This summer, I partook in the Camden Immersion experience. I truly had an amazing time. I grew closer to my classmates, the impoverished people of Camden New Jersey and God. I was not sure what to expect going into the trip, the only thing I knew was that my friend Luke McCaleb went on the trip last year and absolutely loved it, so I decided to apply for it. I picked this trip because it would put me outside of my “comfort zone”. Camden New Jersey is truly one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in America. As a well-off kid who grew up in rural Southern Maryland and then moved to Annapolis Maryland, I had never faced widespread poverty and violence like this. Even though my high school is located in downtown DC and part of our school…show more content… Hopeworks’ mission is to help educate poor Camden locals ranging from ages 14-23 and help them in job placement. They trained the locals how to operate computers, everything from sending an email to making a website and they also helped them find jobs as surveying and mapping technicians. Hopeworks had a garden outback, which was where our work was based. One thing that I learned which shocked me was that Camden New Jersey is truly a food desert. Despite Camden’s close proximity to Philadelphia, supermarkets are far and few between, and remain quite inaccessible without a vehicle so locals rely on corner stores which sell junk food and have a deficiency of fresh produce. Due to the shortage of produce some residents are forced to grow their own fruits and vegetables. Camden is also a large city so areas to farm are scarce. Hopeworks allows and encourages the nearby community to plant their crops on their garden, but most of the neighbors are elderly so they have a hard time taking care of their crops. When we arrived at the garden it was quite overwhelming, it was completely overgrown with weeds. After working for a solid five to six hours we were done and there was hardly a weed in sight. After we finished, one of the neighbors Doris who had a strawberry patch greeted us and showed her appreciation for our work by giving us a few of her strawberries. It really amazed me how Doris was willing to give up her own…show more content… The first portion of the day we went to New Visions, which is a homeless day shelter which serves breakfast and lunch. We served the homeless people both meals and I enjoyed this much more than the previous days since I was able to actually talk and listen to the people of Camden. I talked to one man around the age of 50 for around an hour and a half straight. When I first sat down next to him he drew a few imaginary lines around him and told me not to infringe on his personal space. My first impression was "wow this man is really rude", but later on I figured out he was joking with me and that he was a really nice guy. When I told him that I play football he jumped in the air and was ecstatic, he went on to tell me all about his glory days as a quarterback. He told me to show him my 3-point offensive lineman stance and I did it and then he showed me his. He then told me to not make mistakes like he did in his life, because your life can spiral in many bad directions. At the end, I asked the man his name and he replied "don't worry about it, just call me QB". I'm not sure why he wouldn't tell me his real name, but I loved talking to him and seeing that he still had a passion for football despite his many hardships. One thing I discovered was that the people we were serving did not just want the food, they wanted to interact with us. When I was serving breakfast
