{"id":20,"date":"2015-04-17T06:56:37","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T06:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/?p=20"},"modified":"2015-04-22T01:26:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T01:26:28","slug":"vocational-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/2015\/04\/17\/vocational-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Vocational Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

My name is Kate Lassalle-Klein, I am twenty-one years old, and I attend Santa Clara University. I grew up in the Bay Area, and have been greatly spoiled by the moderate weather of the East Bay. I am a dog-lover and the eldest sibling of three. I have always had faith in the world.\u00a0 I\u2019ve met people who think I\u2019m silly for thinking that or for being that optimistic; however, I digress. I am an optimist, yes, but my faith in goodness has proven to be the stronger of the two. Finally, I might sound like a typical SCU student when I say that the Jesuit education changed the trajectory of my life for the better, but that is completely true. My few years in college have been full of growth, life, and paradigm shifts.<\/p>\n

\"My
My family and I.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was raised being told to respect every human and her or his dignity. My father, a professor of theology and my mother, current technical writer at Cisco Systems, taught me how fun it is to be well-rounded and to foster different interests, not just one. Having these two parents also be former political and social justice activists and community organizers, I was raised and instilled with a sense of knowing that life is about more than just living for yourself. I never really knew what that meant until I was thrown into the experience.<\/p>\n

I have qualities of thinking logically and realistically, but I have shown myself to be an extremely empathy-oriented person. I was constantly told of the problems of our world, and how health care, food, and countless other basic necessities are not available to millions upon millions around the world, even in our own country. Even though I knew this, poverty was a concept that was hard to grasp, and was far away from my comfortable but humble home. Poverty was something I saw in commercials and heard about from my father, but I was still engrossed in my own world of young adult problems and personal issues. When I got to my second year of college, I decided it was time to step outside myself and try something.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A mural dedicated to the areas affected by the Salvadoran Civil War. “Para no olvidar” translates to “So as not to forget”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I applied for a grant to do volunteer work over the summer, and I was successfully funded. I lived in Suchitoto, El Salvador, to work at the Centro Arte Para la Paz (Art Center for Peace<\/em>) for Sr. Peggy O’Neill, where I was under the impression that I would be solely teaching art classes to young kids. However, I arrived and I was piled with a workload of classes involving English, arts and crafts, and computer skills, and I was assigned as the sole director of a mural that was to be transported and painted on by different schools around the area. Needless to say, my work was cut out for me in those two months. I then attended a week-long delegation with the Ignatian Solidarity Network and CRISPAZ (Christians for Peace in El Salvador) in San\u00a0Salvador, which was essentially an intensive class on the history and suffering of the people of El Salvador.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One section of the mural, painted by the women in a women’s cooperative. “No Mas Violencia Hacia las Mujeres” translates to “No more violence against women”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I could talk about my experiences in El Salvador for hours, or even days, but the overarching memory was the experience of poverty firsthand coupled with witnessing human suffering. Travelling out to el campo<\/em> to visit La Mora Canci\u00f3n El Zapote school every other day, taking the bus out to San Antonio school every day in between, dancing and yelling with my first, second, and third graders; I was connected to these children and to myself in a way I\u2019ve never experienced. My lack of Spanish was, for me, an extreme challenge; I felt true cultural isolation for the first time. To the kids, though, my broken Spanish was paid no heed. I was Profesora Cati.<\/p>\n

I was generously and humbly accepted into a beautiful culture that I peered at from the outside. I was pulled in not only by kindness, but also by a history that I could no longer ignore. I was swept into a world of evil and injustice; I\u00a0was shattered by what I learned. I cried for the pain of women and children killed mercilessly in massacres decades preceding me, and for the plight ofthousands who were ripped from their homes and from all they knew in the name of war. Injustice was no longer far away to me; it was placed directly in front of my face and permanently in my being. No more blissful ignorance.<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/a>
Me and my girls after a long day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I noticed, however, that as my heart broke more and more, it grew and let more in. The amount of pain that these humans were capable of overcoming and turning into something beautiful and truly good was mind-boggling. My faith blossomed.<\/p>\n

Being abroad on my own for the first time while simultaneously undergoing a life-changing paradigm shift was something I thankfully had time to reflect on afterward. I realize that I speak very, very often of El Salvador when I talk about my growth into who I am now, but there is no use in denying the fact that this is the experience that woke me up. Before, I was in a deep sleep. Now that I am awake, I never wish to fall back asleep again.<\/p>\n

This passion and faith is what has driven me and has caused many graces in my life to grow and multiply. \u00a0My intentions for doing well in school have been shaped into a cause; I know why I\u2019m doing what I\u2019m doing, because I know that my ultimate goal is to be a vessel of good works that will be in service of those suffering injustices. I have seen what it means to live for others, and that is what I hope for my future. I have interests and passions, and I am a blossoming feminist, theologian, engineer, artist, and more. After this calling to wake up, my life started to move in a good and exciting direction, one that I had faith in.<\/p>\n

However, I have left out one key aspect of my experiences of another culture and working in that culture. This was an integral part of my work there that I reflected on, and it has proven to be something extremely important that I\u2019ve taken away with me, which is this question: What did I actually do<\/em>? I grew and I experienced and I felt and I was moved. But even more realistically, I taught classes in a language I was not familiar with, and I directed a mural based on a culture that I was by no means an expert in. I received so much more than I actually gave. Now, I have been woken up, and that comes with more realizations: I not only realized that my ultimate purpose is to be a participant in the (seemingly never-ending) effort to end social injustices in the world, but I also know that no matter how much El Salvador meant to me, my life of service to others cannot be a repeat of what I did in that beloved country. I did no harm, really, but realistically, I was not informed enough, I accidentally took more than I gave, and I should have been more prepared. I am not ashamed or sad for my own uselessness; it was extremely humbling. But I am left, now, with the only remaining questions: What shall I do<\/em> and how shall I do it<\/em>?<\/p>\n

In the midst of applying to typical engineering internships, I was presented with the Global Social Benefit Fellowship. This fellowship offered an immersion into business knowledge, social entrepreneurship, and exposure to people who have this compassion as well as the skills and resources to actually make a difference. I was hesitant, as I was told by friends that going abroad two summers in a row might not be the best idea for my r\u00e9sum\u00e9, but I sensed that this fellowship was not just for people who craved experiences and adventure; rather, it seemed like it was for people who, like me, deeply wanted exposure to this world of shakers, movers, and game-changers, and who wanted to be trained and taught how one can really make positive change and eradicate poverty.<\/p>\n

Ikamva Youth in South Africa will be a completely new place with new challenges, tensions, and wonders. I am so passionate about education and what that can do for young people to build their own lives, and this is a perfect opportunity\u00a0where I can use my skills for engineering, communications, design, and marketing to some use. I have so much to learn, and I am an open sponge, ready to learn as much as I possibly can. I look forward so much to being in South Africa, and I already know from my excitement in the first three weeks of being a fellow that applying and accepting the fellowship was the right choice. Social entrepreneurs remind me why I have faith in the world, and inspire me that I can make a differencce. I can\u2019t wait for what\u2019s to come and for what more I have to learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My name is Kate Lassalle-Klein, I am twenty-one years old, and I attend Santa Clara University. I grew up in the Bay Area, and have been greatly spoiled by the moderate weather of the East Bay. I am a dog-lover and the eldest sibling of three. I have always had faith in the world.\u00a0 I\u2019ve … Continue reading Vocational Reflection<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1269,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Kate Lassalle-Klein","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/author\/katelassalle\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"My name is Kate Lassalle-Klein, I am twenty-one years old, and I attend Santa Clara University. I grew up in the Bay Area, and have been greatly spoiled by the moderate weather of the East Bay. I am a dog-lover and the eldest sibling of three. I have always had faith in the world.\u00a0 I\u2019ve…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}