Blog #5

In last week’s class Julian started off by giving a power point on how to write and cite a paper in APA format. I found his power point very helpful, especially because I have a couple of papers that are coming up due. The rest of the class we focused on finishing up the presentations covering the challenges surrounding African Americans. After concluding the presentations Jaimie conducted an activity which had to do with the readings by Hurtado and Torres. We were asked to write on three note cards and put them on a Venn diagram which compared Hurtado and Torres’ readings, that activity showed how although both Torres and Hurtado were speaking on the same subject, they both had different perspectives and viewpoints which they stressed in the readings. After that we were put into groups and worked away around the room answering a variety of questions that had to do with being a Latina/o in higher education. My group consisted of myself, Scott and Shahdad, it was quite interesting to see that although we were all of different ethnicity we in a way understood what it was like to be minority like Latinos are. Even if I was the only Latina in the group, Shahdad, being of a different culture also understood barriers that I had to undergo like struggling with the language. I really like being put in a group with very different ethnicities it felt like I got an understanding from various points of views, which is always something great to experience.

 

This week’s readings were somewhat surprising to me, it is crazy to see that although people may have any type of disability they don’t give up on trying to live their lives as normal as possible. Sure there are things that are physically impossible for them to do, but in a way I feel like they find that as a motivation to find a way to accomplish that and say that they never gave up. These articles really opened my eyes to see that disabled people are not given the attention they deserve. I feel like there can be more done in order to provide disabled people with a more welcoming attitude. Whether it be simple things like getting them involved in things that they would normally would not be a part of or providing them with essential needs to help them feel like they are equal to any other person. Although I have a lot of experience with working with disabled people as a caregiver/ life coach, these articles made me open up my eyes and seeing what real struggles and differences people with disabilities have. I think that people with any type of disabilities deserve to be treated and have the same rights as any other person and I feel like this is not the case today, so some sort of action needs to be taken in order to make that happen.