Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Room Creativity

(1) How do you plan to address the room creativity expectation?

I believe that I will have a limited space to work with so I plan on keeping it simple. I would like to borrow flags of colleges and place them around the class room. I also planning on findings flags and placing them on tables that will be arranged in groups. I feel that for my activities there will be a lot of discussion so for the seating chart I want them to be in a group, but at the same time I want them to pay attention to me. Perhaps I may set up the room in a huge oval like shape since that could work best. 

(2) What activity ideas do you have for answer 1 or 2?

I really want to show them this: http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map  maybe for my sponge activity and I feel that they will be able to be fully engaged if I ask them to see the difference between cities like Pomona and Claremont. I want them to focus on the racial make up and see if there are any patterns. 

I know that for my second answer's activity I definitely want to show them these videos. It will tie perfectly into the topic of stereotypes and I will like to discuss on some of their first thoughts when watching this video was. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLESDleDgXY

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12CrpigM9Vs


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Answer 2

EQ: What is the best way to increase the number of Latino/a students that pursue higher educational institutions? 

Answer 2: A best way to increase the number of Latino/a students who pursue higher educational institutions is by understanding and embracing their Latino/a culture in order to reject forms of oppression found in our society that limit their academic success. 

Evidence and Sources: 
  • Santizo, Madelene. "Es El Momento: Factors that influence Latino/a academic achievement." Science Fair
    • I found that there was a higher number of students who had a 3.0-4.0 GPA who felt that it was very true that they feel bad when others joke about Latinos or put them down, compared to those who have a 1.0-2.99. This shows that those who don't reject stereotypes   have lower GPAs because they subconsciously accept these messages and conform to them - limiting their abilities. 
  • Gladwell, Malcom. "Blink." 
    • Experiment in which African Americans were asked to identify their ethnicity on a test and did poorly, while those who were not asked did well. What this shows is that when people's minds have to subconsciously accept that they are African Americans and makes them feel like they are going to do worse. 
TRANSITION into IATS test, and how positive images impact a person
  • Alicia, Gina. LA PLAZA - Independent Component. Advisor
    • There is so much Latino/a culture especially in California that people are unaware of. By going to museums or researching you can learn a lot about Latino culture. Look into Latino/Chicano/Hispanic leaders and what they have accomplished serve as inspiration. Knowing where you came from allows you to understand who you are and motivates you to take advantage of opportunities your ancestors never had. 



Thursday, March 8, 2012

The Product

Question: As of March, what is your product and why? Please provide evidence to support what you have done to lead you thinking this is your product. Be specific and use examples from your senior project (refer to what you are doing, for example, in my service learning, naming the where you work and who you work with, I have been..).



As of March my product is that I have become more active in my Latino community allowing me to become proud of my heritage. In my service learning for Uncommon Good I have assisted Carlos Carrillo, program coordinator, to inspire and motivate young students to pursue education by hosting different activities. After leaving my city's school district I felt like I no longer belonged and that I had lost the connection with my own community. Because of my senior project I have rekindled a relationship with many community members and in a sense reminded me of where I came from. I am now more then ever proud of being a Hispanic because I truly understand what it means to be Hispanic. I feel like I am more active in education and I try to inform younger students about scholarships, internships, etc. so that they too can pursue their dreams. 

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Fourth Interview Questions

  1. Why should people care about Latino/a education?
  2. What is the best way to increase the number of Latino/a students that attend higher education institutions?
  3. Why is it that there is currently a low number of Latinos/as that attend colleges or universities?
  4. What can parents do to help their children go to college?
  5. Can the government do anything to solve this problem?
  6. Can teachers do anything to help their Latino/a students?
  7. What can every day citizens do to solve this issue?
  8. If the Chicano Movement was seen as a revolution for social justice, do you think that the movement lost momentum? If so why and if not can you give evidence?
  9. Will there be any way for our generation to start a movement like the Chicano Movement and if so how can we start it?
  10. Does oppression play a role in the fact that many Latinos/as do not achieve a lot academically?
  11. Why is it that this issue has never been a real concern for our society?
  12. Do you think that immigration and Latino education connect in any way?
  13. Is there someone or something that caused this problem of uneducated students. How did we get to this situation?
  14. What if there are students that have no kind of support whatsoever, what can we do for them? 
  15. Are there any Latino/a ro-models that students can look up to for inspiration to reach their academic goals? 
  16. What do you think is the difference between Latino/a education and general education?
  17. Do you think that Latinos/as are very attached to their culture?
  18. Will there be an sort of advantage for different Latino generations? 
  19. How do you define Latino/a?
  20. Though many Latinos/as may not gain from our education system, why is it that Latinos/as still immigrate?

Monday, February 13, 2012

Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.
I have a couple of ideas!
  •  I would like to attend a retreat called the CA DREAM ACT Network, which will be hosted at Cal Poly Pomona. It is from Feb 17 - 20 and an all day thing. http://www.cadreamnetwork.org/
  • I have been thinking about applying to be a volunteer at a Mexican American history museum in Los Angeles. http://lapca.org/moreinfo
  • I have also thought about starting a club at I-Poly, which would be about the college process and just give lots of informations about scholarships, internships, etc. 
(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.
  • Since I will most likely spending all day for those 4 days and should spend about 10 hours a day at the event it will make 40 hours. I have never been to something like this so I am not sure how I will be able to show "evidence" of my attendance. 
  • I will volunteer for a number of hours at the museum, most likely giving tours because I believe I will be able to learn much more through that.
  • I plan on being the leaders and have bi-weekly meetings to discuss new opportunities that members could access. 
(3) How does your independent study component relate to your EQ?   
  • "It is for people who want to become leaders in their community and learn more about immigrant rights. For people who want to sharpen their leadership skills and network with other student activisits from across the state." I feel that this relates to my EQ because I will have up to date facts about immigrants and the Latino community. I just feel like it will provide me with lots of information that could be very helpful and that I could use during my presentation.
  • I really love history and would love to learn more in depth the history of Latinos in the USA. Even if I do not end up doing this as my independent component I plan on visiting this place because it seems really interesting. I will be able to share with people the history of Latinos and I feel that is important with my EQ since I want to promote self-awareness. 
  • Exposing young kids to resources is one of my key answers to my EQ and by actually implementing one of my answers I will be able to discover first hand if resources make a difference in students' lives. 

Monday, February 6, 2012

Independent Component 1

See Log Here


“I, Madelene Santizo, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 37 hours of work.” 

Literal
I attended a course, which was taught by a Pomona College professor, where I was part of the collaborative community that was composed of Claremont Colleges' students and Pomona High school students. I attended several meetings both in Pomona College and Pomona High to get to know each other and work on our specific topics. I worked with a group of variety of students on our topic of Migration and interviewed several people. For our final presentation we shared the stories of our interviewees and learned about the topics (Education, Housing, Communities, etc.) of our fellow peers. 

Interpretive
I had meeting for three months were we learned what a community really meant, and we visited and learned about two educational institutions  (Pomona HS and Pomona College) that are close to each other yet very different. These meetings themselves added the majority of my 37 hours (and additional meeting times), and were very productive since we were able plan our own curicculum. Within the Migration group that I picked we wanted to compare migrants from Claremont and Pomona, but instead focused on reoccuring themes and shared their stories. I was able to interview a Scripps college professor who was from Vietnam and an I-Poly student who was from Ecuador with a Claremont College partner, while my other peers focused on their own interviews. The interviews themselves lasted a couple of hours, but I first learned how to properly conduct an interview and transcribe it. The proof of all of my, and peers, hardwork could have been seen in our final presentation, which was like an exhibition, that was held on December 3rd at Pomona College.

Applied
I took into consideration that a large portion of Latinos/as  are recent migrants and have traveled to the United States from their home countries. I felt like this was a very important topic that I had to learn about in order to discover why so many people left their homes and why the US intrigued them so much to leave, which I assumed was due to opportunities such as acessibility to education. One of the many reocurring themes that I found throughout the interviews was that the young migrants took advantage of being able to be educated in the US. This leads me to conclude that many first generation Latinos/as are most likely to try harder in school then later generations. I believe that this is because they know what it is like to live in a place where there is lack of education. Later generations may not appreciate this because they have never had to face any struggles and do not value its importance. From this I feel like I could answer my EQ by stating that there must be an awareness for ALL Latinos/as of their roots and where they come from. If they are shown their potential conditions, whether its living in Mexico or Cuba, then they will appreciate everything that was done for them and be more likely to take advantage of their opportunities.

Also, while hearing my fellow peers presentations I found something interesting. Claremont, which is now a heavily populated with whites. used to be the home of many Latinos/as. Living by this neigborhood I never thought that any Latino/a even lived in Claremont. Basically, Latinoa/as were forced out of Claremont because they were going to be build new homes. and in recognition for their bad actions they made a little park called, "El Barrio." To me this shows that their is much oppression that we are not even aware of and I can tie this to my answer of rejecting imposed ideas from oppresionists.