Kevin came to Miami University with a passion – to be a city planner.  Participating in Acting Locally has given him a better sense of the communities he will be serving in his dream job - as well as a new desire to work with communities in different ways en route to that dream.

 Kevin was attracted to Acting Locally by the chance to “get out into the community”. 

“I think it’s important to get to know the community”, he says;  “in so doing you really get to know yourself a lot better.”  Originally from Cincinnati, Kevin had sought out ways to volunteer in Hamilton before applying to Wilks, and brought that passion with him to the program. “There’s a growing Latino population in Hamilton – I’ve always been very interested in Latin American culture and heritage and I also enjoy speaking Spanish, so those things combined to draw me into Hamilton. At the interview for Wilks I was already talking to them about Hamilton and how I wanted to dedicate my efforts there”.

 Kevin is part of the team working on developing a Latino Business Association in Hamilton.  “The business association will be a way for Latino business owners in Hamilton and Fairfield and the surrounding area to come together, discuss issues and help each other out. We hope they’ll gain a way to have a voice in the wider community, to unify the community so they can be heard, and so they can pool their resources a lot better.”  Kevin is also participating in the language exchange set up by another Acting Locally team.

Although Kevin was eager to get out into the community as soon as possible, in retrospect he appreciates the semester of preparatory work the students undertook before beginning their projects.  “I think this knowledge base was very important - it prepared us to go out and face a lot of issues such as globalization to understand the nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment going on in Hamilton”.  

Kevin also values the connections that emerge between the ongoing class work and their deepening engagement in the community. “We talked about free spaces last class period, and around that time we were deciding where we should have this first meeting of the Latino Business Association. We decided that we wanted to have it at a restaurant in Hamilton because the Latinos there treat it largely as a community center – it’s a place where they feel comfortable, as opposed to having it somewhere like Miami Hamilton where they might not feel as invited or welcomed. That’s because of the issue of free space.”

Kevin has noticed his own perceptions of the Latino community changing as a result of Acting Locally. “I think it’s because I’ve been able to get close to some of the real life people who are living there. Being able to build dialogue and build enduring relationships with people has shown me that it’s not as simple as “Oh, these people are here illegally, let’s kick ‘em out”. They’re trying to make money and a lot of times to send that money back to their families – like it’s not like they want to live with 20 other people in one small house.  From a humanity standpoint I’ve learned a lot - getting closer to people has changed my perspective.”

 He also describes the reward of sharing those changed perceptions with a wider audience: “Last semester Dr Bromberg had myself and a few other students come together with Latino business owners and put on this cleanup in the 4^th ward of Hamilton. [Hamilton residents] have been saying that Latinos are stealing their jobs, or that they don’t care to learn how to speak English.  But the Journal-News covered the event, with the headline “Latino Residents Chip In To Help Clean Up”, and just to see that they are coming together and doing something positive like cleaning up has made people’s perceptions a lot more positive I think.”