Thanks to everyone for being
here tonight, it shows that you support not only us students but our
wonderful teachers as well. And I would like to acknowledge my two
professors in the Learning Communities. Not only have they been great
motivators but they have inspired us to go beyond our own limits of learning
and I say thanks to that.
Now for those of you who
don’t know what the Learning Communities are, it’s a program that fuses two
classes together in an attempt to make education a more enjoyable and less
daunting experience.
My two classes were English
205 and Chicano Studies 141B. All the hard hitting facts that we learned in
Chicano Studies were incorporated into our English essays, and all the
critical thinking we learned in English helped us to better understand and
discuss the Chicano’s point of view of history. Even though there was a lot
of homework (and believe me there was lol), we learned in what I believe to
be the best learning environment I’ve been in. It wasn’t just about the
classroom experience either. We were encouraged (sometimes coerced lol) to
attend World Culture events in order to learn outside of class as well.
Every event we were asked to attend was beyond great and taught us
diversity, which is what our class is.
Being in two classes with the
same group of peers made it a very comfortable learning environment. From a
student point of view, I feel it is necessary to make a comfortable
environment in order to learn better in class. In the past I’ve been too
quiet to talk or ask questions because I didn’t feel safe from being judged
by people I didn’t know. In our class we’ve made a second family and it’s
been easier and nicer to have an opinion in class.
It wasn’t a chore to come to
class either. If fact the environment we created made me want to come to
class and learn even though there were harsh moments this semester where
dropping seemed like the better choice, but because of my Learning
Communities family I stayed in and tried my best to deal with life and
school. See I know we all have problems happening to us all the time, it's
life and I understand that. But when you have a strong support group like
what we have it makes things easier. I know that it wasn’t just me going
through things but others as well and we have tried to be there for one
another like the family away from home that we are to each other.
So I would like to say thanks
to my teachers for caring so much about our education and our lives as well,
thanks to my classmates for being there not only for me but for each other
and thanks to everyone who supported this program because it’s a great one
and it needs to keep going. For those of you who are students here and
aren’t in the Learning Communities program you should check it out.
Thanks once again!
