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Hi, my name is
Debbie Galeziowski.

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I'm a senior anthropology major
and a Frances Perkins scholar.

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This summer I interned at
the Care Center in Holyoke

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as a tutor.

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The Care Center in Holyoke
offers alternative education

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to young mothers who need
to take the high school

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equivalency exam.

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But they do more than
that, because they actually

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put structures in
order for them to be

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able to negotiate some of
the barriers that keep them

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from being in the classroom.

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And my motivation
for being there

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would be that I'm a
non-traditional student,

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and I understand some
of those difficulties,

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entering the classroom
with other things

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going on in your life, or
being away from the classroom

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and not understanding
how academia works.

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And it was a
challenge for me, so I

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felt like it would be good
to be in a place like that.

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So the Care Center breaks
down barriers for women.

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They have on-site child care.

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They actually pick up mothers
and their children each morning

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and drive them there.

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They have car seats
in vans available,

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so all they have to do is
get out of their house,

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get in the car,
and they're there,

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and their children are
safely there with them.

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There's a nurse practitioner
on-site in case of anybody

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experiencing some
kind of illness,

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or their children do,
and that keeps them

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from missing a day of school
because of an illness.

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And they also have
birth control,

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certain things like that.

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And then they have access
to other health care needs

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if they need to.

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They are fed every day.

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There's breakfast and
lunch for the students

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and their children.

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And a lot of these students
come from homeless shelters,

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and they're very
poor, and there's

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a lot of food shortages
in their families.

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So it's really
good to feed them.

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And I'm just going to
tell you a little bit

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about some of the really cool
things, the result they had.

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75% or Care Center graduates
enrolled in college,

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compared to 43% of high school
equivalency earners elsewhere.

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And 94% are women of color.

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100% of Care Center
women are low income,

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and 52 [? high set ?] students
were involved in college level

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courses in 2015.

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And they actually offer
those at the school.

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And now they have
Bard college in.

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And when mothers receive
their high school equivalency,

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they can start taking
classes on-site,

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which is actual college
credits from Bard college.

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And it's a really,
really cool opportunity.

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And they also have
a Clemente Course

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in humanities
that's offered there

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for usually low-income women.

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And they offer a lot of
resources with that also.

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They offer books, and child
care, and a lot of other things

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that help them participate
in the academic world.

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And my responsibilities there
were I was a tutor, obviously,

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so I worked one-on-one with
many different students.

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And mostly because I'm
not very good in math,

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I tutored social
studies, and writing,

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and language, some of
the specific things

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that were going
to be on the test.

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And each morning, I would go
and visit with the teachers,

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and they would tell me who
was going to be testing soon.

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And then we would
make a plan about what

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we were going to be going over.

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And I would gather
up the material,

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and I would work with
the students one-on-one.

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And so that's pretty
much what I did.

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But I also was involved in
other activities that were

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happening at the Care Center.

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So not only do they
have education,

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they have other things,
arts, and poetry,

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because they look at
the woman as a whole.

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And they offer her
things maybe she

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can't find in her neighborhood,
where her world is really

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small because she's a mother.

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So she might want to look
at some other opportunities.

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She might have to
experience things.

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So they have actually
an art teacher on-site.

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And they do painting,
sculpture, glassblowing.

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The art teacher there actually
has a studio in Holyoke

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where he does glassblowing,
and so he takes them

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to Hampshire College.

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So they go on some
really cool things

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where they probably wouldn't
have the opportunity

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to do that, just going to
take their GED test somewhere.

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So it's a really incredible
resources for these women.

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And another really cool
thing that goes on there,

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is they have poetry classes.

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And they have a poetry teacher
that works there specifically.

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And she brings in poetry from
Emily Dickinson, just anything

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that she can think of.

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And then from there, they
have a writing group,

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and they write their own poetry.

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And that's very healing for
some women to write down

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their feelings, or just
whatever they feel like writing.

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They also publish
a book with poetry.

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It's called the Nautilus II.

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Every year they publish it.

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And when I was
there this spring,

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they did a reading at
the Odyssey Bookstore,

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and the Odyssey Bookstore
has that book for sale.

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So that's a really cool thing.

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Another thing is
they have athletics.

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So what's better than
mind, body, and spirit?

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They have a rowing team
that actually participates

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in the Regatta in Holyoke, and
they won the trophy this year.

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And they've won
it multiple years.

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So that's a picture of the
girls that I actually worked

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with on the boat in the river.

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And three days a week, they
would have a team building,

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and they did that.

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And then there was yoga.

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I would go to the yoga
studio in Northampton.

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There was Frisbee classes.

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So just a lot of
things that maybe they

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wouldn't have the opportunity.

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So that would keep them
coming back, right?

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Because that's really important.

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The challenges.

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Well, obviously,
too many subjects

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that I wasn't familiar
with-- math, and history,

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and social studies, since I'm
not really familiar with that.

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That's not my academic study.

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It was challenging.

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I was a learner, along with
the students I was tutoring.

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I was learning a lot with them.

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A lot of them had some problems
with vocabulary, perhaps.

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They didn't understand
what a lot of words meant.

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So it was really
cool, because for me,

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that was really a big challenge
when I started school.

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So I was able to teach
them some of the ways

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that I learned, like
writing things down,

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looking words up in the
dictionary constantly.

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And then entering their
space as a white woman

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from Mount Holyoke College.

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They didn't know what
to think of me, right?

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Because it's, like,
are you a teacher?

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Who are you?

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Like, you're old, and you're
here, and what do you do?

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I was able to be a student
along with them, and share

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that I'm actually having the
same struggles as they are.

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It's hard for me
to write a paper.

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And it's hard for
me to-- So I was

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able to get through some
of those challenges.

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And learning how to
evaluate each student's

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specific learning style.

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And here's a nice picture
of a graduation picture.

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The lessons I learned
is that I really

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enjoy working with
women in a nonprofit.

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I feel like my education
was so uplifting for me,

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and I really look forward
to doing some kind of work

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in the future that would
be empowering or uplifting

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to women in particular.

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And it was really
exciting to work

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in a place that
looks at a person

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as a whole, instead
of just everyone

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needs to get their
high school diploma.

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But they saw how, well, why
is it hard for them to do it.

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How can we make it easier?

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How can we make it work?

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And so that was really exciting.

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And when I worked in the CBL,
or when I took a class with CBL

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last year, I learned about
some nonprofits and some

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of the things that people do.

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And I was able to connect
with the Care Center.

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I was able to take
that knowledge

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and bring it into an internship
and learn some things from it.

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It's not going to
be for everybody.

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So I get excited about it.

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It's I think it's the
greatest in the world,

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but all the students don't
think the same thing, right?

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So that's hard,
sometimes, to take it.

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And so we have to learn
how to manage that.

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And my last slide is, this
summer 41 students graduated.

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It was the highest number
they've ever had in history.

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All right. [INAUDIBLE]
to be with that group

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when they graduated.

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And it was really great.

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And I want to thank
[INAUDIBLE] Mount Holyoke Lynk

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for my funding, and
[? Allen Goud-Garden ?]

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for moderating, and having some
really cool classes where you

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get excited to do
community work,

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because I wouldn't
have known about it.

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And the Care Center, of course.

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And my panel members, it
was great to meet you all

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and work with you.

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And thank you.

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