Self Reflection

(1) How do you think you are doing so far in your senior project and why?  AE, P, AP, CR, or NC


I feel like I'm doing awesome! I'm done with my independent learning which I presented on Dec. 3rd. I've also just finished my college class in Spanish Morphology, which connected to my senior project because even though it is a linguistic class it opened my eyes by allowing me to see that all Latinos are different, which could be seen from the social dialects that we have. I felt like this was important and should be identified when dealing with Latino Education since many parents or students may speak a different type of Spanish. Language is very important because it is the way we communicate and if we don't all understand each other then we are going to have problems. I've been doing my service with Uncommon Good, in which I have been calling parents for monthly meeting reminders, speaking to elementary kids, and doing anything he needs me to do. I went to a lecture hosted by Victor Villasenor, who is a Latino author, and all the things he said were very inspiring. I've also started to contact another professor so I could possibly enter her Chicano/Latino Experience course, which should give me more great information. I'm also considering volunteering in La Plaza, which is a Mexican-American museum. I feel like I've done a lot and I've really gained new information so I would give myself a P <-> AE. 




(2) What one thing do you think you have done well on and why?


I am proud of the fact that I've been going out of my way to look for more information, yet I still focus on what is required. I've really been concentrating on local and current events that all have something to do with education. I've been sitting down and watching documentaries about immigration, which all seem to connect to education in some way or another. I also have been keeping up on the Pomona College situation and the peaceful protests that they have been doing in order to make their college change the way they treat people who cannot present their identity papers. 


(3) What is one thing you would like to improve on and why? 


I feel like I should do more research, by actually reading books or articles that relate to Latino Education. I really haven't had time to do that, but will when I get the chance. 

Science Fair Proposal

1. What is your hypothesis?
Latino parents that expose their children to educational resources such as enrichment programs, college workshops, seminars, etc. at an early age will increase the motivation that Latino students have to pursue higher educational institutions, than that of Latino parents who do not expose their children to educational resources. 


2. Identify the dependent (produced), independent (manipulated) and control variables in your hypothesis.
Dependent: The motivation of Latino students. I am planning on measuring this through their own self-report and specifically asking them - 

• What colleges/universities did you apply/ied for your senior year?
• I will be ranking the colleges by title: Ivy League, Junior Ivy, etc. in order to analyze what level of difficulty for college they chose. 
• Did you apply to any scholarships?
• From your list which college/university did you think was the most prestigious? From a scale 1 - 10 how confident are/were you about getting accepted? 

Independent: The parents' actions that led their children to be informed about college/university. 

Control: I plan on asking the same questions that i did to the dependent group. They are going to be college/university students that have all ready gone through the college application process and made it. Since they have actually been admitted then I will be able to observe whether the educational resources really helped them. Because of the fact that many don't live with their parents I will not ask for the parents survey but just focus on self-reporting. I am going to compare these findings with the dependent group to try to verify the overall findings. 

3. What is the connection between your science fair project and your senior project EQ?
My senior EQ is: What is the best way to increase the amount of Latino students that pursue higher educational institutions? 


My science fair will be searching to see if parents truly play an important part on the motivation that high school students receive. I hope to find why some parents end up helping their kids more then other us and also determine whether it makes a difference or not. If it turns out that they are important then this could be a solution to my EQ. 


4. How will you perform the experiment?  Include the equipment you plan on using.
Equipment:

1. Questionnaire
2. Computer program that allows me to get frequencies and compare date. (I have used this in Pomona College once, so I will ask for the program) 
3. Consent form for minors

I will create a questionnaire for both parent and students (control and dependent) that will ask them various questions depending on their role. After letting them take it home and fill it out, I will plug all variables into the computer and start making connections. As of now I'm not exactly sure on all the possible questions/variables. 


5. Which category will your project be listed under? 
It will be listed under behavioral/ social science. 

What I've Learned So Far

1) What have you learned how to do since you started working on your senior project?

I have learned to pay more attention and focus on current events that I never really thought about or even knew were occurring. Before, whenever I would watch the news I would not look at important things that impacted me, but instead be horrified by the terrible news. I never grasped the fact that television also brought helpful, direct resources that could better the community. I started noticing that there were specific segments in news broadcasts that were dedicated to inform the audience. Whether they were about finance, education, etc. they all served a purpose and hoped to help the viewers. Since my research project is about Latino Education, anything that related to it, like the Dream Act, immigration protests, or new statistics about Hispanic education, I started to notice it frequently. I am now more aware about current events and make sure that I am up-to-date with my information. By paying attention to my surroundings this helps me understand whether Latino parents are being offered resources that will help them encourage their children pursue a higher education. I believe that this is really important since it may be a possible answer to my essential question. 


2) Post evidence of this accomplishment.  It can be in the form of a picture, video, document, etc..

In the Univision station that primarily serves spanish-speakers, I found a segment named "Es el momento: Educate," which means: It is the moment- Educate yourself. After watching several episodes I went on to their website where I found a lot of resources. Parents who may be watching this show can get interested and log on to the cite, which is great because it goes into depth about a lot of things. I'm not sure if it existed before, but this education program seems to be fairly new. This new lists of programs makes me believe that Latinos are starting to become more aware about the education issues and they want to fix it. The website is : http://vidayfamilia.univision.com/es-el-momento/?origRef=http%3A%2F%2Fvidayfamilia.univision.com%2F

3) What research helped you to do this and how?
As I was thinking about possible solutions to my essential question I was with my mother watching spanish television. I saw a piece of the segment and then asked my mother about it. She then told me that Univision has a new program that is about education. She described what the show was about and some of the resources that they offered. Later on through out the week I started to notice that the messages were daily and they covered a lot about education. In the segment they offered their website as a suggestion to look at and I did. Now, whether its in English or Spanish television I have been more involved in seeking specific information about education. 

Independent Component 1 Plan Approval

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.

I have all ready started doing my independent study component by working with Gilda Ochoa (Pomona College Professor), Pomona College students, and Pomona High School students. This a course taught by Ochoa, but I am only participating in the community collaboration aspect; I'm not enrolled in the course. Through the collaboration we will become a closer community and at the end of the course give an oral history presentation. To do this we will need to do research and interview several people. Every group of college and high school student will have different aspects (education, family migration, sex and gender) and will focus on that specific topic.

(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.

We have met and will continue to meet every next Friday (or sometimes Thursday) usually from 2:45 - 4:45 pm (sometimes 12:30-4:00 pm), until the final date of December 3 (Saturday). Though the the meetings itself should average a total of 26 hours, if I include the extra time needed for interviews, and research this should be a  little more then 30 hours. 

*Location varies from Pomona High School or Pomona College

(3) How does your independent study component relate to your EQ?   

EQ- What is the best way to increase the number of Latino students that attend higher education institution? 

I have chosen family migrations as my topic, but it will not be such a broad topic. I chose family migration instead of education because I wanted to concentrate on the reason why migrant parents do not search for college resources. If I am able to pinpoint the reasons why parents don't know about resources then I can come up with a solution (perhaps through my research itself). It is important to take into account the reasons why it may be hard for parents and children to assimilate, this may have a connection with education. I also will be there while other groups give their presentations,  I will be taking notes and asking questions so I may use their findings as part of my research. I will be able to hear presentations from different perspectives and this could impact my answers to my essential question. 

Defining the Essential Question

(1) What is your EQ?


What is the best way to increase the number of Latino students that attend higher education institutions? 

(2) Define the words in your EQ to make sure we are on the same page regarding what your EQ means.


By "increase" I mean a substantial amount; I'm not certain of what that is but it will definitely not be 1%. I will define Latino as anyone who is a descendent or from Latin-America. Though I am not certain, I do not believe that I will include community colleges as higher education institutions. 

(3) What are some possible answers to your EQ so far? 

• Inform the parental community about unknown resources for the college process through ways that include, but are not limited to workshops, presentations, media (magazines, tv, etc.).
• Inspire and motivate Latino students to take pride in their heritage through positive forms of art (plays, videos, stories, paintings, etc.).
• Educate Latino students directly about the benefits of pursuing a higher education. 
• Teach Latino students about the generalizations of stereotypes and persuade them to not  demean themselves and their dreams. 

(4) What has been your most important source and why?  Be specific.  If it is a person, name them and what they do, if it is an article, book or video, name the title and author.  


My most important source has been my independent learning that I have been doing with Pomona High School and Pomona College students. We have been working in a collaborative group and have done several different activities. The activity which I thought was really informative was the one when we analyzed the 2010 Census map: http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map. I found huge differences from cities like Claremont and Pomona. In Claremont there are many more people with a greater level of educational experience and predominantly are Anglos, while in Pomona there are fewer educated individuals and are predominately Hispanic. This really made me more passionate about what I want to discover and hope to find the solution to clear the distinct boundaries and differences from these neighboring cities. 

Second Interview Questions

I believe that I will be interviewing Carlos Carillo, Connect to College program coordinator, since I believe that I will be doing service learning with him.

1. If you went to a higher educational institution, where did you go and for how many years? 
2. What did you major in? Does this have any connection with what your career is now? Why does it or why not?
3. What exactly is Connect to College? 
4. What certain qualities or traits do you have to have in order to fit this job? 
5. Were there any certain procedures that you had to do before receiving this current job? 
6. What exactly is your job?
7. What event (or thing) inspired you to work in this field?
8. Do you believe there is any purpose in your actions? If so, explain. 
9. When I mention the words: Latino and education, what are the first things that you think about?
10. My essential question may be: What is the best way to increase the number of Latino students to attend higher educational institutions. What do you believe is (are) the answer(s) to this issue if you think it is? If not explain why not.

Presentation Reflection

1.  In what way did the first interview affect your presentation?  Please explain, be specific and use an example.


The interview had affected my presentation because I had learned the difference between Chicano Psychology and Chicano Sociology. I had planned on speaking about the Chicanos in general, but I learned that sociology tends to look more at the history of the Chicano as a whole, while psych. focuses on the Chicano as one identity. I'm still unsure of what I may lean towards, but for my presentation I talked about the Chicano in the 40's and included both history and identity issues. However, I may not focus so much on the past of the modern Chicano when doing my 2 hour presentation; I'm still unsure. 

2.  What you say stood out about your presentation performance and why?


I thought that my board was quite large enough to be seen and even though it was simply pictures I thought it as creative. I feel like I included a lot of information and hopefully taught people some new things. I liked my bubble diagram and if there were more time I could have showed the audience the difference between what they knew and what they learned. I was planning on dressing like a pachuca and i think that would have stood out, but since we were supposed to announce the dance I decided not to. 


3.  What was the most challenging to do and why?
My throat was dry so it was really hard to speak, and I felt myself getting nervous. It was also very hard to say everything that I wanted in just 5 minutes, so I had to rush when I was talking and that didn't help my throat. I wish I could have had more time to include everything that I wanted to say and to also properly do the activity on the board that I wanted to do. 

Senior Project Presentation 1

Objective:
Students will be learning a brief event in history of Chicanos, which are the Zoot Suit Riots. 


Procedure: 

1. Intro - Ask questions to audience like if they are familiar with the Zoot Suit Riots. 
2. Give facts (refer to visual) about the Zoot Suit Riots and then explain how this is tied into my senior project. Explain how history has impacted the lives of Chicano/Latinos today. 
3. Explain why I'm even bother teaching about this subject and clarify why I am interested in my senior project. 

Check for Understanding:

I'm going to ask thought provoking questions that should allow me to analyze whether they have learned anything at all. 

Resources/Materials: 

Poster Board

• Visual of a man wearing a zoot suit 
• Other pictures of that period- maybe of the Sleepy Lagoon case

Interview Check

1. Who are you interviewing and why?

2. What additional questions will you ask them (in addition to the 5 we require)

My topic is Chicano Psych. I chose this topic because I took a class over the summer of Chicano Psych and it really interested me. It opened my eyes, and made me realize that people think differently then others because of their different culture and ethnicity. After studying this I hope to gain more knowledge of the daily life and struggles of the Chicano. I plan to play a huge part in my community and I'd love to get a better sense of who they are so my job can benefit them more.