The Rally Call Blog

Note: This story was submitted to the Rally Call Blog through the Center for Civic Engagement by Obie James. This might be a good time for us to state that the opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana - Bloomington and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

The Power of the Vote

I was honored to see the 42nd President of the United States, William J. Clinton speak at Indiana University on April 2, 2008. It was a profound experience and although Mr. Clinton only spoke for a little over an hour, it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life! It is events of this magnitude; forums at the Monroe County Library, rallies with Presidential Candidates, and the O’Bannon Institute, that I instinctively sensed where out there, just outside of my reach while I served in the military and after.

Even though I write now on the importance of voting, I was not always as inspired by my civic duty to do so. Lack of political will to combat problems of drugs and poverty in my home town of Detroit seemed to indicate that my voice was but a whisper thrown against the roar of a turbulent political ocean.

President Clinton speech reminded me that political will is renewable.

It reminded me that voting is not a civic right, it is a civic duty.

And finally, President Clinton’s speech reminded me that not only am I beholden to the forefathers of our great country, but as an African-American man I am also beholden to a community of grandmothers, grandfathers and grandaunts and uncles, who sacrificed their safety to ensure that we all would have the opportunity to exercise equality.

Note: This story was submitted to the Rally Call Blog through the Center for Civic Engagement by Ivy Tech student Traci Martin.

Community service is something I hold dear and I enjoy. I was excited to find a new facet of community service through Rebecca South, Psychiatric Nursing Instructor. She allowed me to write a paper about a not-so-traditional form of alopecia that my ‘tween daughter suffers from. It was through this paper that hope to educate others about the illness, but more importantly to provide hope and encouragement for others that have this disorder or have a family member suffering. This article can be found at http://www.bloomington.ivytech.edu/nursingdb/

- T. Martin

Note: This story was submitted to the Rally Call Blog through the Center for Civic Engagement by Ivy Tech student Gina Blondell.

This semester for service learning I took my children to the Bloomington Community Kitchen where we got to prepare and serve food to the homeless. My children had never experienced anything like it. They were nervous at first, but after they said they were so glad they did it. This not only served the community, but the benefit my family got out of it was so very valuable. My sixteen-year-old had such a good experience that he ask the staff at the Community Kitchen if he could come back and bring some friends to help out! They, of course, said yes!The second thing I did was write a paper, more like a letter, to future psych students about the actual psych rotation. I actually worked in psych for nine months as a nurse intern and a nurse/psych tech. I absolutely loved my experience while working there and my experiences during the psych rotation. I wanted to let the students know that it is not a place to be feared, that most of the patients on the unit are just people that have undergone things in their lives that they could just not effectively cope with. I also want students to know that the staff is by far the best staff I have ever worked with in a rotation setting and I know others that feel the same way. My paper encourages students to look at this as an opportunity to fine tune their skills and be able to pick up on things that can help their patients throughout their nursing careers no matter what unit they are working on.

Gina Blondell,

Ivy Tech ASSN 2008