In the beginning, the way in which our service learning project was described was somewhat unclear. Not unclear in the sense that I didn't understand it, but more in the vein of not knowing what to expect or what I would eventually be doing. However, as the semester rolled on, bits and pieces of the extent of this project revealed themselves.
How I actually decided on the legal side of foster care I do not fully remember. I guess that I just have a natural interest in the judicial process. The work that attorneys do fascinates me; although, I can't say that it's something I myself would want to do. Learning about the legal system, though, is very interesting to me. So from there it just became a matter of tackling foster care through the eye of the law. That is how I was connected with Ann Benjamin, an attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP. Her firm's pro bono program work with many nonprofit organizations, Kids Matter being one of them. The cases that Ann has worked for Kids Matter were both those of guardianship. So naturally, the concept of process of guardianship became the focus of my final project. That is what Ann knew and talked about in great detail, so I had an incredible primary source of information regarding this topic. For me, having someone who is directly involved in this process is much more insightful and helpful than perhaps just reading about what happens in these cases. I had two interviews with Ann at her firm, and both times I walked away knowing more than I thought I could about legal guardianship. Listening to her tie in her own real life examples and experiences was fascinating. When you're actually able to listen to someone talk about they've lived firsthand, everything becomes all the more engaging.
As far as the artistic process of assembling and organizing the final project and blog, I tried to keep things simple and easy to follow. At the outset, I could not foresee the technical problems I would encounter, so I had planned on a more involved video than what I actually ended up with. The idea to focus the video on the Children's Court came late in the process. It really arose when Ann talked about it in detail - her husband was one of the designers of the building. Since I decided to make my video about the court, I needed to use the rest of my gathered information in some other way. I had recorded a lengthy audio clip of Ann speaking about the process of guardianship - how begins, is carried out, and how it ends. I didn't want to not use any of that, as it was all very interesting and important. So I ended up creating a few separate audio clips linked to the blog. Someone can simply click on the text for the audio, and then listen to Ann's descriptions. This method worked well for me, and I think (next to having more video) this was the best option to go with.
Overall, I can truly say that I learned an incredible wealth of information about my topic. I previously had no real knowledge about foster care, especially any legal implications. So this project and this course as a whole really opened my mind to topics that I had never thought about before. I think that the foster care system and its ideology are very important in our society; the work it does for and the help that it gives to children in need cannot be measured. And it is the people, whether it's someone like Ann or someone directly involved with a child, that allow this system to do what it does.
No comments:
Post a Comment