In January, I was able to meet with a small group of students that attend my favorite escuela – the UABIC School (Unidad Académica). Please refer to my earlier post to learn more about this very special school
The students were a mix of 15- 17 years olds ranging from starting their 2nd semester to completing their 6th (final semester, graduation). They were bright, engaging and very interested in sharing about their lives. I learned that they very much enjoy attending their school and were enthusiastic regarding the community action program. Here is what they said:
I asked a variety of questions including, “Which is your favorite part of the school? What is your favorite class?"
Student #1: My favorite part is the library. Because it is a moment you can spend, aside that you can hang out with your friends, you can read, obviously not too loud, but you can like, have that moment. And I think my favorite class would be History.
Student #2: I really like to go to the cafeteria because I get to hang out with my friends. My favorite class is, I don’t know, I think physics.
Student #4: Mine is, I also like the library, because there is so much knowledge, I mean, you never get tired of learning from the books you can read and my favorite class is English. Is a really important language, I mean, is very important in our times.
Student #3: My favorite area is the cafeteria, because I get to hang out with my friends and my favorite classes are History and English.
Student #5: My favorite parts are the cafeteria and the library. The cafeteria because you can spend time with your friends and chat anything you want and the library because you acquire knowledge you don’t know, you can fill yourself with a lot of knowledge and my favorite class are the ones related to science.
The students reported that they did not work after school. Of the entire group, only one student had a parent that graduated from high school. (At this point, there was a bit of confusion when I asked if their parents supported their attendance in the high school as they kids thought I had asked if their parents still wanted for themselves to attend/graduate). Laughter ensued and we moved to the next topic.
I also asked about the future including immediate and plans after graduation. All of the students had a concrete future plan that included attending the next level of education (college).
Student #5: I am, after graduation, going to study, well, I want to enter the medical school.
Student #6: And I want to enter in psychology school.
Student #3: I want to enter in the history or social sciences school, to study something like that.
Student #1: Social sciences school.
Student #4: I would like to enter language school
Student #2: I don’t know very well, but I would like to study about different cuisines, gastronomy or something like that.
As you know, I really like the school and the mission of service to the neighboring community. I wanted to know what like the most and the least about school.
Student #6: What I like the most about school is that there is always a good environment and harmony, both with teachers and students. And what I like the least is...well nothing.
Student #4: The school’s atmosphere is good.
Student #1: Everywhere you look, you see everybody, and everywhere you go or anything you are going to do, you can talk to someone, or you see someone talking and it is a nice talk.
Student #5: I mean, the way the teachers and the students treat each other, the way they relate to one another, is not so much of undermining one another, but helping each other and being pleasant.
Student #3: Ok, so as my classmates were saying, I like the atmosphere and the way we treat each other, because there is trust and we help each other out, but what I don’t like is the classroom changes we all go through each year and each semester. Well, for example, from my point of view, supposedly, the school does it to getting to know each other, but then again, if you are someone that has a hard time fitting in and you get changed, I don’t know, 4 or 6 months later when you had already fitted with a group or with someone to start working together...
Student #1: But, that, that thing he is talking about, that is a strategy they talk about in the first semester. Which is, not so much to relate or getting known by everyone, is more for the future, like when you are in college you will not work alone, you work with a group of people, I mean like, a lot of times you will not work alone, you have to learn to adapt and they teach us that here, they teach us to fit in, to interact more, and that is why when we get to sophomore year, everyone knows everyone, and have more trust with each other, everyone, I mean like, interact and hang out more, so, it’s like a plan the school uses so we can to get know each other, and while it does bring pros and cons, I think it turns out being positive in the long run.
Student #1: The ideas they have about I don’t know, failing classes or something like that. This school bases on the fact that they give a lot of help to students and some of them can take advantage of that, they like, take things lightly and they think like I can pass whenever I want to, so I don’t know, I feel like I would change that, give them more...strategies.. not more strict, but give them more strategies so they can move forward, I mean, if they have troubles at home, financial problems or something like that, give them strategies so they can move forward and keep growing in the future.
I was also very interested in hearing more about the service activities...
All: Yeah, we participate.
Student #4: We all helped with academic support for kids.
Student #1: Sometimes, we work with animals. Previously, we worked with renewable energies or with this, we had this thing called the ESCO, which was to help kids that come from other countries with no money to pay for a class, so we gave them classes. There is also the hands on the ground project, which is that greenhouse over there, they upkeep it and earn with what they produce.
Student #3: We also help out in any way we can, like cleaning the park, keeping it clean, we sow it, make compost.
Student #5: In the san vale, we take care of making campaigns to protect the animals. Here in the school they make a lot of them, so, veterinary students come to...vaccines...
Student #1: It is the service where the school gets together with medical students, and they give a healthcare service or something like, is something health related...so they sterilize puppies, give free consults, dental treatments...
Student #3: Also, the community can bring their animals and we take care of them for a cost.
Wow, Isn't it amazing - how do you say Wow in Spanish (The kids told me it's "Wow")
And of course the students were curious about me, about learning English and meeting students from Princeton High. This is something I plan to work on for the Spring.
The students were a mix of 15- 17 years olds ranging from starting their 2nd semester to completing their 6th (final semester, graduation). They were bright, engaging and very interested in sharing about their lives. I learned that they very much enjoy attending their school and were enthusiastic regarding the community action program. Here is what they said:
I asked a variety of questions including, “Which is your favorite part of the school? What is your favorite class?"
Student #1: My favorite part is the library. Because it is a moment you can spend, aside that you can hang out with your friends, you can read, obviously not too loud, but you can like, have that moment. And I think my favorite class would be History.
Student #2: I really like to go to the cafeteria because I get to hang out with my friends. My favorite class is, I don’t know, I think physics.
Student #4: Mine is, I also like the library, because there is so much knowledge, I mean, you never get tired of learning from the books you can read and my favorite class is English. Is a really important language, I mean, is very important in our times.
Student #3: My favorite area is the cafeteria, because I get to hang out with my friends and my favorite classes are History and English.
Student #5: My favorite parts are the cafeteria and the library. The cafeteria because you can spend time with your friends and chat anything you want and the library because you acquire knowledge you don’t know, you can fill yourself with a lot of knowledge and my favorite class are the ones related to science.
The students reported that they did not work after school. Of the entire group, only one student had a parent that graduated from high school. (At this point, there was a bit of confusion when I asked if their parents supported their attendance in the high school as they kids thought I had asked if their parents still wanted for themselves to attend/graduate). Laughter ensued and we moved to the next topic.
I also asked about the future including immediate and plans after graduation. All of the students had a concrete future plan that included attending the next level of education (college).
Student #5: I am, after graduation, going to study, well, I want to enter the medical school.
Student #6: And I want to enter in psychology school.
Student #3: I want to enter in the history or social sciences school, to study something like that.
Student #1: Social sciences school.
Student #4: I would like to enter language school
Student #2: I don’t know very well, but I would like to study about different cuisines, gastronomy or something like that.
As you know, I really like the school and the mission of service to the neighboring community. I wanted to know what like the most and the least about school.
Student #6: What I like the most about school is that there is always a good environment and harmony, both with teachers and students. And what I like the least is...well nothing.
Student #4: The school’s atmosphere is good.
Student #1: Everywhere you look, you see everybody, and everywhere you go or anything you are going to do, you can talk to someone, or you see someone talking and it is a nice talk.
Student #5: I mean, the way the teachers and the students treat each other, the way they relate to one another, is not so much of undermining one another, but helping each other and being pleasant.
Student #3: Ok, so as my classmates were saying, I like the atmosphere and the way we treat each other, because there is trust and we help each other out, but what I don’t like is the classroom changes we all go through each year and each semester. Well, for example, from my point of view, supposedly, the school does it to getting to know each other, but then again, if you are someone that has a hard time fitting in and you get changed, I don’t know, 4 or 6 months later when you had already fitted with a group or with someone to start working together...
Student #1: But, that, that thing he is talking about, that is a strategy they talk about in the first semester. Which is, not so much to relate or getting known by everyone, is more for the future, like when you are in college you will not work alone, you work with a group of people, I mean like, a lot of times you will not work alone, you have to learn to adapt and they teach us that here, they teach us to fit in, to interact more, and that is why when we get to sophomore year, everyone knows everyone, and have more trust with each other, everyone, I mean like, interact and hang out more, so, it’s like a plan the school uses so we can to get know each other, and while it does bring pros and cons, I think it turns out being positive in the long run.
Student #1: The ideas they have about I don’t know, failing classes or something like that. This school bases on the fact that they give a lot of help to students and some of them can take advantage of that, they like, take things lightly and they think like I can pass whenever I want to, so I don’t know, I feel like I would change that, give them more...strategies.. not more strict, but give them more strategies so they can move forward, I mean, if they have troubles at home, financial problems or something like that, give them strategies so they can move forward and keep growing in the future.
I was also very interested in hearing more about the service activities...
All: Yeah, we participate.
Student #4: We all helped with academic support for kids.
Student #1: Sometimes, we work with animals. Previously, we worked with renewable energies or with this, we had this thing called the ESCO, which was to help kids that come from other countries with no money to pay for a class, so we gave them classes. There is also the hands on the ground project, which is that greenhouse over there, they upkeep it and earn with what they produce.
Student #3: We also help out in any way we can, like cleaning the park, keeping it clean, we sow it, make compost.
Student #5: In the san vale, we take care of making campaigns to protect the animals. Here in the school they make a lot of them, so, veterinary students come to...vaccines...
Student #1: It is the service where the school gets together with medical students, and they give a healthcare service or something like, is something health related...so they sterilize puppies, give free consults, dental treatments...
Student #3: Also, the community can bring their animals and we take care of them for a cost.
Wow, Isn't it amazing - how do you say Wow in Spanish (The kids told me it's "Wow")
And of course the students were curious about me, about learning English and meeting students from Princeton High. This is something I plan to work on for the Spring.