Connections: A New Understanding and New Friendships

Matt Kizior reflections on his time with the seventh grade:

The immersion trip to the De La Salle Blackfeet School has had an unexpected effect on my life in a way that I never would have been able to predict. That may sound a little cheesy seeing as our group has only been in Montana for three days, but certain facets of this trip have provided an emotional and spiritual impact that is timeless. The time that our group has spent as a community, the classes we have participated in with the students of this fine institution, and the hospitality that has been our blessing has turned what may have been a routine service trip into a meaningful reflection in and of itself.

Matt Kizior

What has been the most valuable to me, however, has been the time spent with the children of DLSBS. They have been instrumental in providing me with a renewed vigor to help people. The children have showed me that it is truly a sacrifice and a meaningful vocation to help children or any person for that matter. To live a meaningful life is not necessarily reached by fulfilling our dreams like acquiring riches or societal respect. We should infuse our lives with meaning by extending that feeling of purpose towards others and helping people to also feel fulfilled in the process. That is what I have garnered as a principle of life from this trip, and as a principle of the vocation of teaching.

Time spent with the small class of seventh graders that reside at DLSBS has shown me that the idea of struggling with something has a variety of ways that it can manifest and resolve itself. The trouble that certain students have shown with math, reading, and science is indicative of a need for motivation, inspiration, and attention that would help them improve their skills and life prospects. As high school students who have voluntarily devoted our time to these children, we have a duty to help fulfill those needs as best we can so that these students can learn the values that a LaSallian school has to offer. Yet we as a group who regularly attend a LaSallian school need to learn to properly enact those values within our own lives and for the good of others. These unique and talented students have helped me realize that to truly live as good people we need to live these values from day to day, minute to minute.

So what is the best way to summarize this feeling, this need, of helping to improve others lives? It is that we are not only called by our faith and morals to be brothers and sisters to each other, but also to be teachers and students for each other, continually helping each other. While we are here, Andrew Stefanick and myself have had to help these children focus and hone their intellect and skills so they can write better essays, express their ideas better, and help them realize their own potential. Yet we have also had to connect with them so they understand that we are all in this together: that we are not only here to help them learn the values that will help them improve their skills for the fast approaching future, but also that we are here to learn as much about life from these optimistic and impressive students.

In the process of helping these students, they have also helped us understand the importance of friendliness. In particular, two children from the seventh grade class have helped to shape my view of the personal rewards that teaching can hold. As someone who finds themselves wed to this vocation and cause, it has become a labor of love and respect for these children and this town. The friendships that are formed with these children represent the extent that a person is willing to commit themselves to the welfare of another human being in need. The teachers here have also been representative of that, acting as model teachers of caring and disciplined work that is crafted to help create a better world for these children. For all the academic problems that some students have, they are truly remarkable children.

Overall, the experiences and reflections that my immersion trip has allowed me to have are priceless in the way that each has allowed me to understand the vocation and connections we choose and make in life are indispensable. These formative times on our lifes are crucial in helping us become better people and caring individuals, and the interactions I have had with these students has given me the insight to understand that when we devote ourselves to a higher purpose in our lives, it can help create a healthy world for all to live in. A world purified of the transgressions of old and blessed with the wisdom of the ancestral times, a world in tune with the spirit of the Blackfeet, can form a web of friendship and purpose that can lead not only these children, but everyone, into a better future.

Matthew Kizior '11

Modern Native Americans

Joe Danko

Joe Danko learns about what it means to be Native American today:

When first volunteering for the Immersion trip to the De La Salle Blackfeet School, I was aware of the students and their ties to the Blackfeet culture, but that was about it. Without assuming too much, I kept an open mind when entering the experience. Myself and two other Central Catholic students volunteered to help in the 8th grade classroom. After the first day of school I understood that these students were no different in personalities and attitudes towards school. Some of the students are very motivated and others need that extra push to complete their work, just like any other 8th grade students across the U.S. On the second day of class, instead of having pre-algebra, we had one of the students' fathers come in for a brief presentation.

The presenter has been showing people what it's like to be a modern Native American since the 1960s. He started his discussion with the students by telling them people aren't going to change their views of our culture unless you as Native Americans take the initiative to go socialize and inform people of the truth. The presenter and one of his friends from high school served in the army during the Vietnam War. He compared himself to the African American soldiers serving at the time. The oppression that both ethnic groups faced were too similar to ignore and he tried to emphasize this to his fellow soldiers while he served.

Blackfeet Winter Count (visual history of the tribe)

At the end of the discussion, all of the students showed enthusiasm towards leaving the reservation to go to college. Although this may seem negative, there is also an enthusiasm to come back to the reservation with a new perspective and with aspirations for positive change and a better way of life. All of the students at De La Salle Blackfeet School are getting great practice explaining what its like to live on an Indian Reservation and how their life is different than people may think, even though there aren't that many differences in the first place.

J. Danko '11