Ruby Hochman
SELF TOLD
WCCDA Narrative Series | Seven
NOV 2022
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My name is Ruby, my pronouns are she/her. I've lived in White Center for my whole life. I've done a bit of volunteer work for the Jazz Band at my school, and for other organizations during middle school, I joined the LGBTQ+ Club my senior year and have been working for the school district in a program called Team Read, where I mentor elementary students from 2nd to 4th grade in reading.
I wanted to join the internship because I thought it was a good opportunity to get a bit more involved in my community and to participate in an organization that had something to teach me outside of school. It also helped that a lot of my friends were doing it too, so I got more time to connect with them and learn more about them while opening up more about myself.
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This internship has given me the chance to bond more closely with the people around me and in my community, which has been wonderful. I've also been given the chance to access resources for LGBTQ+ youth outside of my school and to learn more about the activism going on in the community.
"I think one of the biggest things I've gotten is time management skills, if that counts. I'm getting better at managing my schedule and being more responsible with my ability to show up on time and take responsibility for when I'll be late or not on time."
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I think that this program could extend even more in the community, like reach out to more schools and organizations to present this opportunity and include even more students with diverse backgrounds. Right now it seems pretty limited to students at my school, and I think it would benefit the program to try and include more students from various schools/school districts in it.
If I could work on a project, I had this idea that I could host/organize a non-profit after school class of sorts about LGBTQ+ history, issues, etc. for anyone who wanted to take it, and it would basically cover anything from LGBTQ+ history (including ancient civilizations up to modern activism), organizations and supports for LGBTQ+ youth to rely on, sex-ed (like Turnbergs suggestion for a representative from Planned Parenthood joining to talk about stuff like safe sex, having babies in a same sex relationship, pregnancy, and miscarriages). We would host fundraising events to make money that we could use for materials for the class like bake sales, auctions, and school dances. Stuff like that but it's not really a fully fleshed out idea.
End of Narrative