FOSTERING PERSPECTIVE: Institute for Service Learning

May 3, 2009 Zelazzo Center for the Performing Arts

Richard Meadows, Dean UWM College of Letters and Science

Vicki and Me

The man who supports me through all my endeavors

Artist's Statement

JANUARY was the month that our class was told of our service project and subject that we would be working on for the semester. That was 5 months ago. It seems so long ago, and yet the time flew by. What were the chances that the area we would be doing research for and raise awareness of, would be foster care? There are so many worthy causes that could've been our focus, but it was foster care. I was pretty happy. This is a subject I was very interested in and had no problem wanting to do. I love children, I love working with children, learning about children, and helping children. Even more exciting was the fact that we were given freedom to go in any direction we wanted with fostering. Since I am interested in fostering, myself I wanted to meet and interview the foster parents to learn how and why they decided to foster.

FEBRUARY I emailed Megan Bruzan at Kids Matter, Inc for the name(s) of a foster family who would be interested in talking to me. This was the first problem, allbeit small, I encountered. It took me until the beginning of March to make contact with Anne Novotny, but once I did I realized pretty quick that she was the perfect person for me to be paired with. Meanwhile, before our interview, I was learning in class (and intently listening) the best way to interview, photograph, and film my subject. I needed to take this all in, I do not take pictures or film. I felt very confident in my interview abilities, but anything with technology is hard for me. March 17th was one of the first beautiful, warm days Milwaukee county saw in 2009. It set the backdrop for my interview with Anne. She was decked out in green for St Patrick's Day she sat in "her" chair in front of a bright, plain, neutral colored wall (perfect for the film), next to pictures of all of her foster/adopted children. The sun peaked in from the window to her right--so no extra lighting was needed. The room was quiet so the sound was perfect, no mic needed. We spoke for two hours, much of it was personal and mainly questions that I wanted ansered for myself. The video was perfect, I was ecstatic. She answered all the questions I had researched and then some.

MARCH our first assignment was a Powerepoint of pictures we took at our interviews. I was pleasantly surprised with how mine turned out, in fact I cannot believe how proud of myself I was. The feedback from Daniel and Brittany about how I should've kept all the pictures black and white was very helpful for me and I appreciated their comments. In later classes when Vicki saw my video, she commented on how nice it turned out--now I am feeling confident and almost arrogant about my project. I now felt I could actually do this. With more research I was interested in the fact that there are many foster children who are of the minority race with white foster parents (Anne was white and all of her children were of a different nationality--mostly African American). The other family I interviewed was also this dynamic. Realizing my video could only be about 5 minutes, I decided to stick with my original plan of making my video a Call to Action, making people aware of fostering, how they can do it, and why they should do it.

APRIL the second family I interviewed I met at the hospital I work for. Larry and Janet are foster parents to a young boy who is medically fragile. The interview definitely had a different tone and light to it. I used very little of that video (it was more dark and the foster mother was a little stressed with regard to the state and how they were not funding this foster child's care). I think this too is a whole other video and assignment--medically fragile foster children. Now I am starting to get too much information--need to reign it in.

MAY brings flowers, showers, and film editting. I needed a great deal of help from Dale. He helped me with all my ideas. I finished my video and was so proud. I will remember this class and experience (especially Anne Novotny) with much joy. I truly learned so much about fostering and about film, cameras, Mac computers, and copyright infringements. Thanks to all who made my blog and film possible.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Institute for Service Learning

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