Kat and Emily's birthday party pre DisO

Denial is not healthy.  Lately, it’s been getting harder to meet the enthusiasm of friends who ask me if I am getting excited for Costa Rica. Deep down, I am thrilled; I know this is the right next step for me and I am so looking forward to the experience. But for now, I am trying hard to focus on the present (and I think I’m doing pretty well!) I have one week left in Los Angeles as a Jesuit Volunteer. You probably wouldn’t hear me say that out loud; I’ve been trying to avoid facing the “end” of my year here. Yet after this weekend’s DisOrientation retreat, our last JVC retreat, I am realizing that to make a healthy transition from LA to home to FrancisCorps, I need to honor the end of this incredible experience.

We have been busy as a house, trying to wrap up and start the goodbye process. Last week we went out to dinner with our support person Krista and her boyfriend, Erik. We reminisced about the year and talked about future plans over $3 margaritas.  She and Maria have been a wonderful resource for us as a house this year, and it was sad to say goodbye. I was also able to go see Julie’s brother perform with the Philadelphia Boys Choir at a church in Orange County last week; I remember seeing their Christmas concerts when I was little and it was fun to meet another member of Julie’s family. Her dad and uncle were out earlier this month and we had a blast hanging out with them.

The boys singing our anthem, "Colder Weather"

Our final JVC retreat was last weekend in Orange County. I was not looking forward to it at all, mostly because of the ridiculous level of denial that I am experiencing. It turned out to be fun, though. The Los Angeles JVs took over two cabins at the campground and hung out pretty exclusively (oops!) for most of the weekend. The site had a pool and an amazing outdoor chapel, and Emily from JD gave an amazing talk to kick of the retreat. Overall it was a good time, especially because the LA crew spent the last day on the beach since we didn’t have to travel much!

Casa DK pride at DisO

About two weeks ago, I was reminded of what a blessing our small LA Jesuit Volunteer Community is. Earlier this month, Hannah from Casa Jean Donovan lost her father. She was able to be home since she lives in Orange County, and I was moved when I saw a full row of JVs in the church at both the Rosary Vigil and Funeral. Please keep Hannah and her family in your prayers.

Urban Compass Summer Camp ended yesterday and was a blast. We took the kids on field trips every day after doing some academics in the morning. We went bowling, miniature golfing, to a concert, to parks, museums, surfing, swimming, and to movies. It was hectic keeping them under control and in the right place, but we have a great staff and a lot of volunteers who have been helping us out every day.  On one of my favorite days we tye-dyed shirts, decorated kites and made cookies! We also had a drum set donated to us, which has been a LOT of fun, especially for the older boys.

Today, we helped Casa Jean Donovan move into the upstairs of our house. Their house is closing next year an their community is merging with ours; my house will now hold 8 people (JVC has rented the apartment upstairs in addition to our floor). It's really sad for them to be moving out of their house, and has also been a lot of work. They are champs!

I don't know what I'll do without Emily!

Yesterday I said a final goodbye to all my students, all the volunteers that helped us this summer, as well as 3 of the LA JVs who are leaving this weekend. I also said goodbye to my friend Matt from BC who I’ve been able to see a bunch of times out here. All the goodbyes are surreal; I don’t “feel” them on the inside yet because there is so much else going on, but I’m really sad about leaving all these people that I’ve grown to know and love this year. With one week left, I will be trying my hardest to be present, be attentive, and be loving. It’s been a good ride! I’ll have more updates once I’m home and have time (though, there’s not much of it!).

Baby, You're a Firework

Hours after my last day of school, the Zippilli family rolled into town for a week in Los Angeles. We spent a few nights in Santa Monica and I got to play tour-guide and show them around.  I really enjoyed showing them everything that has been "home" to me this year. Later in the week we spent a few days poolside on Coronado Island, enjoying beautiful weather and much-needed time to relax for all four of us.  We did a little sightseeting in San Diego as well and enjoyed the week together. A highlight of the week was having dinner with my family and my housemates at a restaurant near USC. I was glad they all got to know each other a little bit, and we had a lot of fun!

Next up was 4th of July weekend! At Casa DK, we seized the opportunity and threw our first themed party of the year: JVC Prom. Everyone was encouraged to dress up in their thrift-store finest. The prom's theme was Never Never Land (inspired by the boys' favorite movie, Hook) so some people dressed for that! We gave out superlatives to all the LA JVs and some other friends.  My good friend from BC, Erin, was also in town which was amazing; she got to meet all my JV friends and come to Prom! The next day, many of the JVs came back for an impromptu BBQ and to watch fireworks from our roof. We got to see shows all over the city; it was really cool!

DK ready for prom!

Me and Erin!

This week was the first week of Summer Camp. We have the kids from 9am until 3 or 4 in the afternoon four days a week. For the first hour, we do academic work and then take the kids on field trips to places all around LA. We started camp on Wednesday with a half day, and then went to the California Science Center/IMAX and Griffith Park & LA Zoo. The kids had a wonderful time and are just so excited about the trips. For the most part, they were incident-free, though chasing after my group of 12 6-7 year-olds is exhausting no matter what.

That's all for now, more to come soon!

My Kids Rock.

Happy LDOC, 112th St.! Today was the Last Day Of Classes (LDOC is a phrase we coined at BC) for the LA Unified School District. This is a quick, frantic, emotional post to say how proud I am of my students!

The Original Song they played

This week was CRAZY busy getting ready for summer camp before my week off with my family (woo!). In the midst of my busiest season yet, I went to both the Kindergarten and 5th grade culminations to see my kids. The ceremonies were in Verb's gym, about 20 feet from my office. The kids and their families were all dressed up. The best part of it all was that almost ALL my students were involved in the ceremony, honored, or awarded something. I still feel so proud and get teary-eyed thinking about it!

During the kindergarten celebration, our star student commanded the attention of the room and kicked off the culmination by leading the Pledge of Allegience. She was adorable, and oddly professional.  In the 5th grade ceremony, two of my students gave speeches, one had perfect attendance this year, one had perfect attendance for grades K-5 (can you imagine that?! he got the biggest trophy!), another got an exceptional citizenship award and was the "valedictorian" of the class for his perfect standardized test scores for the past two years. I'm not really sorry for bragging a little...these kids amazed me.

It gets better. Today, after a busy morining with Megan and Annie, our summer interns/board member & future program director (they're awesome and are the future of Urban Compass!), we went out to lunch with Theresa. Then, after a chill afternoon of playtime and crafts, they surprised me with handmade cards from each of them since it was my last day of the after school program. Of course Theresa had been orchestrating this all week, and got me flowers and a little certificate too.  Three of the third graders also wrote a song about me. (I can send you the link if you want to see the cutest thing ever!)

Today made me realize just how close I've become to these students, and how blessed I am to have been let into their lives. They are crazy kids, but they deal with a lot at home and at the end of the day, they're just kids like we all were. I love them and will miss them a lot. They had great questions about my next job, and some were really excited that I would be working in a school "where they only speak Spanish." I had to laugh at that.

The thing that really got me was a card from my favorite fourth grader. You might remember her from my post about Christmas...she was the one who told me that she knew Santa wasn't real because she didn't get any presents. Well, this particular girl is moving to a better neighborhood with her uncle for fifth grade, and will be in Mexico for the summer so she won't be at camp.  In her card, she wrote a lot of thank you's and "I love you like an auntie," but the line that got me was "I never told anyone else about my family's problems"...how does that not make you cry? I am going to miss her so much. Goodbye's are so hard, especially to these kids who have so much life before them and so much growing up to do.

Thank you, kiddos, for an amazing year. Here's to a great summer too!

June Happenings

Since my last round of updates, we have reached the “beginning of the end” of our JVC year. I can already tell that the next weeks will fly by and be filled with many exciting events and emotions.  Grad night in Disneyland was followed by Verbum Dei’s Baccalaureate Mass and Graduation, held at LMU’s chapel and the Cathedral respectively.  Urban Compass honored two seniors for their dedication to volunteering with us this year at the mass and gave then (small) scholarships.  Both services were beautiful and I felt proud to be part of the Verb community and flattered by how inclusive they have been to me this year.

Flowers from Verb at the Bacc Mass

More books were donated to us than we could give away! Amazing!

At work, we are picking up speed as the school year is winding down. My days have been quite busy with compiling an end of the year parent survey, managing donations of books from a school in Pasadena, and preparing for summer camp. The kiddos have been crazy now that the end of the year is in sight. We took them on a field trip last Saturday to the Santa Monica Pier, and their rides, games, lunch, and snacks were provided by the Water Buffalo Club. They had a blast at the amusement park and aquarium. My group of 10 seven year olds was out of control, but what can you expect, I guess? Sugar + Rides + Crowds = Chaotic small children.

An exciting decision was made at our board meeting a few weeks back. The board approved the creation of an Executive Director position and offered it to Theresa, so she will be transitioning to the new role starting in August. This means she will be hiring a Program Director to be in charge of the daily program, and Theresa will be responsible for fundraising, planning, marketing, etc for Urban Compass.

My group at the Santa Monica Pier...pre-chaos.

On the home front, we have been celebrating lots of birthdays lately! We had a beach volleyball party for one JV last weekend and went out for Happy Hour and Karaoke for Cara’s birthday this week. This weekend our dear 4Runner Barney broke down, so we are waiting to see what will happen to him. No matter what, Barney has served us well so far this year! And I’m glad we decided not to drive to Tucson on Friday night…breaking down in the middle of the desert wouldn’t have been nearly as convenient as breaking down in Chinatown, only 5 miles from home!

Happy Father’s Day! More updates soon!

Up Next

A funny thing started happening right around the new year. Suddenly, everyone that my roommates and I encountered all started asking us the same question: What’s next after JVC? Of course, we’d all gotten the question before, but ever since the calendar changed to 2011 it’s been much more popular. Of course it’s natural that when explaining a one-year volunteer program, that question follows in conversation.

Since the end of March, I’ve been very blessed to have a concrete answer. I have decided that I love this crazy experience of living in an intentional community and volunteering with kids just SO much that I want to do it again. After a few months of discernment, applications, recommendations, and decision-making, I accepted a spot with Francis Corps, a program similar to JVC in many ways. My placement is in San José, Costa Rica. I will be working in a school for students with special needs and living in a community of five.  Here are some answers to questions you might ask…

Things I Know:

• I will be living with four other women. They have all just graduated from college this spring. (Congrats to them!
• I will be working at El Centro Nacional de EnseñanzaEspecial Fernando Centeno Guell 
• I start Orientation on August 20th after two weeks at home. I fly to Costa Rica on September 3^rd. The program runs through mid-July 2012

Things I Don’t Know:

• Anyone else in the program
• What exactly my day to day job will entail
• Much about the Franciscans
• What I’ll do after FrancisCorps (options on the table include looking for a teaching job and finishing the 5^th year program at BC. No, Peace Corps is not next…I’ve been asked.)

The hardest question to answer, but most important has been, “Carolyn, why do you want to do another year of service?” I’ve been asked by many people: my family, my spiritual director, Brother Jim (the director of Francis Corps), and other people I’ve explained my plans to. Here’s my answer:

My year with JVC has been, up to this point, fantastic. My community consists of four other people that I pray remain friends for life, I have grown to love a city I knew nothing about, and I have seen a lot of the West Coast. At work I have learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses in the classroom and in the office, I have fallen in love with students who drive me nuts, and I have confirmed my passion for education and am confident in my years of preparation at BC. The year has consisted of challenge, passion, frustration, faith, love, exhaustion, dependence, and energy that have never before collided in any given experience. 
 

My hope for another year of service is not at all to recreate this one, or fix parts of it that I wish were different. Instead, I hope to complement this year by serving in a different context, with new people, in a new placement, and through a new program. I hope to bring only high expectations for myself, and to leave behind any notions of a “volunteer year” that I’ve developed since last August. Instead, I hope to use my next year to continue practicing the values of community, social justice, spirituality, and simplicity that both JVC and FrancisCorps are built upon.

Before I begin my next adventure, I have been asked to raise $1,800 for FrancisCorps. This money will cover my travel to and from my placement, health insurance for the year, and other administrative costs. If you, dear reader, feel so inclined to support my efforts and my commitment to another year of service, I would greatly appreciate your financial support. As impersonal as it may feel to lead a fundraising campaign via blog post, this is how I keep my family and friends up to date with what’s going on in my life. Even $10 or $20 bucks to everyone who reads this would go a long way.  My goal is to have the bulk of the fundraising done in the next month. Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. Checks made out to FracisCorps can be mailed to me at the address below. (But not after July 30^th…Soon after that I’ll be back on the road and I don’t want anything to get lost in the mail!):

Carolyn Zippilli

2922 Halldale Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90018

Also, one more announcement! I am relocating to a new spot on the internet where you will be able to access my blog from Ecuador, LA, and Costa Rica (and maybe beyond!) all in one place. From now on you can visit http://carolynzippilli.blogspot.com/ . It's a work in progress but will be up and running soon!

Grad Nite and Garden

Verb Chaperones do DisneyLand

Circa 3am

In our kitchen, we have a bucket list of things to see and do in LA. We’ve managed to cross many things off the list, but I always assumed that one thing would evade us: Disney Land. Disney is expensive, and we would spend an entire month’s stipend on just one trip. But Disney is magical, right? The magic happened for me one day a couple weeks ago when Verb’s senior class moderator popped her head in my office and asked me to join her, Zach, and Julie in chaperoning Grad Nite 2011. 

Unbeknownst to me, Grad Nite is Disney’s annual program to open the park – overnight – to graduating high school seniors from, well, everywhere. Along with our 40-odd students, we departed Verb at 10pm last Thursday evening. Sometime after midnight we finally entered the park. For six hours, we dodged crowds of teenagers and dance floors and made our way through the rides in the park. It was BLAST. I think we had more fun than many kids and definitely had more fun than most chaperones. WE enjoyed the free food in the chaperone dining area, and noted that we were all probably closer in age to the students than to the majority of the teachers and parents who were spending their precious sleeping time at Disney.  By 4:30 am when we emerged from Indiana Jones, the park had essentially cleared out, leaving us to run – literally – around at will and enjoy the attractions.

Urban Compass garden!

This week I was also lucky to spend some quality time with my good friend Matt from BC. He lives just outside LA and is home for the summer after studying abroad. He volunteered at Urban Compass in the afternoon when we were working on our garden (see pictures) and joined us at DK for dinner. On Saturday, Zach and his girlfriend who was in town joined me on a little trip out to Matt’s neck of the woods. We hiked Mt. Potato which is right near his house and actually found a potato at the top! No joke. Then Matt took us on a tour of the Claremont Colleges (beautiful) and his town AND hosted a little BBQ for us! It was great. I’m excited he’ll be around this summer!

It has been two more busy weeks...I can't believe it is already the end of May! Before I start the update, I'd like to wish a VERY happy birthday to my sister Emily. She is home from St. Joe's for the summer and preparing to embark on her own adventures abroad in the fall.

First, an update on the activities at Casa DK. Last weekend I joined Julie on a service trip with Verb students to St. Francis Center. You might recall that I took a group of Urban Compass kids there earlier this year to serve lunch.  Instead of serving a meal this time, we assisted with the pantry program. First we sorted and packages produce and cans of food and then assisted in setting up and distributing all the food donations grocery-store style in the main room of the center.

After the service trip, we joined the LA JVs at Casa Maura Clark for a BBQ to "prepare for the rapture." I'm sure you heard about Harold Camping's end of the world theory. Obviously, our party was a mockery of his prediction, but we enjoyed the good weather, pinata, and dancing to R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It." Unfortunately, CMC has some very cranky neighbors who insisted on calling the cops multiple times because we were playing music outside (at 3pm...). The first time they stopped by they even said they couldn't hear the music from the front of the house, but the neighbor was quite persistent and the police came back a few hours later and told us to go home. Ironically enough, we got home and our own neighbors were bumpin' tunes til the wee hours of the morning.

On Sunday, all the JVs reunited for a worship service at Emily L.'s church. Emily is an active member at a United Church of Christ community in Hollywood, and was giving the sermon on Sunday! She was absolutely brilliant and delivered not only a beautiful sermon but also a spoken word piece that she had written about prayer. Emily will start her time at seminary in the fall and plans to become a pastor in the UCC! She has a beautiful calling and gift.

After church, we all headed to the Jesuit Novitiate in Culver City where Jesuit Novices in the CA province live during their first two years of formation.  The first-years had invited us for a BBQ so we spent the afternoon chatting with them. This year I have learned all about the process of becoming a Jesuit from the novices who work at Verb. All the novices we know are about to begin a summer full of traveling, studying, and retreats, so it was great to hang out with them before they take off since we most likely won't see them again!

This past Friday, we said goodbye to one of the Jesuit novices from Verb, David, since it was his last day of work there. He took a bunch of us to a taco truck near his community at Loyola High School, and then we proceeded to a Karaoke joint in Little Tokyo. We had our own private room for three hours; it was an absolute blast! We sang our faces off to everything from Cee-Lo Green and Pink to Rod Stewart and Tool. Learning about the experience of a Jesuit has been really insightful, especially since David is practically my age.  It was a sad goodbye, and probably the first of many, but David is off to do some really special work and I have been grateful for the chance to get to know him. 

The world of Urban Compass has been pretty quiet and stable...until Friday. One of our students brought a knife to school and was ratted out by a girl in his class who is also in our program. I'm not exactly sure of the events during the school day, but he didn't get sent home was was ticked that she had snitched. I've never seen such a seething look an anyone's face. After talking to both of them, Theresa and I were able to calm the situation a bit and they were getting along fine during Urban Compass. We assured her that she did the right thing, and tried to understand why he brought the weapon. Come time to go home, however, something triggered his anger. He was trying to get at her, and Theresa and I did everything we could to keep them apart. We ended up walking her to her mom and him to his house in the projects, and were only able to get him to walk home - and not to the girl's house - by convincing him that HE should be the one to tell his parents. It was really scary and emotional because he has made SO much progress with us this year. We're still not sure what will happen with him at school, but whatever it is will probably not be good.  It's days like this that remind me of the reality of where our students live and I recognize the blessing that Urban Compass - a safe, loving place - is for them.

That's about it for now...Happy Memorial Day!