Neighborhood Boundaries: Orange

Our community immersion took us to Hope School, a school for homeless children located in Orange, CA. The original school was located in a chuch near the heart of Old Town Orange, and just a block away from Chapman University. The learning settings were located in spacieous rooms that were decorated with bright primary colors. Hope school was located adjacent to a YMCA that closed down but allowed them to use their gym and grounds.

Yet, everything changed when Hope School had to relocate about three miles North of its location when thei school did not pass an earthquake inspection. Now the school is located within a shopping center off of a busy street. Their vicinity contains a park and a food restaurant. The classroom boundaries are less defined because of the tight space and setting. I imagine the students' transition from the original school to its current location must have been quite a shock because of is austere setting. A school is usually meant to emit warmth and friendly surroundings, not the money-making look of a shopping center. However, the physical boundaries defined by this setting are minor. School allows us to break barriers, open the boundaries of our mind and fly away into a different world of books and knowledge. In this sense, Hope school has no boundaries. It has no boundaries because it gives the disenfranchised children of Orange County the opportunity to learn in a safe and stable environment, when everything else in their life is less than stable.