Hello welcome all, Bienvenidos a todos
Hello, my name is José Luis Villa Huerta. I'm a senior at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln studying Economics, Spanish, and Political Science with a certificate of Public Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation. I was born in Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico and came to the United States in 1999. I grew up in a small town in Iowa. My family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 2011 at the start of my freshman year of high school. I have lived in Lincoln since. I am happy to call Lincoln my home.
I have had the privilege of working with the non-profit organization of Civic Nebraska for an independent study with Professor Velázquez in the Spanish department at the university. Civic Nebraska is an organization that works to create stronger communities and make democratic institutions more readily available to all Nebraskans. During my time at this organization I worked under the supervision of José Lemus, Collective Impact Lincoln Community Organizer, to develop and incorporate the skills that I have acquired at the university to get some first-hand experience with policy work, utilize my bilingualism, and overall professional development.
After my undergraduate education, I plan to give back to my city by finding a job where I can serve my community to see a direct impact in the lives of people who are affected by the issues that the city faces. I plan to spend more time in Latin America to develop and strengthen my Spanish to better communicate and express my ideas and thoughts. After a couple of years out of school, I would like to return to attempt a postgraduate in public policy or attend law school.
The work at Civic Nebraska
From September 12th to December 7th I had worked at Civic Nebraska as a Collective Impact Lincoln Intern. For my final in the independent study, I was to have a concrete project of what it was I was trying to achieve during my time at this organization. A city faces many issues, and unfortunately for me, I only had a semester at this organization to choose what issue I wanted to focus on. The best way to understand the problems that a city faces is to go out and speak with the individuals who live and work in Lincoln to see what they feel needs to be addressed and worked on.
We had worked in specifically three neighborhoods in the city of Lincoln; Hartley, University Place, and Clinton. A reoccurring issue that I had observed over the countless hours that were spent canvassing the neighborhood, attending community meetings, and during the attempts to create a more tight-knit community, I had heard stories of people wanting to address the issue of affordable housing.
Given my limited time at the organization, I wanted to find a way I could address the issue of affordable housing to bring awareness to something that affects so many of the residents of Lincoln. After much thought, I had decided to facilitate a "Dish It Up" event with the approval of OASIS. On November 20th at the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center I had facilitated and started the talk over affordable housing. I wanted to have the conversation and make people feel comfortable to speak about affordable housing and how it has affected their lives and others living in Lincoln. Being able to share experiences is the first step in bringing awareness to an issue not talked about.
Being an independent study for the department of Spanish I had to write reflections and weekly reports back to Professor Velázquez in Spanish to work on the development of my writing for a professional setting.
You can see the development from my first report of weekly activities and the gradual changes I made as compared to the later weeks.
At first, I was very optimistic about the things I could achieve with an organization like Civic Nebraska that supported me. It was very naive of me to think that I would be able to solve all of Lincoln's problems, big or small, in a single semester. Organization was always the key point to identify problems and find solutions to those problems. I discovered that the problems that I think might be important may not be the problems that the community needs to address. I am an individual who lives in the city of Lincoln. I have my own experiences and my own problems. My experiences paint a small part of the picture of the problems facing the city of Lincoln. If I had to base community projects and policies based on my experiences, it would be a very inexperienced way of solving the problems of the city.
Looking at a single perspective is a sure way to fail. That's why communication with people is such an important step in solving the problems that a community needs to address. We can speculate all day on what topics we think are important, but until we go out and talk to the community, we can never have a true knowledge of the problems of a city. I feel frustrated with the work I have done. I can tell you the things I've learned and the progress I've made, but I can not tell you where all this leads. The final product evades me in what I want to do, how I compile all the conversations, meetings, articles read, activities carried out and reflections written in a single product to show everything I have achieved and learned in Civic Nebraska. I felt the lack of direction around the midpoint of the semester.
Perspective Shift
I feel that my growth during this independent study has given me a broader perspective of the world and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to have the experience of working with a nonprofit organization. Going to the community and talking to people where I can see the work that needs to be done and create a plan of action is a breath of fresh air from the usual office work environments that I have become accustomed to. I do not think that this particular experience has helped me find the exact purpose of my life and my career yet, but it helped me move towards the right direction to know myself and my future goals, I enjoy seeing the improvement of life and I love helping people if I am able to do it.
What I learn and how it helped me!
This Independent study has helped develop my Spanish. I had translated the Civic Nebraska website. I spoke with members of the Latino Community and in assisting classes for parents who were taking English courses. My biweekly meeting with professor Velázquez had helped me to change the level of professionalism that I use in my language, whether it be a job interview or speaking with a close friend. The "registro" changes depending on who you talk with and I had struggled with that in the past. Working with this organization, I have taken the initial steps to fully developing that crucial skill of using the appropriate language for my audience.
Professionally I spoke with a career coach who had helped me find a way to present my work at Civic Nebraska so that I would become a more attractive candidate for future employers. We had also reconstructed my entire resume just further developing the professional skills that I had acquired.
Finally, I have what I learned in the final reflection that encapsulates the most important ideas. My experience with this organization isn't something you can learn in a classroom; you can only learn these life skills by immersing yourself in the community you live. Your future career should be one that you enjoy and can see growth in, perspectives are essential to finding out the root causes of communities, change takes time and effort, and the professional growth that someone experiences throughout college shouldn't be a waste of time, these have been the significant ideas that kept reoccurring during this semester.
Special thanks to José Lemus, Isabela Velázquez Ph.D. , Adam Morfeld JD, and all the staff at Civic Nebraska who had assisted me through my time with the organization.