The Soultown! Volume III: Issue 7 JULY 2019 | Page 12

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Making A Difference
Soultown Writer Takes On Local Civic Engagement Adventure
Foothill students engage with youth as a part of their service learning and community engagement experience.
SILICON VALLEY, CA - Today, I saw the human reaction to
learning. I saw the dots connect and light bulbs shone bright.
Normally, you can conclude when students are learning by
what they say about a given subject. However, I don’t think I
have ever witnessed the facial expression of someone learn-
ing the unfair truth about some of our societal practices, or
heard the verbal conclusions they create after confirming the
data they have only ever guessed or suspected to be true.
My friend and colleague directed me to this opportunity. He
strongly encouraged me to teach a short college course this
summer: Introduction to Community & Civic Engagement. A
bit apprehensive to add anything to my already busy sched-
ule, I agreed because I knew it meant providing first-genera-
tion students with the opportunity to experience a college-lev-
el course. In my mind, it’s an ideal way to transition from high
school to college-level coursework if you are scared by the
ESME
ORTIZ
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pace and perceived rigor of college work.
Our main project for this course is a community service op-
portunity where students will practice community engagement
and experience how service can positively impact large com-
munities. As with any service-learning, it is important to provide
plenty of contexts so students understand the bigger WHY.
They need to be able to create meaning and relevance to their
lives. Our project in a couple of weeks will focus on providing
enrichment programming to elementary-aged students at Taft
Community School.
I don’t want students to perceive this opportunity as one where
they are told what to do and simply need to show up to follow a
script. I want them to take ownership, provide a creative expe-
rience, and to understand the impact they can have. In an ef-
fort to provide context, I decided to share some of the statistics
and ratings are given to Taft in comparison to another school in
July 2019 • The Soultown International Magazine • Celebrating 2 years • Connecting Our Cultures to Our Cyber & Conscious Communities • thesoultown.com
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