The Holly Neighborhood.

Gentrification is the change in a community who goes from being a low income community to be a higher income community. This mostly because the cost of the properties in the neighborhood are low cost and businesses who are looking for low cost land come in and buy this properties, raising the cost of leaving and forcing in many instances families to move out of their community.

The article by Flag wars, does a great job in my opinion showing how gentrification affects the community and the residents who in many cases have been living in their residences for several generations.

The article, "The Empty Stairs: The Lost History of East Austin" Shows the a personal story and side to the effects of gentrification. Reading this article I could feel as if I was standing in the old East 11th and 12th streets of Austin. Today, I was driving through those exact streets and I could not feel but sad as to how the reach history of this neighborhood has been almost lost. I wish that there could be something I could do to help to stop all this from happening like at this moment.

About Me:

About me:

My name is Javier Polo, I am a fourth year applied mathematics student and hope to one day become a high school mathematics teacher. When I was 11 years old when I came to the United States and started school. I always new I was different from the rest of the kids in class with me because I was undocumented. I never realized what this really meant. It wasn't until I was in high school that I became aware that being undocumented meant that I could not apply to scholarships, obtain federal financial aid, get a drivers license and that at any moment I could get deported to Mexico and my life would change completely in a blink of an eye. 

Being here at UT has helped me develop into a leader, however, this was not something that I was able to do alone. At first I did not have a support system of any kind here at UT, and my first two years were extremely rough. However, my junior year I became a brother of Omega Delta Phi, a brotherhood that has helped me in my times of need and has helped shape me into the leader I am today.  

I currently serve as the Volunteer Management Vice-Chair (VM for short) for Project 2014, which means that I am in charge of helping recruit Team Leads for the day of project and assist in their trainings. One important aspect of The Project is to know about the community we are helping and how to successfully assist them in bettering their community.  

Aside from serving on The Project Executive Board, I also serve as the President of the Latino Pan-Hellenic Council (LPHC). The purpose of the Latino Pan-Hellenic Council is to act as a governing body, which serves to unify the Latino/a Fraternal Organizations. In addition to increase awareness, increase interest in and strengthen Latino/a community on campus.

I also serve as the Campus Relations Officer for University Leadership Initiative (ULI). The University Leadership Initiative (ULI) harnesses the talents, abilities and determination of youth – particularly college students – to affect long-term change in a proactive manner. Specifically, ULI conducts outreach at local, state, and national levels to address the dilemma faced by young people who were brought to the United States years ago as undocumented immigrant children, but who have since grow up in the United States, have stayed out of trouble, and wish to continue their education on to college.