Final Project Multimedia and Artist's Statement

My semester at Escuela Vieau lead to an opening of avenues I would have thought of. I started off hesitant to even enroll in the class since in required 15 hours of community service. Where was I going to fit that into my schedule. I did it anyway, and I was happy to find the people at the Boys and Girls Club at Escuela Vieau more than accommodating to my schedule. I was able to come in every Tuesday for five weeks for three hours each time. Also included in the hours was the three hours of research that I put into my final project.
I didn’t start taking pictures until I got an idea of what my role at Escuela Vieau was. The original photos were just general layouts of the school. When I found the idea to focus on soccer, my last day of volunteering was spent in the gym capturing what they used to practice soccer in the gym. After putting my proposed topic together with my instructor, I started my research with the head of the Boys and Girls Club at the Escuela Vieau: Yesenia Montenegro. She gave me some information on the soccer programs at the school, but that the Boys and Girls Club did not actually handle the programs. She put me in touch with the main couch: Armando Dominguez. He was the one that gave me the most information on my topic. After a few emails with him and short phone call, I went on with my research. I hopped on the internet to look at school buses, private soccer leagues, and Milwaukee parks that have soccer fields.
My major played a role in my final project. I have been involved with LEAN processes for 5 years, and my education has given me about two years of process improvement tools. The soccer program seemed to me to be a place for a LEAN project. I grabbed a few found footage of some LEAN websites as well as the soccer leagues that Escuela Vieau is participating in.
I found the big cultural difference between the Escuela Vieau culture and the rest of the Milwaukee public schools creates less opportunity for the Escuela Vieau students to participate in their preferred sport: soccer. As the popularity in soccer grows in the U.S., there may be a public school program that will allow the students more opportunity rather than the thirty miles to travel to the private soccer club that their parents have to pay to be apart of. I learned from this information that I gathered and presented to my class, that I am able to apply for a grant to further research the opportunity for a public school soccer program in Milwaukee.