N EWS
Spring 2008
BYB IS THE PLACE TO BE!
FROM THE
B UCKINGHAM
Y OUTH B RIGADE
The Buckingham Youth Brigade (BYB) is a project of the BU-GATA Tenants Association. BYB
creates a positive learning environment for youth in the Buckingham neighborhood of
Arlington. The program provides youth with leadership and community service skills and
aims to focus their creative and intellectual energies.
BYB is funded by the Freddie Mac Foundation and the Arlington County Community Development Block Grant.
BYB Fundraises For Clean Water by Rubi Novillo
BYB students give out raffle tickets at the Buckingham holiday
party.
Inside this issue:
BYB Fundraises for
Clean Water
1
Did you know that
the water in the Tigris River
is insanely polluted with tons
of revolting things, such as
BODIES? Well, that is something I learned from a speaker
at my BYB workshop not to
long ago. She told us how the
Tigris River is one of the
most used rivers and that it
was polluted so much it was
unbelievable. Her name was
Robin and she also explained
to us that attempts to help
clean out and sanitize the
river had sadly backfired. But
then she told us of another
project to purify the river that
was still looking for funding.
That is where we stepped in:
We decided to try to help
Robin in her
search for money to help support the Tigris River project.
We decided to help
Robin and came up with the
idea to have bake sales at our
schools. We would take this
chance to sell some goodies to
help earn money and inform
people about the problems of
the Tigris River. I was very
happy to see that after I put
up an announcement at my
school about the bake sale and
the cause, I was given tremendous support. Teachers
and friends donated some
things to the sale and people
came out and helped the
cause by buying sweets. But,
we also had spent a day baking the goodies to sell. Contin-
Rubi mixes batter and Betis
offers her a whisk.
ued on page 3—See Tigris River.
Community Scholarship and Transitions to College by Vicky Sorto-Sanchez, BYB Grad
Community scholarship and Transitions to
College
Acting Upon the Dream
2
Martin Luther King Jr.
Uncut
3
Goals for My Future
4
My name is Vicky
Sorto-Sanchez. I have lived in
Gates of Ballston all my life
and recently I have experienced a huge transition from
going to high school to attending college. I graduated from
Washington Lee High School
class of 2007 and now I attend
Northern Virginia Community
College.
When it first hit me
that I would have to start taking more responsibility for my
life and if I want something to
get done I will have to do it
myself, I thought, “Wow, I’m
becoming an adult.” It was
scary. I was thinking to myself, “I’m going to have to pay
for my school now. Nothing is
free.” I didn’t really know
what to do, but I’m glad I had
the support of my family and
friends. Luckily people kept
telling me to apply for many
scholarships. I did, and by the
time school started I had gathered enough money to pay for
my first and second semester
of college.
Over the summer I
was fortunate to receive a
News from the Buckingham Youth Brigade
“Over the
summer, I was
fortunate to
receive a
scholarship of
$600 from my
community to help
pay for books.”
scholarship of $600 from my
community to help pay for
books. It was awarded to me
at the August festival in Buckingham prior to the start of
my first semester. Of the
many students who applied, I
was fortunate to receive the
scholarship. There were two
recipients who received the
scholarship and I am greatly
honored to be one of them.
The money was donated from
BU-GATA and the owner of
Glebe Market, Mr. Sam
Chon. He has been contributing to our community for
many years.
I completed my first
semester, and it wasn’t so
bad. I met many people from
different high schools. I liked
the fact that everyone I met
wanted to be there and you
are not forced to attend, as
you are in high school. Some
of my teachers were nicer
than others, but I did well and
passed all of my classes. After
I complete my Associate’s
Degree in Business Administration, I plan to transfer to a
four year university to receive
my Bachelors, but I haven’t
decided yet what school I
Page 2
want to attend. I know that
the future holds many things
for me, but I’m not so scared
anymore.
Vicky Sorto-Sanchez
Acting Upon the Dream by Mimi Oziel, BYB Coordinator
In a workshop the
week preceding Martin Luther
King Jr. day, BYB members
discussed their knowledge of
Dr. King. Students knew that
he preached equality and was
BYB participants play a game during opposed to using violence.
The general sentiment was
a workshop
that everyone knew the
“basics.” Vanessa, for example, said she was aware that he
was a “powerful speaker.” She
knew about his I Have a Dream
Speech and the March on
Washington. Other BYB
members shared similar ideas.
After some discussion of what we already knew
about Martin Luther King Jr.
and what we hear about him
BYB visits Virginia Tech University in the media, we examined
some of his ideas that we did
not know about. Students
read excerpts from King’s
speeches and writings. They
found that King had many
passions they never knew
about. Vanessa commented
that she didn’t know about his
fight for economic equality.
Katty and Veronica said that
they were previously unaware
about King’s staunch opposition to the Vietnam War.
In pairs, members
shared with one another
King’s ideas they had learned
in the readings, and each student picked a few lines that
they found to be particularly
meaningful. Wendy shared
with her partner, Ziomara,
that she was drawn to a certain line from King’s last
speech in Memphis, Tennessee: “But we either go up together, or we go down together.”
Each person wrote
the line he or she chose on a
piece of paper, and we read
the lines aloud, one by one,
creating a group poem. At
the end, the pieces of paper
were stapled together in the
order they were read, and
amid giggles about her inability to read some people’s
handwriting, Rubi read us the
entire piece. Students agreed
that they liked the poem as a
whole and commented on
individual lines chosen by
their peers.
The following week,
BYB examined the poem again
and rearranged a few lines.
Students also chose a layout
that they thought looked best.
Jhon had very insightful ideas
about the auditory impact of
the poem and suggested a few
changes to help it flow better
when read aloud.
Finally, BYB members were satisfied. They had
created a meaningful poem
that reminds its readers of
how King did more than just
dream: He called us to action.
On the Following page,
you can find our poem.
News from the Buckingham Youth Brigade
Page 3
Martin Luther King Jr. Uncut
A Collaborative Poem by the Buckingham Youth Brigade
The Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the white citizen’s counselor or the Ku Klux Klaner, but the
white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice.
But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
The Negro will only be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with the pen and ink of assertive
manhood his own emancipation proclamation.
To end humiliation was a start, but to end poverty is a bigger task.
So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together
for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools.
But we either go up together, or we go down together.
We are likely to find that the problem of housing and education, instead of preceeding the elimination of poverty, will themselves
be affected if poverty is first abolished.
We don’t want to be integrated out of power; we want to be integrated into power.
It means that questions must be raised.
And you see, my friends, when you deal with this you begin to ask the question, “Who owns the oil?”
You begin to ask the question “Who owns the iron ore?”
You begin to ask the question, “Why is it that people have to pay water bills?”
These are words that must be said.
Moderates object to putting “too much” pressure on whites to agree to end segregation “too quickly.”
Tigris River continued from Page
1
We all gathered at my home
and baked like there was no
tomorrow. We all worked
very hard and we had a wonderful outcome. We informed people of problems
beyond their own lives, about
problems of other people and
their need for help. I think we
achieved our goal of not only
helping the cause but also in-
forming the people about it,
and I think that was most important.
BYB at Lubber Run Center
BYB at Lubber Run Center
News from the Buckingham Youth Brigade
Page 4
Buckingham Youth Brigade/BU-GATA
927 South Walter Reed Drive Suite 28
Arlington, Virginia 22204
Phone: 703.302.5140
E-mail: [email protected]
Goals for My Future by Delia Aguirre
BYB IS THE PLACE
TO BE!
Delia decorating cupcakes for
Tigris River fundraiser
“I want to show
everyone that a
Latino can get far
and that everything
that my mom did
was worth it.”
I am a first generation
Hispanic who will graduate
from Washington-Lee High
School in 2009. It has not
been easy for me to concentrate on school with all of my
insecurities about who I am
and what my real purpose is in
life. My immediate goal is to
graduate high school and go to
college. This is what I plan to
accomplish. However, I am
not too sure about how to do
this exactly. I have gone
through many things to get
where I am currently. When
my mother emigrated from
Guatemala to the United
States, she left my brother
behind. My mother’s reason
for leaving her native country
was to make money to send to
my brother and provide what
she could not if she were to
have stayed in Guatemala.
While growing up here, I remember moving many times
because we had difficulty paying the rent. Although we
struggled, my mother never
liked asking for help. She
would often say that if she was
able to make it this far with no
one’s help then she would figure out a solution for the next
problem. At times I find myself thinking about solving my
own issues in this way. However, I also recognize that asking for help is not such a bad
thing. I want to prove to ev-
eryone that I can make it to
college.
Many people give me
the impression that because you
are Hispanic you can’t make it
that far in life. They appear to
think we are just going to be
working at a fast food restaurant
preparing meals for others. I
know that this is not my future.
Yes, I know some Latinos that
skip school and do not want to
continue because their grades
give them the impression of
“what’s the point you already
failed.” Although many of those
Latinos are my friends and I do
care about them, I disagree with
their mentality. I do care about
school because I believe this is
the path I need to be on to become successful. What I hope
to accomplish right now, is to
get my diploma and my degree
in business and design and prove
to everyone that I am someone:
a Latina that has stayed true to
her identity. I realize that I
might have to work and study at
the same time. I might meet
people that do not care about
what they do with their lives
and try to influence me to do
the same thing and to do some
stupid stuff, but I am the one
that makes my own decisions
about what to do. The choice
that I am making is to go to college and become who I want to
be. I want to study something
that involves digital photogra-
be. I want to study something that involves digital
photography, interior and
fashion design, as well as
business and marketing. I
want to open a business of
some sort where I am my
own boss. I would employ people from my community. Once I get where
I want to be and accomplish everything I need to
do, I want to help out my
family in Guatemala and
my mom. I want to show
my mom and my family
that I made it and I want
them to be proud of me. I
had two people in my
family that had the chance
to go to college but they
chose not to take it. I
said—and I keep saying
it—I want to be someone
in this life and not be
someone who gave up that
opportunity. I do not
want to be someone
working at cleaning services or a fast food place.
I want to be someone who
people look up to. I want
to show everyone that a
Latino can get far and that
everything that my mom
did was worth it.