Blog#4: Asian American & Latino/a students in Higher Education
Last class began with Julian directing an activity on adversity, such as the bad traffic that many encountered that day! I think almost everyone has ran into some sort of bump in the road, such as criticism or an unfortunate situation. By going through various scenarios as groups and a class, I realized the adversities myself and others have encountered as well as ways to overcome them. Overall, I believe that adversities make us better and stronger. We realize our capabilities through overcoming our struggles successfully, even if it was difficult. I feel that the daily activities encourage reflection, which many classes don’t focus on and it is nice for a change! Afterwards we prepared for and presented the Affirmative Action debates. Upon assignment of it the previous session I was somewhat dreading it, but after some research and preparation I became excited. I came into the debate without a specific side taken so I was able to argue for my side with an open mind. I enjoyed being able to work as a group and use each other’s input. Almost every person in my group added something and I found it much easier when everyone collaborated. My only wish is that even those who are quiet would step outside their comfort zone and participate. Outside of class I am a very quiet and shy person but to me the environment of this welcomes participation. I normally dislike participated but I find myself irritated when most people in the group talk and one person sits and doesn’t contribute one word. However, I thought the debate gave us all a chance to interact and discover things about a topic we may not know much about or just be entirely confused about where to stand! That debate as well as the post it activity and discussion regarding Jenkin’s article provided clarity and understanding. I come to class with my own understanding and leave each class with new view points and ideas on each topic and reading.
The readings by both Hurtado and Torres were centered on Latino/a experience in and out of college life. They both focused on and mentioned how college environments may either welcome or deter these students from attending or completing college. Each article brought up examples of student’s perceptions when they arrive at various schools and how it made them feel. Torres’ article focused more on the culture of Latino/as and their identity and how they are faced with the issue of whether to change their culture and adopt another or to continue to practice theirs. An issue with practicing their culture is finding how to do so while fitting into their new college environment. Torres’ article seemed to be more of an ongoing, in process study whereas Hurtado’s had more statistics and facts. Due to that I would say Hurtado’s is more “scientific” as it has more proof of the college rates, diversity, and social progress or lack thereof.
When reading the article by Chang and Kiang, I was surprised by the overall issues. I wasn’t aware of Asian American’s participation in affirmative action debates or their struggles due to their admission rates being far above other minority groups, as noted in the article. I actually attended San Francisco State University, one of the schools with the most Asian American studies and students attending, so I didn’t notice any lack of Asian American students, in fact just the opposite. Overall, I was surprised by most of what I read simply because I was unaware of all that was presented.
