CP Timesheet

Date	Field Work Hrs		Date	Work Related
2/23	Serving/Meeting 2 hrs		2/2	Certification 2 Hours
3/9	Serving/Meeting 3 hrs		2/20	Email/Scheduling 15 mins
3/16	Serving/Meeting 3 hrs		2/28	Presentation 2 Hours
3/23	Serving/Meeting 3 hrs		2/23	Travel 2 Hours 30 mins
4/6	Serving/Meeting 3 hrs		3/9	Travel 2 Hours 30 mins
4/13	Serving/Meeting 3 hrs		3/16	Travel 2 Hours 30 mins
			3/23	Research Project 2 Hours
4/20	Serving/Meeting 3 hrs		3/23	Travel 2 Hours 30 mins
			3/25	Survey Questioning 3 Hours
			4/6	Travel 2 Hours 30 mins
			4/6	Research Project 2 Hours
			4/13	Travel 2 Hours 30 mins
			4/13	Project Presentation 15 mins
			4/20	Travel 2 Hours 30 mins
			2/2 - 4/20	Blogs CP Related 1 Hour
Total	20 Hours		Total	31 Hours 15 Min

MVE Reflection

Brian Velasquez

Professor Andrews

PSC 2301 C 01

April 20, 2017

Reflection on Mission, Values, and Engagement

    The core values that Notre Dame de Namur represents are the seven hallmarks created by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to describe the community and the characteristics of what it means to be a student here in NDNU. Even if you are not religious, it reflects everyone’s personal values that they live by in their daily lives. The hallmarks of Notre Dame de Namur include:

• We proclaim by our lives even more than our words that God is good.
• We honor the dignity and sacredness of each person.
• We educate for and act on behalf of justice and peace in the world.
• We commit ourselves to community service.
• We embrace the gift of diversity.
• We create community among those with whom we work and with those we serve.
• We develop holistic learning communities which educate for life.

    Out of the seven, the one hallmark that pertains mostly to my belief is that “we educate for and act on behalf of justice and peace in the world.” That resonates to my personal beliefs because it ow I envision the world to be. Justice is to be fair and abide by the rules that we have accepted to be part of society. With peace we treat everybody with respect and recognize ourselves as one race, the human race. Despite our reality and cruelty that exist, we can still make a better place to live one step a time.  

    “To honor the dignity and sacredness of each person” can be easily applied with my citizen participate that I had a part of for this class. With Table of Plenty, I was able to look more in depth with the people around the community. The community that I served were no longer just low income families, minorities, or the homeless. Every single person who came had decency, were polite and humble. It became a place where all the societal pressure were forgotten and connected with one another through a plate full of food and a prayer. Organizations that help their local community gives you sense of the many different backgrounds that exist. A person’s identity has more meaning when you communicate with one another. My time at Table of Plenty has heighten the career path that I wished to take. In doing so, I will be able to help people who struggle with the law. It will be my way of giving back to the community once I become a lawyer. Teaching me to approach and become more friendly with other people.

    I virtual have no problems with the community here on the campus of Notre Dame de Namur. The problem I do face is my communication with many different people. Due to my highly distrust of others, it has hinder me to become more friendly and an avid participant in class discussions. I can hold a conversation with others and I don’t have a fear of public speaking. I mostly prefer to listen to the many different ethical values that every person has. In terms of sharing my ideas and values to others is not a problem within small groups. I am still used to values that I was taught before, which was to speak when it is your turn. This causes me to struggle when the class is structured to speak freely at any given period during class time. With Table of Plenty, it has taught me to be more open to communicate with the people at my table. Most of the time, the table I served has a language barrier. Many of them understand, but do not speak english. Despite this challenge, I was still able to understand what they like to drink, eat, and other services that would like me to fulfill to make their time at Table of Plenty to be pleasurable. My first time at Table of Plenty, I was very shy. I did not want to serve people because I had to speak with each guest. Overtime I gained confidence and was not afraid to interrupt a conversation to serve food. I had to be patience with myself and allow time to let me be more open to others. So how can I apply this experience in a classroom environment? I need to motivate myself to just talk and stop thinking constantly. Raise my hand to ensure that everyone knows that I would like to speak and share what I have to say. Especially with the career choice that I want, I need to communicate more frequently. I need to be able to have meaningful discussions with not just a small group, but with a greater amount of people.

    With the applied learning experience with classes that I have taken here in NDNU, I became more aware with the problems that we face in world, yet most of us tend to ignore issues until it is too late the address the problem. In terms of applying my knowledge out into the world, I have yet to approach any opportunity. I need to be more active in my communities. Most of classes only have benefitted myself, but I do wish to be able to teach and pass on the knowledge to others.

    I define diversity to be more open to the wide variety of backgrounds that may student have here in the campus of NDNU. Whether it’s their political preference, sexual orientation,  gender, ethnicity, religion and many other identities. With the open environment in NDNU, everyone embraces the many differences that make us unique from each other. There are certain ideas that many do not wish to talk about and it can be hard to get a voice out there to tell everyone what is going on. We just have to take baby steps into understanding the diversity of values that are constantly changing.

    I was able to create a sense of community with my professor during my time here in NDNU. Building relationships with instructors was something that I was never able to do since I was an independent study student for most of my education. Just having simple conversation and being recognized by other professors in new to me and makes me feel safe and more engaged in their teachings. As for students, the many that I grew close to was due to class engagements. Performing an activity with my fellow classmates break the barrier for me to become more open and have a decent conversation with them.

    With my citizen participation, I was able to strengthen my weakness by becoming more open to other individuals within my community. Just connecting with members of my community, students, and professors has boosted my confidence to be more trusting. The skills of communication will help me in the future as it will allow me to better articulate my ideas and values to a wider audience.

Chapter 12 Taxing and Spending

My community partner, Table of Plenty, is a non-profit organization. Many of its funding comes from grants and donations made by the public or any other entity. The money provided goes into the mission of Table of Plenty, which is to feed and serve struggling families, seniors, and the homeless in a non tradition way.

Table of Plenty is unique by creating a warm and welcoming dining experience. Every guest is treating with a healthy nutritious meal and a freshly baked dessert, served with a smile. The funding for Table of Plenty fluctuates depending on the amount of donations it has received. It does not have a reliable source of income, but this is not a concern.

As many of the volunteers at Table of Plenty provide their own services at no cost, but their own and its for the benefits of the community.  There will be some days where a member of the community will pay for the expenses and help out. With this in mind, this organization heavily relies on its volunteers rather than its funding. Without any volunteers, there will be no one to serve, cook, or clean.

Chapter 8 Public Administration: Budgeting & Service Delivery

For my CP, Table of Plenty, gets many of it funding through grants, donations, and other charitable means to provide a nutritious meal for its guests that come in once a week. Approximately sixty to a hundred people come in every week. Table of Plenty is purely non-profit and no gets paid to do anything. Many of the the volunteers in Table of Plenty provide their own contributions to cause of Table of Plenty whether it be baking or serving, to creating a centerpiece filled with fresh cut flowers that they grow in their garden. Everyone helps out in their own way. Everyone that volunteers act upon the hallmark that "we commit ourselves to community service," and "create a community among those with whom we work and with those we serve."Everyone treats other like family it a place free from discrimination and other unjustly behavior. Most of the money is invested in foods, making sure that they have enough food to feed. The money given is purely given back to community.

Local Government Structure and Leadership

Half Moon Bay is small city where my community partner resides in operating their services to feeding family and other members of the community. The city has a city council consist  of five members that the residents vote for. The purpose of the city council is to set policies and plan the developments of the city. There are no term limits and many of the member rotate their responsibilities. Table of Plenty cooperates with other nonprofit organizations with similar goals such as food banks, food pantries, churches, and other social service organizations. Table of Plenty builds a relationship with its clients, ensuring that everyone has a place there.  

State Legislature

Not every State complies with every policy the Federal Government puts out as it conflicts with their values, especially of the communities the State represents. States reserved their powers for this. California is a democratic state and one of it values it solely protects is a residency that illegal immigrants can shelter to in order to avoid deportation. These are called sanctuary cities and recently been under attacked with the pressure of the Presidential executive order that denies funding for sanctuary cities. States are now taking action to fight this executive order by suing the US president for denying States rights.

Time Sheet

State Constitution

Constitutions at the state/local level are indeed inferior to the US Constitution, but it grants powers to the state that US Constitution could not do. To protect the civil rights of citizens. Recently President Trump has signed off an executive order to crack down on illegal immigrants, especially those who committed crimes and pose threat to the public's safety. Trump has stated that "Sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States willfully violate Federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States," because of this, he is actively against Sanctuary Cities. Threatening cities to be cut from federal funding. Many mayors with the support of its citizens, choose to uphold their rights. This is still in the process of legal battles, arguing the executive order is in violation the Tenth Amendment, protecting the rights of state sovereignty. 

Subsidiary and Proper Role of Government

I define Subsidiary as to give aid or support to those who need it.

In comparisons between our textbook and the CST reading, they are intertwined with one another. In the textbook, it refers to the word devolution, which is "The delegating of powers and programs from the federal to state and local government." The CST reading uses the term subsidiary as "The assistance of one another in bringing out the best outcomes for all people." 

Since there are different levels of government, each have their own role to fulfill that the other can not attribute. The role of the local government is to ensure the public administration of towns, cities, counties and districts. We interact more with our local government than state and federal. There problems that only the local government can address depending on the constituent complaints such as the ordering of more speed bumps in residential areas since the speed of traffic dangers the lives of pedestrians. State and Federal governments draw the line on what we can and can not do. The needs and wants of the people is different from each location, therefore it is essential for local governments to exist. 

Citizen Participation PSC 2301

As a citizen, my most common practice of participating in my government is voting. I vote in hopes of getting an official that I see who is fit to govern, but there's more to it. Government is suppose to serve and represent its own citizens.

Beneficial or complications occur depending in the relationship between the two. There are constructive ways such as actively contacting officials in discussing political issues or voicing your own opinion in hopes to demonstrate for the common good. Participation of citizens for their government can be low due to number of factors such as: neglect and/or avoidance. Neglect is basically the non participation of citizens or officials in the government. When either party feels there is nothing to do to fix the problem or lack of trust. There are times when citizen fail to voice their opinion and who rather opt out for other solutions outside of government help.

Depending on the majority of citizens, it can impact my life. I am more of neglectful citizen as much of political issues do concern me, but I feel I have a lack of power in knowing my voice will not make a change. I mostly see issues in a realist perspective, thinking that participation only occurs in the interest of individuals.

Quote Response PSC 2301

On the first day of class, we opened with a quote that was from a poem by Rumi called "There is a field."

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, 

there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass, 

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”

doesn’t make any sense.”

From my own understanding, this quote is about the state of mind or a physical place where we are free. Unblocked from ignorance and judgement, we begin to think of the bigger picture rather than being narrow-minded. Life becomes more rich and vast as we struggle to understand the meaning of it. 

In relation to the class, I should not only learn the basic inner-workings of the Government at the State and local level, but begin to apply my newly found knowledge to the world.

Tensions Between State and Local Government PSC 2301

The tensions between state and local levels of government occur due to different needs and opinions to solve conflicts. On the local level, many try to assert their control over policy making in representation of what the residents want as a little change can impact the community. On the State level, they seek to uniformity, in the best interest for all communities in the State. The conflict between the two have some benefits.

For one it gets more residents in one community to participate more in political conflict. Being able to effectively communicate and voice their concerns. Each district in a State vary in needs of policy. For example, the central parts of California are in dire need of water due to the weather conditions, such as the drought. Whereas the northern parts of California may be in concern of flooding in dense populated areas, affecting public transportation.