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Adventures in Social Work
By Elissa K. Harvill
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Monier, who worked in ORU food service to pay for school, looks too young to have graduated when he did.* Especially considering that he had to go an extra year due to his reluctance to declare a major, which, after much trial and exploration, ended up being social work--"a practical major, based in reality, that didn't require a lot of memorization," is how Monier described his degree and current career.
The particular teenagers to whom Monier has become somewhat of a parental figure are pregnant girls: Americans (some as young as 12 years old) and Russian orphans (some as old as 21). Most if not all have come from unstable homes where there is little or no encouragement to pursue education, cultivate talents, or dream of being more than they know.
"College is a foreign idea to most of the girls [at the Margaret Hudson Program]," explained Monier, who has spent about 13 years serving there as counselor and life skills teacher. "We encourage them to finish school and take the ACT." The Margaret Hudson Program gives teen mothers an alternative way to attend high school classes, while also providing childcare and healthcare services.
In addition to his job at Margaret Hudson, Monier works evenings as a gate agent for American Airlines and manages the front desk and racquetball courts at the Tulsa YMCA, during odd hours, weekends, and holidays. And in the summers (when he's not in Russia), he works at summer camps for mentally handicapped children.
"I'm not a workaholic, by definition," Monier clarified, "but people ask me why I choose to be so busy. In my family we had to have a job by the time we were in the fifth grade, so I was a paper boy. I was up at 4:30 in the morning, before I went to school."
So how does he find time to go to Russia (every year for the past five)? He doesn't. The current director of the ORU social work department, Dr. Lanny Endicott, will just call and say, "You're going with us," and somehow shifts are covered and everything works out.
Monier and Endicott (who is in Russia again this summer) were in Vladimir and Moscow during the first part of January, where they listened to Russians voice their concerns at a child welfare conference at the American-Russian Institute. Also there on missions, they returned to work with older orphans (ages 14-21) during their winter break.
"One of our goals is to continue to do follow-up with some of the orphans who attended our educational camps in the past," Monier said. "These kids are used to different groups coming in for a short while and then never seeing or hearing from them again." This "love 'em and leave 'em" approach from many of the humanitarian groups causes orphans to further distance themselves from Americans trying to reach out to them.
But Monier is hopeful. "Since the 'fall' of communism, [Russia] has become more open to talking about options to deal with issues of crime, AIDS, pregnancy, smoking, alcoholism, etcetera."
According to Monier, orphans (on Russian welfare) live on $50 a month. Teachers who work in the orphanages get paid $60 a month.
"Alcoholism is a major problem and many of the kids are getting into Internet gambling and drinking," he said. "There are around 700,000 homeless kids in Russia, living in the streets, train stations, and gutter ways; many create orphan gangs. Some girls support themselves with prostitution. The guys get into criminal activity."
Monier, Endicott, and others from the Tulsa area have experienced success in reaching out to Russian orphans through Children's Hope Chest, an organization founded by ORU alumnus George Steiner, which "aids orphans in their journey toward independent living." Hope Chest is also opening new programs called coffee houses for older orphans.
"Once they turn 21, they get kicked out and have no support whatsoever," Monier said. "The coffee houses will provide guidance, independent living skills, some help with healthcare, interviewing and résumé skills and tutoring."
This past winter, Monier and his team spoke to such issues as peer pressure, budgeting, and "What is love?" allowing the orphans to role-play in front of each other--an approach which has proved more successful than the traditional lecture.
"[The orphans] watch how we treat them and how we treat each other," Monier shared. "We help clear the tables and if an American helps, they really watch because they're not used to seeing Americans in service--they think we're all wealthy. We ask the young people how they get their information about Americans and they say, 'MTV!'"
With their background in the Russian Orthodox Church, many of the orphans know the Bible, though without revelation. "They can quote [scripture] better than many teenagers here," Monier said. "Some of them have accepted Christ; Lanny taught on the Lord's Prayer and talked about the role of the Father. He's very talented in tying together the religious and relationship aspects."
By now, Monier expected to have children of his own, and in a sense, he does--and seems to thrive on serving as a stand-in parent to many, whether he is helping a teenage mother in Tulsa get her life on track or playing soccer or Uno (in Russian) with orphans in Vladimir.
*(Monier asked us to withhold his grad year "out of sheer orneriness"; however, we can agree that it happened within the last few decades of the 20th century. If you really want to know, you can check your yearbook or send him an e-mail at smonier@yahoo.com.)
