Excerpts from Students’ Final Reflection Papers

This is my final paper of my undergraduate career, and so I have procrastinated to finish something so valuable and significant. I feel now that I have made the right choice in choosing to take my last class at UCLA, and I could not have chosen a better class to end this point in my life. . . . The class even took us literally off the university campus and placed us into a setting that was extremely experimental to all of us. This was very different from any other class I had taken my whole life. I would have to say that the different methods and approaches helped me to learn more about what this class meant and especially its objectives of truly linking the bridge between campus, community, and youth. I think more classes in Asian American Studies should emphasize this approach to learning because it engages students to participate with individuals in the community off campus. Finally, this class has transformed me personally in so many ways unimaginable and unforeseen. I know this because of the sentimental feeling of departure and closure that I continue to feel as I end this paper. I know this as I flip the pages of the booklet we worked so hard to create with the youth. I knew this every time I got ready extra early to go to Wilton Place every Monday, and each time I stepped into Room 411. Every smile and statement of excitement that the students expressed, and every genuine hug prior to our weekly departures reaffirmed the significance of our impact on the students and the importance of our presence in their lives as well as ours. . . . I would have to say that working with third grade students of Tony Osumi’s classes reminded me about what it meant to be human and genuinely care for other people. They reminded me about the value of giving unselfishly and trusting whole-heartedly. . . . As I say goodbye to my undergraduate career through this class, in reflection and inner growth, gratitude for every individual that has contributed to this tremendous experience, I can finally say that I have reached true closure while stepping into a new beginning.

In working with the kids at Wilton Place, I feel that I have been blessed in being given an opportunity to raise the self-confidence of children in our local community. One student I worked with seemed particularly reserved during our first days at the school. However, as they began to draw and write their stories, she did a particularly excellent job. She wrote about her family in Korean, and translated it into English as well. I immediately noticed several factors. For one, a fellow classmate for being able to speak and write in Korean fairly well immediately praised her. Of course, she enjoyed the praise and was seemingly injected with confidence. This highlighting of culture is especially important because her Korean culture was seen as a source of pride instead of a source of shame, as in the case with a number of immigrants. Also, with the constant, personal attention given to her, I feel that she was really able to take pride in the work that she was able to produce herself, especially because it was related to her personal life. On the last day, she even brought a small picture album of her family with her to show to me, and got up in front of the whole class and talked about her story! . . . Should UCLA emphasize this type of learning? I think that question should be left to the kids we worked with. Do not ask them if they feel more “empowered” now than they did before we came to Wilton Place. These concepts and words are difficult enough to explain to college students, let alone second, third, and fourth graders. Instead, ask them if they want to attend college more now than they did before we came. Ask them if they now have a general idea of what it takes to get into college. Ask them if they enjoyed writing their own stories. Ask them if they enjoy seeing their stories in print. Ask them if their parents are proud to see their children’s work in print. Ask them if they better understand concepts such as teamwork now than before out site visits. Ask them. I am confident the answers to these questions will likely be “yes.”

Student-initiated and student-facilitated classes should definitely be encouraged. Such classes provide a unique passion that is often missing in courses. In most classes, passion for a subject is lax at best, except of course from professors. What student-initiated and facilitated classes bring is a unique student-based passion. This passion permeates into the overall class ideology and mission, as it did in ours. . . . My personal transformation was wonderful. Beyond bonding with my peers and the Wilton Place children, I was able to see the importance of committee work. In essence, committee work is a forum for the development of shared leadership. Moreover, children are the most wonderful evaluators of others. Their perspectives, at times harsh, are often refreshing and wonderful. They were humbling, and as a UCLA student, as a male, and as someone with an, at times, brash personality, my interaction with the children reemphasizes the need to be humble.

I feel this student-initiated class is one of the most rewarding classes that I have ever taken in college. I have come away with learning so much more about various methods of teaching, and this has become enforced and engrained through praxis. I feel that the course was very challenging because students are not only made to master the readings, but we are given the opportunity to apply these ideas in real life, and this has been a challenge. Too often, I believe students become idealistic when speaking about empowerment and social justice. The idea of instituting social change is romanticized in many other courses. This course gives students the true unromantic reality of praxis but also gives students the skills and confidence to take on the challenge. I definitely believe that more classes should implement this style of teaching. When I become an educator, I will definitely implement this style of teaching.

Out of all the Asian American Studies courses that I have taken this quarter, this was the only one that focused on working/interacting with people who were not only from Asian ethnic groups. That is one of the things that I’ve come to appreciate from this course experience. We all are oppressed, and I feel that our coursework in Asian American Studies would be incomplete if it does not include people of other races as well. More importantly, we must realize that our struggles are not separate. . . . My experience working at Wilton Place Elementary School offered me a positive outlook towards working with children in urban communities. From the first day, teacher Jung-eun Son showed me that she really did care and support what we all wanted, that is, reinforcing alternatives ways to incorporate teaching values and ideas to empower student learning. Another thing that I particularly liked about my experience was that Ms. Son allowed us to take over and teach her class during the social studies period. I have much respect for Ms. Son’s commitment to teach in an urban community. It is certainly a difficult task. Throughout our visits, I’ve seen how patient she is with the students, and her soft tone has the power to teach/reinforce proper etiquette from her students that look up to her.

It was my first time to tutor kids. So, all the site visits are precious, meaningful and fun. While I tutored the kids, I learned many things from them (and from UCLA classmates, too). For example, we have to insist on our own ideas and opinions actively. What I learned from them will be useful and influence my life. I’d like to be a teacher, and I learned one important from this class and site visits: the importance of the kids’ viewpoint.

Before taking this class, I’d never been to Koreatown. I knew of its existence, but I’d never thought about going to that area of L.A. Just ten minutes from me, yet Koreatown seemed a world away. This class has opened my eyes to the ignorance that has sheltered me for most of my life. It is absolutely true that although we college students look at ourselves as socially enlightened beings, we blind ourselves in our own egocentric thoughts of superiority. . . . This course made us take what we’ve learned here at UCLA out into the communities to be educators as well as learners. We took concepts learned in the classrooms and used them to teach our kids, but we also learned how to perfect our new skills from the teachers at Wilton Place. Talking to the kids gave us new insight into the people of Koreatown and their lives. They shared many stories with us that would have never been heard if we hadn’t gone into their school. The reception showed the parents as well as the community that as college students we really care about what is going on in the lives of their kids. . . . After taking this class, I feel like I see the world in a very different way, and I am grateful to have been able to be part of such a tremendously important course. I have never been as inspired to make a difference as I am now. This course taught me so much more in one quarter than I have learned in all my years here. Now that the end of my college career is near, I am saddened because it took five years for me to become passionate about a class at UCLA.

As I reflect upon the work that I have done this quarter in Asian American Studies 197 J, I cannot help but smile. I have never been proud of my work in a class during my career at UCLA, no matter how high a grade I achieved, but I can truly say that I am satisfied with what I did the last ten weeks in this class. Not only was I giving back to the community I grew up in, Koreatown, but I was also learning important aspects about myself and taking a very unorthodox class which gave me a different perspective on how classes can be conducted and still be effective. . . . Asian American Studies classes should definitely try to embrace a more interethnic, interracial vision for social justice. The AAS classes that I took before this one definitely tried too hard to single out Asian American issues without connecting them to others. This makes the students get close-minded also, which deprives them of seeing the full picture. . . . Before this class, I was in the mode of perceiving Asian American issues as unique and exclusive of others. When I stepped into the elementary classrooms, however, I came to the abrupt realization that this is not true. In many neighborhoods, Latino/as, African Americans, and others share/contribute to the situation that the Asians are in, and it would be ridiculous to exclude them from the focus of Asian American Studies.

Over the years, Asian American Studies as a curriculum have changed tremendously from its original interethnic activist roots. In my opinion, it has progressed into more of an intellectual academic field than a progressive one. While it is important to bring back the progressive ideals of ethnic study programs into the different courses that are offered today, we also have to understand that since so much change has occurred, the idea has once again become revolutionary. Therefore, the idea of implementing collectivist and interactive education will not happen over night. Which is the same reason why I feel the goals we had set out for our class, in the end, were not fully accomplished. . . . The ten weeks should have been spent concentrating on developing a relationship with the kids in our specific class at Wilton Place than hastily beginning and ending our connection with them. Ultimately, I see this course as a class that extends to at least two quarters. . . . In retrospect, I feel that this course was a commendable beginning attempt to bring back social activism and an interethnic vision to Asian American Studies that produced a great deal to learn from. Although my life changing experience at Wilton Place has affirmed my disinterest in working with children, I am walking away with immeasurable respect for educators, especially elementary school teachers. I know for sure that I am incapable of handling such a hefty task.

By working with the elementary school students, with my fellow classmates, and with those heavy class readings, I believe somewhat in my blood the sense of goodness has gained more attention from me. I believe one purpose of the class is to lead students to care about the working-class community and also to those who need help.

I don’t think that my life values have changed, but I think that my thinking about myself has changed somewhat. I have usually not wanted to take on any leadership type roles and have usually let myself take a back seat to other people and just be the support-type person. I also have not been a “committee type” person, and I usually work by myself or with just a few other people I know personally to be able to do the job. In this class I have had to rely on people I had never met before, and I also have had to take on some leadership, especially in the Wilton Place classrooms. It has shown me that I can do this when I put my mind to it and that I actually enjoy it to some degree. I really liked the way the class pulled together for the various projects.

In my other classes, I just found myself making outlines of chapters, reading textbooks, taking extensive lecture notes, and memorizing material. It’s kind of like the banking system where I’m just memorizing facts and regurgitating the information in a paper or an exam. The second when my test is over, all the information has left my brain! Most of the time I don’t remember what I learned in the class! But in this class I learned so much because not only did we read interesting articles and books, we were able to see our reading come alive right before our eyes when we went to Wilton Place Elementary School. . . . I’ve worked with elementary school students in Sunday School before, but working with them in their environment was a different experience. I learned so much from them, and I love their innocence and their big heart. They were so encouraging to me, and it made me want to go back there just to talk with them everyday! The experience at Wilton Place changed the way I think in terms of youth empowerment through education. I never thought these youths, as young as they are, would really take interest in college and actually want to attend. Their curiosity of what we do at college surprised me! After graduate school, I want to work and serve in a community for youth, preferably high school students, but after this experience I want to also work with elementary school students.

This quarter I was able to experience great personal transformation by working with students and teachers at Wilton Place. My participation in this class has altered my life values and ways of thinking. Prior to this class I never really could have conceptually considered myself as a role model to anyone. Yet working with these students, I was able to be a mentor and friend in the few weeks I spent with them. My values have also changed because I feel that as a community member I have the personal duty to continue to help and provide being a role model to students in such urban communities. With Los Angeles being so highly diversified, this creates a community that feels anonymous and separate from everyone else. Classes like this one will help students in the urban communities feel less alienated and separated.

Even though it is difficult to apply theories and lessons learned into practice, I think it is very rewarding. In Asian American Studies 99 and 100, I got all riled up about how America isn’t exactly this ideal place I thought it was. I had all this anger and sadness and emotion but nowhere to place it constructively. Classes where I can put lessons learned into practice allow me to displace anger into something positive. They’re important because they teach people how to make change, and lessons become more concrete because you actually physically see what’s wrong with society. . . . I give a thumps-up to student-initiated and student-facilitated courses. I think it’s a great way to take back control of your education. The only problem I have with student-initiated/facilitated classes is that it is a huge commitment. . . . I definitely think more Asian American Studies classes should embrace more interethnic, interracial vision of social justice in studies and practice. It’s important to learn about your own history, but America is not isolated into different races and we have to deal with lots of other people. One of the main themes of this class was unity and teamwork and how that results in change. Imagine how beautiful it would be if all ethnicities and races came together to alter society.

I’m glad that I had the chance to work in this class with so many cute kids. It put a lot of what I was learning here at UCLA in perspective. I’ve felt lost here on campus at times because I don’t see what I’m in this institution for, but seeing the kids really puts things into perspective. Having student-run/student-taught classes helped us retain the information better. The whole class felt invested in the project, which is not an easy task for such a large size class to come together on. I hope to be able to take part in other great classes like this in the future (very soon future, too).

This quarter when we were challenged to think of creative ways to work with the students from Wilton Place, I became very frustrated that I couldn’t come up with anything. It wasn’t that I couldn’t be creative but rather that it took me a while to do so because it had been so long since I was forced to use my imagination in a class. Once I got used to thinking “outside the box” again, it wasn’t that difficult to come up with creative ways to interact with the kids. What I mainly did throughout the quarter was think of creative activities that I have participated in before and try to restructure them so they would be more appealing to second graders. . . . I have been very personally affected by our class. Due to my own stereotypes of the large UCLA campus, I have always been frustrated with the apathy of students, especially that of API students. Our class has proven to me that there are still a lot of people who do care about serving the community but just have not been provided with the right medium to do so. There are so many ways in which we as students can serve the community, one of which is through education. Through my experience in our class, I have learned that many students, especially those in Asian American Studies classes, can become very involved with projects outside of UCLA if they are framed right. Instead of being bombarded with progressive rhetoric or forcing students to choose sides, our class was focused on the value of relevant education, something that everyone can support and identify with. Because the class was framed in such a way, students felt less intimidated and were more open to listening to each other and applying what they learned.

I think that this Asian American Studies 197J course offered a very unique style of teaching for students to master. Indeed, we have applied our own understanding in teaching the elementary school kids. I believe that we have gradually learned a new skill through working with the kids. It opened a new door for us to see the teaching field differently. . . . Most importantly, I think we were able to achieve all our projects because all of us worked together. I guess this concept of teamwork is also what we have been trying to teach the kids at Wilton Place. I realize that through teaching and working with these kids that not only the kids learned but we also learned the value of teamwork.

Student-initiated classes should be what a college education is all about. For the first time in students’ lives, they have the autonomy to choose what they will learn, and student-initiated classes are a natural manifestation of this energy. Student-facilitated classes are riskier. In certain situations, like community-based classes, they can be productive in the sense that they encourage leadership and cooperation. . . . Going to Wilton Place reminded me that everyone’s horizons and visions are different, and being with children reminds you that fancy degrees and fancy words don’t matter in the long run. Plus, making a connection with the kids made me realize that everyone can be a role model. My kids taught me things that I could not have learned from a professor. Empowerment is a way of life; it must pervade every class and every activity because the smallest connection can make a difference in someone’s life.

This class was great in terms of how it was structured and conducted. It is a great change to the education system here at UCLA. Typically, I would go to class, sit down with the professor in front of the class while he banks the things that he wants us to learn. We sit thee, take notes, and regurgitate it through tests. This whole system does not allow us to think more critically about the things that we are learning. In class, we used our strengths to do things that some organizations here at UCLA can’t even do. We organized elementary school kids to come to UCLA for a tour. We organized ourselves to go to Wilton Place and tutor elementary school kids. We made a 50-plus page booklet and had a reception for the kids and their parents. All these things were done because of the grounding that we did in the first couple of weeks through the readings. I would say that more classes, including Asian American Studies classes, must take this different, but effective, approach. It allows students to move away from the Eurocentric way of learning with the emphasis on grades. It allows students to be creative and develop critical thinking. . . . This class has definitely helped me grow and expand in consciousness and critical thinking. By growing in this way, I think that I could foster this critical thinking in others and empower them and challenge them to do the same. We read earlier in class about “Praxis, reflection, and action.” This is not done enough. So many things happen to our surroundings and us. We do things so reactionary that it harms our own understanding and other people. If we took the time to reflect on what is happening and take a plan of action to do things, then people would see that this world needs change. This class took a good step in doing that. It allowed people to step into the madness called consciousness.

This class has been one of the most frustrating and yet fulfilling experiences in my time at UCLA. It is perhaps the first time I have ever participated in a project for a class which had implications and consequences beyond the UCLA classroom, and which fostered so much student responsibility. . . . As far as this class being student-run and student-initiated, I have a mixed reaction. Having students run a classroom teaches students to take responsibility in the same way that throwing an infant into a lake teaches them how to swim. In a way, this makes our success that much more amazing, but it made the class a bit scary at times. In the future, this type of course would definitely benefit from a larger-scale timeframe, perhaps being offered over the course of two quarters instead of just one. . . . This is definitely a class which should be developed further ad expanded upon. This class would be great offered as an interdepartmental course (we need more of those, too!). It’s been a blast, folks.

This class involved so many different elements, like the booklet, site visits, classroom discussions, UCLA Tour, and reception. But on top of that we were required to think about all those elements and exactly how they related to each other. That was probably the most difficult aspect of this class. That question, “how do all these relate to other?” still haunts me right now, because I am still unsure what the correct answer is. I think it bothered me even more because one of my kids would ask me the exact same question. He would ask why we did all this, why it was so important to create a booklet and to take them on a tour of UCLA. “Good question,” I thought to myself. His guess was as good as mine. And as I said, it still bothers me now. However, I think I have come to some conclusion that all these components were in essence to increase awareness. Our goals consisted of encouraging the kids to go to college, to read, and to write. We also wanted to involve their parents and teachers, bringing all pieces together. But what has hit me even more is that in the end, we as a class are the ones who probably changed the most and who learned the most. I realize that as a UCLA student, I am educated, fortunate, and privileged, but that does not mean a thing if I do not share what I know and what I have.

Education in my opinion is most valuable when it is applicable to the “real” world. . . . One of the most important reasons I can find for working in a community is a reality check. It is not far-fetched that one can lose sight of their intentions while studying at UCLA. Even as someone who studies to advocate for the community in the future can take the wrong path if they do not constantly “check” themselves. Education is all about developing your mind — in the way that you think, act and perceive the world. For me, it is especially important that I keep in touch with my purpose because I have had the privilege of growing up in an upper-class community. It is interesting to me that Tony Osumi came in and talked about sate testing for elementary schools. The elementary school I attended is ranked number one by this system. Having had the opportunity to work at Wilton Place was very different from my experience of going to school. This quarter has provided me with a “reality check.” I like to conscious of where I am in this world and where others are, and working at Wilton Place keeps me in touch with that. In a way I became saddened while working there, but have also regained my motivation. I see teachers that are motivated and dedicated, who just don’t have the resources of the facilities to give their students what they deserve. In that manner I have gained a lot more respect for the teachers at Wilton Place who make extravagance out of nothing. . . . A class like this should be taken by every UCLA student as a reminder that they too have privileges that others do not have.

Youth empowerment. Community education. Relevant education. Activism. Prior to this class, I had heard these terms before. I thought I knew what they meant, and I thought that just knowing about them was enough. I guess I never put too much thought or effort into what I could actually do for my community. This class really gave new meaning to these ideas and taught me a lot about myself and what we can do for ourselves and our youth and our community. . . . I had never imagined that we could accomplish the projects that we did, through a UCLA course. I was sitting there week after week with my kids, talking about “teamwork” and “making a difference” and finally I realized, “hey, this stuff really works! Look at all the things I’m doing with my classmates when we work together!” (it sounds dumb, I know). But really, I just never thought about the things I could do as a student, and while I was trying to get the kids to feel empowered themselves, I felt empowered also. . . . I know that a lot of this sounds cheesy and melodramatic, but I honestly was really touched and changed by this class. I learned so much and had such an awesome time working with so many amazing classmates. I think the hard part for me now is to not just sit back and think, “look at what we accomplished — we did a good job,” but to find new and more ways to stay involved and be active.