I always felt that the goals set an important precedent for international development trying to bridge the gap between the developed and developing world. However, I also always felt that the goals were set too high, and that the developed countries were obviously not going to do their part in helping LDC’s reach the goals. The U.S. and other countries, such as those in Western Europe do not do their part in providing aid, and easing trade restrictions in order to allow economic development to give way to easing poverty and hunger. More has to be done, the way things are going the goals arent going to be reached in 2015, nor 2025. The international community needs to do their part, and though many countries are going through tough times currently, they need to understand that it is the LDC’s that get it worse.

I was confused and perplexed, however. The wife told us that their lives here is better than their lives back in Brazil, and that they don’t consider going back to Brazil. I am not one to judge and understand their situation, but I feel like they could have a better living situation back in Brazil where they would be able to live free, study, and pursue better paying jobs. The truth is that through they have gone through a lot of difficulties (as described in our story), they don’t regret what they did, and that certainly is admirable.

This past week, I have encountered several stories and situations that got me thinking about the connection between education and poverty. There are two particular stories I would like to tell.

I currently work at the Office of International Admission at UM, and have the frustrating task of answering thousands of emails that the office receives every week. Though I have been doing this for about 2 years now, I find that there are some international students that are in constant need of financial help in order to follow their dreams and come to a prestigious American university where it will open doors for their future successes. Most of the time, I get students who received a scholarship, but who say that the need more aid in order to come to UM. But sometimes, I get extremely touching emails of poor African, or Chinese students who do not receive a scholarship, but who have been accepted. In order to understand this situation I guess you have to understand how the system works. Well, the only form of financial aid available at UM for international students are merit scholarships, and in order to receive a merit scholarship, you have to submit extremely good SAT scores. The problem with that is, that most foreign students are not proficient in English, and thus their SAT scores aren’t that good, even though they are extremely smart students with high GPA’s. As a result, many international students need scholarships in order to come to UM, but can’t get one.

I am often perplexed and saddened at this situation and find that the system is incredibly unfair, especially since coming to a university like UM is chance for them to learn, become something of themselves, and hopefully go back to their country and bring change and prosperity.

So now that you understand this, I would like to mention one specific email that was received by the office last week. This student is originally from Ethiopia, and as her dad died when she was young, and her mother couldn’t take care of her, she grew up with her grandmother. Fortunately, she was able to get a scholarship from an organization that allowed her to come to the US to go to High School. As she is here, entirely based on a scholarship, she applied to UM, and was accepted. The problem is however, she did not qualify for a scholarship, and her grandmother’s yearly income is $300 dollars. She begs us for financial aid in the email, and though I have also asked for help on her behalf to the admission counselors, unfortunately we can’t bypass the system because of one student. This Ethiopian student is just one example of thousands who get accepted every year to UM and who can’t come because of the financial situation in their home countries.

I, thus, hope that in the future, I will be able to help out these students and do something about this situation, as I personally feel that education is the key to success and the chance to overcome poverty. As for myself, I am an international student, yet, thankfully, my mother is American and thus, I am also an American citizen eligible for financial aid. If it wasn’t for many loans and grants I wouldnt’ be able to get a good education in UM today and that is why I sympathize with students such as those.

A second event took place this week that also touched on this link between poverty and education as well. As already mentioned in one of my previous posts, for our third story we wrote about capoeira classes that are helping out kids in an impoverished migrant community in Homestead, Fl. As we had to return to the community to do some more reporting on Monday, I started thinking about how these classes are providing an opportunity for these poor kids to step up and do better academically. Though they are only around 7 years old, theses classes are showing them them the importance of academics and how that can open a door for a better future, hopefully not inside a housing community where drugs and violence roam free.

In the end, these two situations have showed me how sometimes even if you are born into poverty, you have the chance to succeed academically, and maybe one day help others impoverished as well. It is our duty, as brothers and sisters, to help out Hispanic migrant children or an Ethiopian student. We need to find ways around the bureaucracy and provide scholarships to those in need, and give children the chance to break free from the poverty that holds them down.

It was amazing and touching to see a group of twenty children singing songs in portuguese, and jumping up and down with huge smiles. Even more amazing and interesting was how these children had progressed from antisocial, unhappy children, to children who were happier, and getting better grades because of these bi-weekly classes. The housing community wasn’t exactly what I expected, and so, seeing these kids so happy when they live in such horrible and deplorable conditions gave me hope. Hope that maybe these twenty kids will be able to stay away from the bad influences that surround them everyday.

This lady met a Brazilian lawyer and was able to not only divorce her husband, but also gain residency status. I couldn’t quite understand how someone could gain residency by being a victim of domestic violence. With this, I was able to go and interview her lawyer, Celia Gore. Gore was extremely helpful in making me understand how an immigrant suffering from domestic violence can appeal to the government and law and can, with evidence, show that they were victims. Thanks to the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Battered Immigrant Women Protection Act of 2000 and the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, a woman suffering from domestic abuse has to first call the police. Once they have done that, the law is on their side, and it will take about two years for them to be able to receive residency for themselves and their children.

Gore added that many immigrant women do not know that the law is on their side, and thus, continue to suffer silently. She has worked with several Latin American women before who have been victims of domestic violence, and she still finds that several times it is a vicious cycle, where a woman will constantly go back to her husband in hopes that it will get better and that he will change. Several times, however, that never happens.

In the end, it was interesting, insightful, and helpful to go and meet with Gore, even if it was for half an hour. I feel, also, that it made our story stronger as well.

Personally, I’m not really sure what my opinion is about new media. On the one hand I feel that this new form of jouranlism is great, and it is basically what was missing for so long. It is also great to know that my stories and that news can reach thousands across the globe in a touch of a button. I had never taken an online journalism, or new media class, and thus, this media convergence class has certainly taught me a lot about how there are several elements of new media that can complement print stories. HOWEVER, I am still feel that print journalism and print stories are somewhat more powerful than any other type of media. I chose to go into print journalism because I always believed in the power of words, and thus, when someone tells me that print journalism is dissapearing I guess I get really defensive and somewhat emotional. Thus, I guess that I do not have a fully formed opinion on media convergence and new media. I will wait and see and maybe by the end of this semester I will be able to further talk about how I feel about it.

The point of this post is to tell all of you, that I learned by lesson, but also that I learned, that as a journalist, mistakes will be made and that I will have to go back and get more quotes and more audio or footage. It is certainly a frustrating process to do so, and go back to re-interview someone, but with time, I feel, that I will get better at it.

I found however, while interviewing Iraci, and while hearing several stories that immigrating to the US and getting a visa to do so has become a very complicated and lengthy process. Though Iraci went through some problems while trying to renew her visa, it is nothing compared to many who everyday immigrate illegally to the US because it is so complicated to get a visa. Our story seeks to explain a little bit more about this process and why so many Brazilians are illegal in the US because their travel or work visa expired and the system does not allow for them to renew them easily.

In the end, I felt that her story was very compelling and allowed me to learn a little bit more of what life is like as a Brazilian maid in Miami.

After being successful in the actual filming, I moved the mini dv tape into Final Cut. This is where I encountered some problems. It took me about 2 hours to figure out the advanced computer program, and to be able to edit it. I know that the video bio is probably not the best, most professional, and advanced bio in the world, but I actually thought that it turned out pretty well. I know, for sure though, that by the end of the semester, I would have learned to use final cut and that I will think that the video bio is not good, and that it certainly needs to be either updated or redone. But, we will see what happens. For now, I am happy about how it turned out, and how I was able to use final cut for the first time ever.