Equity & Social Justice
Organized in chronological order.
Burro Genius Essay
My First College Essay
Fall 2019 - ENGL 1A (SRJC)
Going back to school was a huge decision for me. Since I did so poorly in school before, I kept telling myself that “Cs get degrees” and that I just needed to try my best when I got to school. So I started by taking two classes to dip my toes in, a child development class and English 1A. I promised myself that when classes began, I would try my best on every single assignment, look at my feedback ASAP and implement whatever the teacher said. I’m pleased to say that that is what I did.
Our main text for ENGL 1A was Burro Genius by Victor Villaseñor. For our first big essay, we had to synthesize the book with research on a related topic. Since Villaseñor grew up with undiagnosed dyslexia, and I grew up with undiagnosed ADHD, I decided to incorporate research on dyslexia, and to a lesser extent, all learning disabilities, into my essay. When I read the book, I resonated a lot with Villaseñor’s school experiences and the terrible treatment he faced from teachers as a kid. Because I knew I would be a teacher, and I related to his story, I felt passionate about that aspect of Burro Genius, so I felt incredibly motivated to present the research I found about my topic well.
After re-reading this essay, I still feel proud of my work here. However, there is a lot I would change now, which is quite the contrast to what I said about this essay in my Final Reflection assignment for this class (snippets shown in the black box below).
For example, there is more than one instance where I would separate some of my paragraphs into two paragraphs, and I would have consolidated some of my simple sentences that start with the same word in the first part of the essay. I also would have set longer quotes apart from the rest of the paragraph. Additionally, there were some places where my professor pointed out that I should have used another sentence from my paragraph as a topic sentence which I agree with. This is actually something I still struggle with, and this reminds me I need to be more intentional about my topic sentences in my writing.
Some positive things stand out to me as well:
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I chose the perfect research to support Victor’s school experience in Burro Genius.
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I think the quotes I used were perfect for supporting my research.
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I like my conclusion. It tied my whole essay together well.
When I left this class, I felt reborn. It was the first time I had EVER done well in school (not just “decent” or “okay”). Reading my professor’s comment on the last page made me cry because, for the first time, I had a teacher who believed in me. This essay is highly significant to me for that reason and many more. It was my first concrete proof that I was capable and smart and that other people could see that in me as well.
"Our final essay of the year, the Burro Genius essay, is honestly what I’m most proud of in 2019. I couldn’t believe that I got so close to 100 points on an essay in college...In all the previous essays, I just started writing without much of an organizational plan and just moved things around as I read and revised. With the Burro Genius essay, I was much more intentional about everything. I was very focused on making sure every paragraph had a topic sentence and all my paragraphs had one topic. This essay proved to me that I really did improve throughout the semester and I did implement feedback correctly. There isn’t really anything I would change about this essay if given the chance. There is one place I would separate one of my paragraphs into two, but that would be it. I brought in Villaseñor’s voice where it needed to be in the essay to support my research. I synthesized my research really well. The only thing I wish I could revise would be my citation errors on my work cited and once in the essay. I believe that if I hadn't made those mistakes, I would have gotten a better grade, but I’m still extremely happy with my final draft."
"When I look ahead, I hope that I’ll be able to keep up my steady incline of improvement. I will continue to take the feedback I get and implement it in practice. I know that I will always need to work on catching my careless errors, which I can do by reading over my essays more, reading them backwards, and reading just one line at a time...I want to continue improving my synthesis because I enjoy it so much. Overall, the most I can hope for myself is that I continue to improve the way I have been. I feel so confident in my ability to reach my goals with school after this semester. If I follow the trend of each essay I wrote, I always improved by 2 points compared to the previous essay. That means that I will get a perfect score soon enough, and I will have this class to thank for that."
A quote from my Final Reflection assignment from ENGL 1A (written in December 2019):
Since this is a quote from my final reflection I wrote right after getting this essay back, I thought I should include it here.
This reflection allowed me to think about my writing at the time and think about how I would improve in the future. As I look back on this, I can't help but remember how I felt when I started school with the intention of being a teacher. I thought I would do poorly and my dream would be crushed. Luckily, I had a fantastic teacher who provided an environment where I felt comfortable sharing my concerns, and she helped me through them. I also got perfect scores on assignments and essays the next semester! So, my prediction was correct. I have to admit; I am proud of myself for trying and proving that I am smart and capable.
This I Believe
Spring 2022 - LIBS 327
As one of our final assignments, Ianthe had us all write one-page narratives about our beliefs. We each printed out enough copies for everyone in the class, and she used the opportunity to teach us how we could "self-publish" books in our future classrooms. Creating the books in class was fun, and we each got a copy to take home.
I am always nervous about expressing my beliefs, especially my less popular ones. Total liberationism (veganism) and anti-capitalism are probably my most "fringe" beliefs, and yet when I sat down to write this essay, they were the ones that came forward. I'm not surprised this happened. Total liberation and anti-capitalism are just facets of the same core belief of being against oppression and exploitation in all its forms.
Knowing that these beliefs are generally unpopular, I was nervous about submitting this since everyone would get a copy. The one-page restriction was also challenging, as it forced me to be blunt with my words. I didn't get to soften the claims I was making or veer off with a reassuring paragraph about the views of total liberation vegans, and why we might be different from the "mean" and "annoying" vegans people may have run into before.
While this assignment forced me to be blunt about my beliefs, it also forced me to stand with them as they are without over-explaining myself or providing context to make sure people
would still like me after reading it. That was honestly scary!
I also noticed that many of my classmate's narratives were personal stories about themselves that coincided with their beliefs. I had a fleeting moment where I thought, "Well, I did this assignment wrong, and everyone is going to silently chuckle to themselves about how I didn't understand the assignment!" But, by this point in my time in Hutchins, I realized this was a silly thought pretty quickly, and I realized that my essay not including a personal story about my life aligned with what my beliefs in my essay describe. Even when it comes to my beliefs, I am not the main character. The suffering of other beings will always be just as important to me.
Identity & Agency - Final Paper
Fall 2021 - EDMS 419
In the teacher preparation program, we take a class called Identity & Agency in Socially Just Classrooms. Taking this class was a massive privilege. Every future teacher should take a class dedicated to how schooling can harm students, different power dynamics and oppression, and ways to be a multicultural educator that celebrates all students. At the end of the class, we wrote a paper answering questions that connected our lives and unique experiences to the course themes. My paper discusses my most meaningful life experiences, how I compare my school experiences to people of different backgrounds, how the class deepened my thinking about race and my racial identity, and more.
I took this class during my first semester at SSU, and I’m surprised how little I have wavered on my feelings about identity and justice since I wrote this paper (which I didn’t even remember writing). I think a lot of what I discussed in this paper were views I had already held for a long time and have just fused into my life philosophy. I even laughed out loud while reading it because if I had been given this assignment to do now (without remembering I did it before), I would have probably written a remarkably similar answer to every question.