Firing Up (pt. iii) “I feel like it’s the community (that makes Mt. Pleasant night life unique). Because we are a smaller campus, everyone kind of knows someone to some extent. No matter where we go, you’re going to see someone you know. It’ll be weird. It’ll be like ‘Oh, you’re the person that tutored me in my German class.’”- Samantha Shriber, 20. #josiefiresup
Firing Up (pt. ii) It’s impossible to talk about Mt. Pleasant nightlife without talking about Wayside, or “Wayhoe” as many refer to the establishment. Many people have their own Wayside story from freshman year as Wayside is the place for those under 21. The dance floor features cages for women to dance in, they don’t let men in them, and is a frenzy of bodies moving to the beat of the blasting music.
Firing Up (pt. i) Outside of the stressors of school and work the social calendar of Mt. Pleasant nightlife shines like a beacon to students. It offers an escape and adventure as they embrace what they think it is to be young. #josiefiresup
Didn’t have a headshot with colorful hair. Thankfully @kenziebrockman helped to fix that. #josiefiresup
From the sidelines of basketball (again). #josiefiresup
From the sideline of basketball. #josiefiresup
A moment inside a first grade class at Carroll Early Childhood Education Center in San Antonio. Carroll ECEC is leading what will eventually be a districtwide pre-k redesign that gives students more choices in their activities. The new way of teaching pre-K was designed by Carroll Principal Alejandra Barraza while she was getting her doctorate in early childhood education at UT, which allowed her the "opportunity to turn the research into practice," she says. #saninternio #latergram
"Here in the U.S. we have a strong constitution and without education and services... people really don't have any way of effectively presenting immigration cases to judges," says Sara Ramey, executive director of the Migrant Center for Human Right. Ramey visits the South Texas Detention Complex, one of the largest detention centers in the country, multiple times a week as she works with clients currently detained there. People often don't realize how difficult it is for people to go through the legal process. When individuals have a lawyer their chances are increased by four times explains Ramey, "people need to have their right to due process." #saninternio #latergram
Miguel Alcorn, 22, pulls up his blind to the view of trees and brush from his dorm room in Esperanza Hall on the campus of A&M University San Antonio. This is the second year students have lived on campus surrounded by trees and an occasional visit from local feral hogs, scorpions and a donkey. The dorms have been described as a “rural outpost” and I don’t disagree! #latergram #saninternio
Ready and watching you, 2019. Photo cred: @annafooda & @heldhandsholdinghands
As 2018 comes to a close I am a little overwhelmed as to where to even begin to start when looking back on my year. I know I am not alone when I say 2018 was one of the hardest years for me but it is also the year of incredible growth- both personally and in my craft. A very important chapter of my year was having the incredible opportunity to spend time in San Antonio with the Express-News as I explored a new part of the country with my camera. While I made a lot of frames I am proud of, I am forever grateful to Lisa, Krantz as well as my wonderful editors and bosses Luis Rios and Michel Fortier. I had the pleasure of working with these wonderful people who not only challenged me to make work that resonates but to strive to be a better person who is without a doubt committed to be the best visual storyteller they can be. Thank you all so, so much! I am back in Michigan and am about to start my second to last semester at Central Michigan and am happy to be back in the Mitten. Already excited for the adventures of this semester! PS I will still be sharing some more work from my time in San Antonio as I dream of sunny Texas skies and the best tacos ever. #saninternio Photo credit: the very talented Jerry Lara
One more from the story of students working to change rape culture at UTSA. “The movement made itself but we kind of just listened," Factory says. "What we’re doing and what we’re fighting for is important because normally this conversation (around sexual assault) dies out and people are scared to come forward with their stories or the rapists think that people just forget," explains Factory. #saninternio
Kimiya Factory and Taylor Waits along with other students on campus at UTSA have been working to voice their dissatisfaction with UTSA’s handling of sexual assault investigations, claiming that women are being raped and sexually assaulted by some of the same prominent students on campus. They are ultimately seeking to change the rape culture on their college campus. "The movement made itself but we kind of just listened," Factory says. Waits added that she sees tape being stigmatized in society and in institutions like UTSA. “It (rape) happens a lot and it happens very often,” Waits went onto say. “It happens with individuals you think are your friends or are close to you.” Factory explained that by she and fellow students not standing down “is the only way to confront it and keep trying to move forward and heal." #saninternio
Scouting has been an important piece of Michalea Oakes’ life. "I went from being a shy, conserved kid to wanting to go out there and do things," she shares. The 17-year-old is a current Venture Scout and fifth generation Eagle Scout hopeful through the new BSA Scouts program coming in February. The new program will allow young women to join the previously all-male world of Boy Scouts through the formation of all-girl pack next year. San Antonio has had 753 young women join Cub Scout packs this year. Oakes is excited about the inclusion and says that Scouts have shown her that she can do more than she thought she ever could. "I want girls to believe in themselves like that. I want them to gain the confidence to be leaders and get out there and I think the Boy Scout program will do that." #saninternio
"Part of our lives we've always served others and always wanted to help in those capacities," John Sanchez says of his and his wife Deanna's decision to become foster parents. The couple underwent special training to provide trauma-informed Trust-Based Relational Intervention care for their three foster children to address their trauma and help them heal. "It's a process of trust and of them getting used to you," says Deanna of building relationships with her foster children who came from abusive situations. "They were not able to trust others and they to build that trust with us." #saninternio