Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
WOMAN: The residency program is a 16-week-long immersion in Over-the-Rhine,
where students, faculty and community members
engage with each other over discourse of public issues
such as gentrification
and the importance of community in an urban environment.
This year, students from different majors lived and worked together.
We took courses, volunteered,
and worked at various placements in the community
that challenged us to break stereotypes about this historic neighborhood.
The community residents helped us to open our minds
by showing us their ongoing fight for social justice
and the sense of community amidst development.
And this is our experience.
What I've heard, like, Over-the-Rhine wasn't the best place,
as far as crime and stuff like that.
The other things I'd heard is that there's a lot of development going on,
but there's a lot of controversy around it.
Bad part of town. You don't go here.
There's drug dealers here.
You come here, you get shot.
I mean, I came down here during high school,
but that still didn't change my perception.
I'd say, I didn't have a very good notion about it.
I just knew that it was very poor
and there are a lot of drugs going around here.
And, like...
I don't know. Yeah, it just wasn't good.
But something about it
really, like, compelled me to want to do this program.
I decided to participate in this program
because I come from a pretty philanthropic family.
And, um, being myself, I'm pretty different from a lot of the people
in my family and I have just been kind of looking at ways that I can get involved
and do the right thing and go with my conscience on things
and not, I guess, be sucked into the corporate bubble,
or into, um, I guess, a mindset
that only the big succeed, or only the strong succeed.
And just be compassionate.
I feel as a designer, as an architect student,
to be a better designer you need to experience every experience you possibly can.
In that not social. I mean, you need to experience
how to actually physically build something.
You need to experience all the social issues, all the ethics.
I wanted to get out of that, kind of cute, happy bubble that Oxford was.
And it was kind of driving me up the wall
that I was sitting in sociology classes and philosophy classes
and talking about all the injustices of the world,
and then we would walk out the door and not do anything.
There's a lot of history here.
A lot of un-textbook history here.
Like, it's one thing to hear that this is an Appalachian place
and Germans moved here and stuff like that.
But there are a lot of things that are not in textbooks
that people are not aware of and stuff.
And, you know, to kind of have the history be in your face
and have the personal accounts of different people that live here,
you know, is really authentic.
I wanted to see from my own eyes what this place was really about.
I wanted to see from my own eyes
how the world can make a difference.
How do I, as a person, make a difference in the world.
I've learned a lot since I've been here.
And I've gotten a lot out of all the experiences I've done.
It's just been an interesting sort of time of year.
And I'd like to think that I've helped the community since I've been here.
I've learned a lot about myself
and I've learned a lot about the society being here.
And it helps me as a designer,
and it helps me as a person to grow.
It seems like sometimes just giving people the platform that their voice can be heard
gives them a little bit more confidence
in that they can survive something that's going on bad in their life,
or that they can make a difference in their own community.
So I think that that's definitely a benefit.
Um, and there's other things, like our studio project that we're doing,
and helping out OTRCH
to create a white box space for another business to come into the neighborhood
that would benefit the community.
So, I think that all of these things have pretty much benefitted.
Working at Venice was perfect,
'cause I got to see so many behind-the-scenes
actions of, like,
people who were coming out of prison or are off on probation,
and the effects that it has on their...
You know, on employment barriers, on collateral sanctions.
Whether it be welfare programs,
or even just getting transportation somewhere.
People, in so many ways, don't reach beyond
what they already know, or what they expect.
Um, I do think coming down here is important.
And just being open-minded
and being aware of what your ideas are of this place
before you come.
It's hard. It's just like, "Do this program!" sometimes.
It's like, "Just do it!"
And you'll see why, like, it's important.
And you'll see how much it can change
your stereotypes about this place,
or any place for that matter.
SCHWERMAN: I think the only thing that'll make people understand
or help them to is by experiencing it.
Without coming down here and meeting the people, getting to know them,
seeing that they're actual people,
they're not the bad entities that they think they are,
nothing will ever change.
And the only way to educate them about that
is by just telling the truth.
No more lies, no more politics, just the truth.
We can always, you know, publish all sorts of films and books
that talk about other people's experiences here.
But until you've experienced it in your own mindset,
then you're not gonna learn it the same way.
It's a home. At the end of the day, this is a place where people live.
They raise their families, you know.
They take their children to eat, they grocery shop.
SCHWERMAN: My first impression was that it was a very friendly place.
And, like, not quite what I expected.
Everybody was saying hi on the street.
There were people out all the time.
I mean, during the summer Washington Park still had tons of things going on.
So, it was just a lively place.
I was really excited at first.
I felt like I could...
I don't know, I was really passionate about the things
we were learning about down here.
And it's really exciting to be living in the city
and experiencing a different way of life than I was used to.
Yeah, very excited. Felt like I could change things down here
and really get entrenched in the issues.
At first I thought it was really good.
I really did.
But then, once you start learning about
what the developments here were really about,
then you start questioning things here.
You know, it's not the greatest thing in the world.
There was a lot of information to take in at first, definitely.
GOINS: It amazed me, being from a small town, really what...
In Over-the-Rhine, they really have that small town...
Like, they want to know who you all are walking down the street.
They wanna say hi to you every day.
They want the stores that you walk in
and they know who you are, they know what you want.
My first impression about this place was not that bad.
It really wasn't. The streets were nice.
The neighborhood looked good.
I mean, this was after the renovations, of course.
It was after Washington Park.
My perceptions have changed quite a bit.
I walk around and I see
a lot of resilient people and a lot of, um,
people who really love the community, who love living here.
I think I've gotten a lot more, like, receptive to people.
I talk to people now that I just met.
Whereas it used to be like put your head down and walk past them.
YOON: I thought I would be really scared of the whole design building
and using tools and stuff.
But I think it's a lot of fun.
And getting dirty, you know,
and getting dirt all over you is actually really exciting. So...
I think it's gonna be different for me to take this experience
to the level of, back to campus,
back to this level of education,
where everything is in theory.
And everything is in the classroom, in a book.
And now that I've seen some of the ethics and...
In the real life scenario.
Now that I can take that to the classroom,
into the books that I'm reading,
I think it's gonna change my perception
on what I'm learning and what I wanna do
with my education and my career.
I plan to inform people by
acting what I believe.
GOINS: I think just discussions with your peers,
who you work with, your family.
Just having discussions with them.
Once they learn how passionate you are about something
they'll want to learn more about it.
And then, perhaps they can get passionate about it.
The biggest thing that I've learned is that
there isn't just one social issue
that needs to be addressed, there are many.
Because all of them are intertwined.
You really can't give somebody housing
and expect them to survive without helping them
get on their feet as far as financial problems.
You can't expect somebody to go to work
if they don't have housing and they don't have any place to rest their head.
Because people will get burned out.
And you really can't expect children to go to school
in an environment that's not enriching and that doesn't inspire them to learn,
that doesn't have the right resources or anything like that.
And then, once they graduate,
expect them to go into the world wanting to succeed.
It doesn't happen like the movies happen all the time.
That's like one in a billion chance. So...
I mean, I've been to cities before.
I've been to, like, all different places.
And it just makes me question the history of them.
And wonder how they came to be the way that they are
and why, you know, a city is set up the way that it is.
To be here with an open mind for sure.
And if you think that, um,
you are somehow any better
than any of the other residents here
who have lived here for a lot of years, actually.
Then, I think you are coming in here with a very, um,
difficult mindset to work with.
To keep an open mind. That helped me.
Just having an open mind about everything and
putting yourself in that...
Just go and learn about things.
Don't just assume or don't just go by what people say.
This is an amazing experience.
Out of all four years of my college experience
I couldn't imagine not finishing off my college career like this.
I think that I've learned so much that it's just...
It's just crazy, like, how much we've all learned here
and how much all of us have grown.
I've seen tons of people, or, well, everybody in our program
just kind of morph into their own being on their selves,
but also the people around them, I've seen them benefit.
And it's this real world application that you can take to
any place that you go to in the future.
It doesn't have to be some place that's rough
as far as financially stable,
or having a lot of cultural issues.
You can take it to anywhere.
(WOMAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
WOMAN: It's okay, you're doing well.
Oh, good.
WOMAN: We're done!
(LAUGHING)
WOMAN: Introducing Barbara Walters.
MAN: Are we ready? WOMAN: It's recording.
(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
(INAUDIBLE)
-We're good? -MAN: We're good to go.
Gracias.