The Journey students met with two persons today who were an inspiration to be around and were genuinely pleased to be speaking them. The meetings with U.S. Senator Carl Levin and Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor came after a guided tour of the Capitol Building and visits to the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of the American Indian.
We were invited into the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building to meet with Senator Levin at 2:00 pm. We then walked over to the Supreme Court Building and were ushered to a meeting room where we met with her Honor Sotomayor. We have posted pictures of Senator Levin speaking with students. The group picture will be forth coming. We had a group picture taken with the Supreme Court Justice but it is not for posting or for use with any publication. That is the policy of the Supreme Court Justices. We did however take pictures of the students in the meeting room before and after our time with the Justice.
Students were asked for their reflections on the meetings with the Senator and the Justice and they appear below.
I learned from Senator Levin and Justice Sotomayor that to succeed you have to have a good attitude, not be too ambitious and always make sure that you have back up jobs if you are seeking elected office. (Raquel Zavala)
I learned a valuable lesson from the Senator and the Justice today. From the Justice I learned that you may not notice discrimination. From the Senator, he told us not to be too ambitious, to ask questions, to help out in your community and to be trustworthy. If I want to run for public office I should have a back up job. And basically I learned if I want to end up having a career in working for human rights, I need to help out in my community and get involved in stuff dealing with human rights, and volunteer. (Audra Christophersen)
. . . both gave some good advice. In a way they both said that whatever your dream is, go and try to reach it. When Justice Sotomayor said that she never realized at an early age that she was poor, that was crazy and pretty cool. (Alex Lassow)
Today we met with Justice Sotomayor the first Latino Supreme Court Justice and Senator Carl Levin and it was really fun. I learned from them that everyone gets discriminated against at some point in their life no matter if they are regular or famous people. (Jessica Ribesky)
I heard a lot of things today but one thing I remember most is what Senator Levin said: the first thing to focus on now is your education. That is how he got to where he is now. He had to have patience and time. He also said to have a good back up plan. (Nikalis Bissell)
Today I heard three things that are going to change my life for a while. First, you may never know how much you may be discriminated against and not be treated equally. Second, just because you don’t have to work hard does not mean you don’t do your best. Third, work hard and play later. . . (Alicia Shank)
Senator Levin talked about some things we could do and that will help me in the future: clean up the environment and stand up for your community. Justice Sotomayor talked about being discriminated against and that she may not have known it. It made me want to tell people about discrimination and stop it. (Brittany D’Avignon)
I learned from Senator Levin that for a lot of jobs that involve politics and that have a lot of people seeking those positions, its good to have a back up plan, something you like to do. He said getting into an elected office is based on luck and only 5 to 10% who run for office make it in. I could personally relate very well to Justice Sotomayor when she said she did not feel she was being discriminated against when younger, but when she got older she could tell more easily. Some of the hardest things she has done is standing up to her friends when they made racial remarks against Puerto Ricans. (Kayla Guzman)
Justice Sotomayor really was amazing. She told me how she felt about discrimination. She said she never really discovered how people viewed as different until she was in high school. I really want to be a lawyer, judge or cop. (Ricky Varela)
What I learned from Senator Levin was that what you plan on doing as a career, you can end up like him: being a senator and have a job that you want. If you want an elected position don’t be too ambitious and have some back ups. From the Supreme Court Justice I learned that even though she did not go through a lot of discrimination, it helped me realize that no matter what I go through I can do anything in life that I want to do no matter what anyone says. (Stacy Chambers)
Today the most important things I heard were that questions are important to ask. Also, you might not know what you always want to be. That helps me because I know I can go and do different things. (Courtney Prim)
Today we met with two remarkable people: Senator Levin and Justice Sotomayor. Both were warm and interested in the students. When they were asked questions, their responses were thoughtful. They refused to be simplistic with the students but rather to raise the complexities involved in the questions and answers. (Rabbi Alan and Anna Alpert)
It has been my pleasure to meet with Senator Levin a second time. I find him to be thought provoking and always offering up some great challenges to the students we bring with us. He does not talk down to them but rather raises them up and embraces their questions with honesty. Justice Sotomayor is the second Justice I have had the honor of meeting and it is such a unique an experience to have 15 minutes of their time. With Justice Sotomayor she was so warm and inviting and simply made the students feel comfortable. When asked by one of the students about her experiences with discrimination growing up, she did not immediately jump in with an answer. She was silent for a full minute and explained the reason for silence before sharing her response. (Pr. Chris Anderson)
Tags: Carl Levine, Supreme Court Justice Satomayor, The Journey 2010, Washington DC