Starting out, this yearlong internship was merely my best option after graduating college. The job market isn’t so hot right now for the recently graduated, but let’s also be honest and just admit that knowing how this opportunity lined up with my resume thus far, I knew it was my easiest option. Easiest, in the sense that I had a pretty good chance of getting the post, not easiest in it’s requirements for application. Essays cover letters, references, and resume. But that wasn’t necessarily the only lure of working for a non-profit. I personally glorify non-profit organizations and aid agencies. As you all may recall from my first post, in my first year of college, I saw myself as a high power corporate player or lawyer, then a couple years into college, I dreamt of making it into the United Nations. I have absolutely no idea how you get there or what exactly it as an entity does, but I wanted to be there and I wanted to be on top.
I have heard, read books and articles, and discussed the negativity around the idea of AID (not AIDS, AID, you know grants, money, help). I am no saint, and I have always had my doubts about certain things, but never when it came to this concept. Aid has always been a way to help, a form of relief and how could that ever have any negativity attached to it. Hmmm, maybe this process it not only leaving me confused about my life, but also creating the cynic within me. But, I have some bad news. Over the past few weeks, not only have we dealt with World War III in the office (there was a lot of arguing among everyone for a while there), but we have all come to an equal frustration towards grants and the headquarters of the organization we are working with.
For me it started with my doubt for practice 6, which I have discussed earlier, then it moved to a little doubt about the program itself. If anyone recalls their 6th grade days of D.A.R.E. you may understand where I am coming from. First, I must say this is weird for me because I am the 1 in 100 that actually took something from the D.A.R.E. and similar alcohol/drug related programs and assemblies and to this day I remain alcohol and drug free. The part that that must be noted is the 1 in 100. Another part worth noting is that I don’t believe that the reason I stand as the 1 in 100 has all that much to do with any of those seminars, programs, and lectures we had throughout school, but rather it has a lot more to do with a stern discussion my soccer team had with one of the best coaches and mentors I have ever had in my life.
According to research by Adolescent Substance Abuse Knowledge Base that “almost half of Americans aged 12 and older reported being current drinkers of alcohol in the 2000 survey (46.6 percent). This translates to an estimated 104 million people. Both the rate of alcohol use and number of drinkers were nearly the same in 2000 as in 1999 (46.4 percent and 103 million). It also shows that young adults aged 18 to 22 enrolled full-time in college were more likely than their peers not enrolled full-time to report any use, binge use, or heavy use of alcohol in 2000. Past month alcohol use was reported by 62.0 percent of full-time college students compared to 50.8 percent of their counterparts who were not currently enrolled full-time. Binge and heavy use rates for college students were 41.4 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively, compared with 35.9 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively, for other persons aged 18 to 22.” Additionally I found that 10% of Americans age 12 and older in 2000 had driven under the influence of alcohol at least once in the 12 month prior to the interview and of the youth aged 18-25, 19.9 percent has driven under the influence of alcohol in 2000.
First of all, I have to say, what 12 year olds are driving and driving under the influence no less? Now here is the rest of my discussion on this topic, the point I am trying to make and how this relates to GRS will follow shortly. I was a college student from the year 2006-2010, which in this modern day and age pretty much makes this research obsolete and while my shortage of access to the internet prevents further research, I will give you my personal interaction with alcohol in the last 8 years of my life. Out of all of the traveling I have done, all of the people I have met, I actually know 4 people who do not drink or do drugs at all, 4 out of about 500+ people that I know (I am talking about 500 people within the range of 16-30). That is .008% and that percent includes my brother, who like the other 3 people I believe is telling me the truth when he says they don’t drink of do drugs. Of the 99.992% of people in my life who do drink, I can say that a good amount of them are safe and socially responsibly drinkers, maybe to put a figure on it, 20-30%. So while statistics say one thing about alcohol and drug consumption my personal interaction with it paints a totally different picture. I cannot count the number of times I have been pressure to all different extents to drink, congratulated on my strength and decision for not drinking (though they could never do it is usually how that sentence ends), and was told that I am 1 of maybe 3 people maximum that they know that chooses not to drink or potentially, as has happened, the only one. Keep in mind that most Americans have gone through the D.A.R.E. program in their middle school years or a similar program and these are still the statistics.
Now maybe my own research is slightly skewed, as is all research, because while I choose not to drink or do drugs, I still enjoy going out to parties, bars, and clubs on occasion with friends. It definitely makes me the odd man out, but I like to show people that you can go out, be silly, dance, and have a good time, and still be able to drive yourself home sober when it is all over. So it is possible that 35% of college kids do not drink, but I would then have to guess that those students found each other and have decided to hide themselves from any college kids I’ve ever come into contact with.
Ok so now back to D.A.R.E and the point I was trying to make. In my mind, I have made a connection between the D.A.R.E. that a majority of middle school American students endure and the Grassroot Soccer Skillz Curriculum. While one drills safe social drinking and abstinence from drugs the other teaches safe sexual activity and just plain abstinence to stop the spread of a deadly disease (p.s. Alcoholism is a fatal disease and like AIDS you have to live with it for the rest of your life). Let’s see if you have started making any connections of your own. I am 1 in 100 from my school’s D.A.R.E. program (if that), so how can I not wonder how many children we are getting through to with our Skillz program. How much of difference are we really making in the HIV/AIDS game?
Right now I wish I had the anonymous quiz we gave to our newly hired coaches about their personal sexual behavior. I will try to get a hold of it, if it can be released. But, I say this because these are people who are teaching this curriculum, they are the voices of Skillz and they, like so many people, also engage in risky sexual behavior. Luckily/hopefully they keep this away from the kids they are teaching.
But still it makes me wonder, if oodles of information about HIV/AIDS and the position of role model in this fight cannot deter someone, then what will? I cannot help but look at this Skillz curriculum and think of its ineffectiveness due to the fact that I see so many underlying causes to the spread of HIV/AIDS, which we barely even touch on in the Skillz curriculum. Cultural norms (can’t touch them too much), age old alcohol abuse, lack of education, lack of foreseeable opportunities, a lack of a healthy social environments, not to mention a strange mix and split of first and third world, community and country leaders that do not practice what needs to be preached, and most importantly the slow disappearance of an entire generation that should be the parents and guardians of the current youth or the future.
Sometimes I see myself just getting more and more cynical and skeptical of the world around me as a learn more, but then I have to go back to that 1, that 1 in 100. Let me share with you a story that has touch me a few times over the past few years, some of you may have heard before: the Starfish Story.
“Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.
One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.
He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?" The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."
"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man. To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."
Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"
At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."
So, this is what I have to keep telling myself, that if I came out the 1 in 100, that someone else will probably emerge in the same position. And so, the fight continues, as slow and grueling as it can be and the fact that everyday, we never really get to see if the cause we are volunteering ourselves to is really having an impact.
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