College Life

I am now a full time college student and I absolutely love it! I’m taking a Math, English, an Intro to Political Science class and a history class. I love history...it’s always been a favorite subject of mine. My major is Political Science and I’ve started a Disabled Student Alliance at my college which is so exciting. I’m also continuing my work on the Disability History Week Campaign. We’re in the implementation stage and since California is such a big state we’re starting small and we’ll get bigger each year. I’ve met some pretty incredible professors. Some of which I don’t even have. My biggest advice for college freshmen is talk to every professor you can. Network like crazy! You’ll meet professors that are really amazing. Some of them are reading this shout out! Also always stay ahead. I “tried” procrastination.......never again! Next month will be crazy. I’m traveling non-stop, which is why staying ahead and on top of everything is so important. Things happen for reasons we don’t see at first. For example, I was placed in an English class before 100, which is the transfer level. For me I personally, I think I should be in English 100 because this class is too easy. Even though I feel like I'm in the wrong class, I love the professor, so I’m happy to be there. Another example of this is while I was walking to the bus stop the week I started at my college. I met the Ethno Studies teacher. He has been a very big help and motivator for me. All my professors are really supportive of what I do. I love my college. It’s filled with great professors and staff. Seeing the sun everyday helps too. My life has changed so much. College is amazing. I feel like I’ve finally found where I’m supposed to be. I will put another post up about Syria but I’ll quickly mention it here. It was beyond words. Amazing and life changing to say the least. I am now planning on learning Arabic. Back to college life, in the month I have been there I have gotten everything set up with the Disabled Student Program and Services (DSPS), Extended Opportunities Programs and Services (EOPS). DSPS provides the accommodations I need for example I use a pulse smart pen in class which records audio of what I write on paper and gives me a copy through the computer. For more information go to HYPERLINK "http://www.liverscribe.com" . I also take notes on my computer, get extra time on my tests and have them scanned into Kursweil. Which is a program I use to read. It reads the words to me and highlights each one. Which helps me learn through my dyslexia and my visual impairment. For more information go to www.kurzweiledu.com/ . I also was asked by DSPS to start a club for disabled students, which of course I accepted. So now I am President of the Disabled Student Alliance. I just got an internship at an Independent Living Center which I am really looking forward to! My classes are all ready interesting. I am also planning on studying aboard next summer, which will be a challenge since I need to raise 7,000 dollars to go.....not including the classes. I am applying for scholarships like crazy! In my next post I will write about my amazing experience in Syria!

You can do anything if you set your mind to it!

You can do it if you put your mind to it

I have neglected this blog for far too long. Let me catch you up on this past year. I started a second senior year. There was a credit situation where the private school I had gone to before transferring had not given me my freshman and sophomore credits. So even though I had passed all the required senior classes the year before, I had to make up the deficient credits. Over the summer of '09, I had also taken 2 community college classes...an art history course worth 3 units and an assistive technology Kurzweil class worth one unit. In all of my life I had never crossed a stage and received a diploma this includes kindergarten, 5th grade, & eighth grade. I was given the option on numerous occasions to “test out” or get a GED. Needless to say I declined. I have dreamt about going to a good university all my life. I wanted to use my services and I didn’t want to have anything less than my diploma. I have never not done something because it was hard. If I really wanted it in my heart I did what it took to get it. So even though I was missing more than 30 credits I was determined to reach my goal. I enrolled in 2 summer classes and when I started school inquired about why I was not invited to join a college class to help Latinas get into college and maintain a high GPA. I got into the class, stayed and received 3 college units for each semester. 1 college unit is worth 3 high school credits. I also enrolled in .5 unit classes for 8 Saturdays. They were psychology classes. 8 hours long and very boring. I only missed one class due to being sick one Saturday. The fall semester was not fun for me at all. I see it as a test of will and perseverance. I had no time for myself. I had also joined a club at my school that was mandatory in order to go on a trip that is called Sojourn to the Past. I’ll get to that later. So my schedule at the time looked like this. I went to high school took my 6 required classes and two days a week stayed for the college success class. Then one or two Saturdays a month I went to the .5 unit class. It was around November when I joined the Disability History Week Campaign in my state. After winter vacation I arrived at high school exhausted but ready to continue. I had finished the hardest part of that year and had as been told that I was chosen to join an advisory board for a state grant and the first meeting was expected at the end of the month and I was expected to attend a week long conference leading up to the meeting which was fine. I was looking forward to it. I ended the month of January working hard to pass my algebra class and having a pretty easy time with the other 5 high school courses. I had also signed up for the college career class again. Math has been my worst subject since getting sick and missing a lot of the base in algebra. I had the best teacher teaching me. I had met her and the way she taught benefited me and I believed that I needed to be in her class. The meeting had gone well and I was excited to have a job at a state grant and was glad the school year was almost over. February came around and I was really tired of going to my high school classes but my goal was in reach. I believe it was in the month of February that I applied to be a counselor at Outdoor Education. This is a program that teaches fifth and sixth graders about science and the importance of the environment. It was a month before I was scheduled to leave on The Sojourn trip which was a trip in which you retrace the steps of the civil rights movement. During this trip, you would go to Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee, visit museums and meet people that were part of the civil rights movement or their families. (For more information please go to sojournproject.com) It was an amazing trip and I learned so much. That trip was honestly life changing. When I got back I heard from the campaign that they wanted me and other youth organizers to start giving presentations in our schools. So I gave a presentation to the History and English departments at my school and in May to the School Board. By this time my excused absences were mounting and I was making sure I went to the classes I could. I get sick quite often because of the effects of my chemotherapy treatments. In May a month away from Graduation I went to outdoor Ed as a counselor and was in charge of 12 ten year old boys Not the easiest thing. Besides the job having been extremely physically demanding. (hiking and walking) I quickly found that I was grateful to only have one brother. That was a great learning experience. Once I arrived back at home I was ecstatic that I only had a month left until graduation! I received an email about a summit to be held in Damascus the capital of Syria a country in the Middle East. Without hesitation I went home and filled out the application. At the end of the application I was told I would hear back on graduation day whether I got in or not. My reaction my thought would be well that’s really going to mess me up if I don’t get in on graduation day. Finals came around. The seniors took their finals a week early. I passed all of them but math. But I had worked to have a good grade until then so I was safe. So graduation practice was expected for 5 days before the actual ceremony which would be at night on the last day of school. Let me just say that graduation practice kills any excitement you have about the actual ceremony. I was very sick during finals and the practice. I did manage to make it to all my finals and practices. If I hadn’t I wouldn’t have graduated on stage....but I did. During the entire ceremony I was thinking, “I stayed an extra year to graduate on stage? The diploma was worth the diploma but this?” Well I graduated on stage and got my diploma so it was worth all the blood sweat and tears. I learned a few days after graduation that I was chosen for the Summit in Syria!