Blog #5

Last week  in class, we did not start with any activity which I really liked previous activities because they were very interesting. However, Julian informed us with APA format and the difference between MLA and APA. It is important for all of us to know how to write in APA format because our final writing and for my other classes writing, it is required to write in APA format. What I notice from my other classes about APA format is that the main body of APA format is the same, but each professor prefer to have slightly changes in APA format. It is not a big difference, but I have to follow the instructor. After learning about APA format, we continue to discuss about analyzing weekly reading. When each student has to talk about their own section, I enjoy listening to their ideas and how differently they analyze the situations allow me to learn new ideas. For instance, I liked it when one student talked about Hip Hop and Rap music that allowed African-American to kind of express themselves by these kind of music. After discussing African-American issues, we return to discuss about Latinos students in higher education. It is interesting to notice that the majority of students in our class have Hispanic background, and I think they should be excited that some of those reading facts and statistics could be happen to them. By these facts and knowledge, they would understand better their situations, and it would be easier for them to face some challenges that we analyzed in class. By understanding about those facts, Latinos in our class must be proud of themselves that they are going to make a huge changes for themselves and their communities. No matter who we are, or whatever our background is; I hope all of us enjoy this educational journey with the best outcomes for each of us.

The stories of Suzanne, Matthew, and Ruth are heartbreaking and inspiration of individuals with disabilities that they influence my perception about their life and their effort in higher education. Suzanne who is blind asked several times from the student government president to provide all electronic materials for her in order to be ready for her classes. The forgetfulness of those people who were supposed to provide electronic materials to Suzanne, never made Suzanne to give up from her education. Although those forgetfulness made her frustrated, but Suzanne was determine to finish her education. Honestly, if I were Suzanne, I would be frustrated easily and would be give up soon. The story of Matthew, a deaf student, was as same as Suzanne. He was the student of humanities in which the professor showed a video every week. Matthew asked the professor if there were captioned version of the video, and the professor said no, and Matthew did not give up and contacted a Disability Service member from his university.  Fortunately, Matthew was helped and would be able to watch the video with captioned version. And Ruth who was a wheelchair student could not attended to the meeting because of the inaccessibility place for Ruth. In all of these scenarios, each individual with disability asked for help and their problems were discussed. That is really interesting that  they were persistent and self supported. If they did not ask for help, there would not be a successful outcomes for them. Although in each university and college there is a facility center for students with disabilities, but what about of those who are shy or are not completely informed about those facility center? Who is responsible for them? Disabilities law mandate all institutions that must not discriminate in the admission which is a great law, but they have to make sure that after admission, there are enough facilitations for student with disabilities. Although the students with disabilities represent some 9 percent of the undergraduate population, but I am hoping that in future we would have more percentage of them.