to protect themselves especially when taking into consideration how young they started being involved with crime. Overall, I was reflecting on how different life can be a few miles away from us, how privileged we are, and how context like family and environment is significant!

Prep Note 01/30

By Angelos Charalampos Bouras

On January 30, 2024

In Angelos, Experiential Reflections, prep note

The book provided me with many different insights regarding trauma and healing especially for the younger age that is determining for the development of character. One of the most fascinating characteristics of the book was the explanation of different behaviors and characteristics through the use of social sciences and mostly psychology. Moreover, all the claims were supported by real life examples that did not just make the book more appealing but also provided a better understanding to the reader. Through the use of examples, studies and scientific approach, behaviors that are hard to be approached through logic or common sense are explained with details providing useful information not only to people suffering from traumas but everyone!

Class Reflection 10/19

By Haven Buechner

On October 23, 2023

In Experiential Reflections, Haven

Before class, I had already done some research on the burial ground for the annotated bibliography assignment, so I knew it would not look like a traditional cemetery due to the decades of development and destruction that the land had experienced. I didn’t quite know what to expect, since my research had stopped before the land was completely recovered for the purpose of historical preservation.

During class, I took a picture of the burial ground as an expanse of land. I wrote on my index card that the telephone poles sticking out of the grass reminded me of the pictures we see sometimes of floods, where water covers everything and the telephone poles are the only signs that people had existed at all. I wonder if that could be connected to the burial ground as well – we can’t physically see the evidence of what happened in the space because it was covered up, but there’s a presence there that almost alludes to it, in a way. I’ll quote myself from Thursday: “In the absence of the physical representation of the structure (the lack of a traditional cemetery landscape), there was a ghostly type of presence. A ‘presence’ in and because of the absence.” People can be remarkably perceptive – we can notice the slightest shift in physical conditions, but we also pick up on intuitive or social changes. I think the space has enough of an ethereal (ghostly? spectral?) presence to affect even someone who visited without knowing its history.