High School Students Help Shape

An Informed View Of Poverty

By Jeff White

The face that stared back at them filled the room with silence. Young, tear-stained, it told a story of hardship, a story about the difficulty of living poor, on the street, with the AIDS virus raking away at her body.

The face belonged to a homeless woman, and it was the kind of face high school juniors Kandice Cohen and David Buyers have introduced to numerous Newtown students. The face of that New York City woman was the face of poverty in America.

For the past three weeks, Kandice and David have spent many of their days in front of classrooms, teaching their peers and younger children around town about the nation’s poor and homeless. What started as an assigned project for their honors American studies class has turned into an issue both feel passionately about.

“Newtown has a lot of advantages, but you have to realize that there are those who don’t have those advantages, so it is a social responsibility to be aware of those people,” says David.

The two students approached the project with different goals in mind. Kandice wanted look at America’s poverty issue in an intellectual light, so as the two began putting their presentation together she spent considerable time culling facts and figures from secondary sources and off of the Internet. Danbury’s Social Services office provided current homeless statistics for Newtown and the surrounding area.

David wanted to convey the issue in a more physical, hands-on manner, and decided to produce a video presentation in order to attach faces to the issue.

Although the project required them to dedicate seven hours of their free time, the two figure they spent close to 200 hours working on, and delivering, their lecture.

Two Head O’ Meadow fifth grade classes have heard the presentation, and last week the Kandice and David finished up talking to 12 middle school clusters. They also hope to present their project to their American studies class.

The finished product combined current statistics with video clips taken off of the news. Kandice and David focused on unemployment, how someone could become homeless, and what people can do to help eradicate the problem.

The most poignant aspect of their discussion with younger Newtown students involved their focus on children who grow up, on the local, state, and national levels, in conditions of poverty. Kandice and David urged students to realize that the town they live in is not a representative picture of society; there are many people who do not have the opportunities that good schools and stable jobs provide for Newtown residents.

Students soaked in the statistics, but watched with rapt attention as stories spilled out of the television sets concerning children their own ages who live on the street, or a Vietnam veteran who panhandles to keep his family afloat, without his son’s knowledge. It could happen to anyone, Kandice and David reminded their audiences.

“We go to good schools,” Kandice told Karen King’s fifth grade class. “Please take advantage of that.”

Fifth grader Bob Griesse got the message. He said that the most valuable part of the high schoolers’ presentation was the segment in which they dissected exactly how someone could fall into the clutches of poverty. He said that it was good that Kandice and David took the time to spread this message.

At the end of the talk, Kandice and David got their message across, whether it was through sad eyes on the television, staggering PowerPoint statistics, or an activity in which students were shown surveys that highlight how random poverty is.

“We can reach them more than their teachers can, because we have the advantage of age,” Kandice says, commenting on the fact that she felt she could talk “straight” to other, albeit younger, students.

The project has gone beyond class requirements, and the two show no signs of stopping once their final lecture is delivered. They have set up clothing collection points at both Head O’ Meadow and the middle school, and are busy encouraging students and adults to donate used clothing to benefit Danbury’s homeless shelter.

Kandice and David say that the reason they have put in so much effort into their project is that they feel they can effect some real change. They say that although many people in Newtown might prefer to consider poverty a problem that exists only in the urban sprawls of New York and Los Angeles, in fact it is an issue that knocks on Newtown’s doors every year.

According to Danbury’s Social Services, each year there are seven homeless people in Newtown. Although New York is over 100 miles away, Kandice and David say that one does not have to look far to see where a difference can be made.

“It went beyond just getting a good grade,” says Kandice. “If we just reach one kid and change their view of the world, then we have done our job.”