How can I speak about poverty while working in higher education?  By making it to college, it’s a pretty sure bet that none of my students live, or have ever lived, in poverty.  Being in an urban school, however, my students have the ability to see the impacts of poverty every time they step outside the boundaries of our campus.

I know I always joke about my low pay.  My colleagues and I make cracks about how we’re poor or how we don’t get paid enough because we’re not pulling in even $30,000.  We often forget that part of our compensation is our free apartment, utilities (cable, electricity, water, trash, internet, heat) and a meal plan that, despite our complaints about quality, does provide the essential nutrients for us to live healthy lives.

The closest I came to even a glimpse of poverty was as a grad student, making $8,000 year.  But even then, I got all those perks.  Plus, as I mentioned before, I made it to college.  This "poverty" I was experiencing was one I truly brought on myself.  I could have opted to not attend grad school, got a paying job as a teacher, and lived quite happily.  On top of that, I had a nice safety blanket in my parents should I ever fall and need assistance.

Let’s face it.  99% of college students, graduate students, faculty, and staff have no idea what it’s like to live paycheck-to-paycheck, or to not have a paycheck to live on in the first place.

This post is part of Blog Action Day ’08 – Poverty.  Bloggers from around the world are asked to write on poverty from their own perspective.  I’m here today to tell you that I have little to no experience with poverty.  I own that.  My perspective is one of someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to truly need.  So many of my students take the initiative to venture out and see the world and to try to help it, and I admire them greatly for it.  Spring Break trips to poverty-stricken areas of the country, or summer service trips to third-world countries where poverty — real poverty — is overwhelming are growing in popularity.  These trips, taking place during vacation time, are anything but a vacation, but our students are willingly giving up their time to help others.  It’s amazing.

My students may not know what poverty feels like, but more and more they are learning what it looks like.  I hope they never have to feel the pains of being impoverished.  I hope their experiences venturing out into the world gives them perspectives on life, and how their studies and their future careers can help them to create a better world, not for them, but for those who truly need it and don’t have the power to create it for themselves. 

Maybe this post isn’t what Blog Action Day is trying to accomplish.  Maybe I still have a very distorted view of what it means live in poverty.  I don’t have all the answers.  Until maybe a year ago I didn’t even have much of the motivation to do anything about it.  But working with the students at my school, I have found their enthusiasm, and their desire to help those less fortunate, to be motivating and inspiring. 

I encourage my colleagues in the world of Student Affairs to be on the lookout for ways in which your actions and inaction can influence those around you.  Be always vigilant to the ideals of social justice. 

When I think of poverty and social justice, I can’t help but think of Blessed Mother Teresa.  So I leave you with a quote from her:

“Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them.”
~ Mother Teresa

This post is part of Blog Action Day and is cross-posted at Challenge and Support.