Evelyn

A Reflective Essay of my years at ACLC

    When I initially stepped through the doors of Alameda Community Learning Center, it was if I intruded on an enigmatic structure. I didn’t understand the basics, calling facilitators by their first names, to the actual representation of the Alameda Community Learning Center’s Mission Statement. It was all so magically bizarre. Coming from a traditional high school, Alameda High School, where I experienced a cornucopia amount of classmates and students roaming the campus, ACLC’s common structure was a completely antithetical entity. As I embraced every idiosyncrasy ACLC strew at me, I begun to reform into a more unfurled person. Through Molly’s Socratic Seminars, Randy’s Physics Rollercoaster project, Sarah’s Art of Science class, Carlton’s various math classes, Patricia’s Environmental Leadership class, and many more, I’ve gained neoteric skills, qualities, and principles that helped shape the student I am now. Now, I engage in many extracurricular activities such as Homework Coaching at the Library, playing music, and attending clubs to give back to the community as well as myself. Without ACLC I would have progressed in a slower speed in honing myself into a better individual.

    Although I’ve inherited a very outgoing and social characteristic, ACLC has reformed it in a positive way; I am able to manage my time in such a way that I can enjoy the enthralling mysteries of life. I am also able to display my studious and serious characteristics in a balanced way. After coming to ACLC in the beginning of sophomore year, my work habits changed drastically. I’ve never been a devout procrastinator, but as I experienced the freedom ACLC gave its students, I developed Senioritis fairly early; a year later, I realized how unsuccessful and unprogressive that way of life had made me, and I sought out to break the terrible habit I succumbed to in my second year of high school. I always completed homework assignments the day before or the day it was due. Finally near the end of Junior year I managed to free myself from the procrastinating curse, and managed to flip my life a hundred and eighty degrees. I managed to work with several other students on the Physics Rollercoaster Project and turned it in earlier than the given due date. These good habits significantly impact career options and work habits because the industry is very demanding so one is required to work at a fast pace while doing it well and procrastination would hinder everything from work coming in to personal achievement. With my new found work habits, balancing my social and studious life became fairly maintainable; I found more time after finishing homework to webcam with friends for a SAT vocabulary study group, and even more time to design, sketch, and even redecorate my room. Throughout my middle school and high school life at traditional schools, I’ve always completed my community service hours at the bare minimum; however, after having transferred to ACLC and seeing all the friendliness and eagerness to help the community at school, in Alameda, and Oakland, my emotional and logical thoughts turned to undertake more hours in community service to assist the community that I’ve grown up in all my life. My attitude towards life is one of a spontaneous enjoyment. I enjoy events, feelings, and experiences in the moment, and I always try to engage in exhilarating activities or make activities arcane so I never go by life as a dull living zombie.

    ACLC provides a community where students are able to complete the UC requirement standards, while going beyond the threshold with community college classes. The UC requirement classes given at ACLC are classes such as Algebra 2, Calculus, English, Spanish, and biology. Some college classes that my peers and I have taken are Psychology, Sociology, Statistics, Astrology, and many more. The classes at ACLC have a smaller amount of students than at traditional high schools, so it’s much easier to have a one-on-one discussion with the teacher if I don’t understand a topic or direction. It’s also much easier to engage witth other learners during the lessons and group discussions because everyone is so kinds and open-minded. Although I’ve always been a proficient student, finishing my work on time, and getting satisfactory grades, taking classes at Encinal High School has taught me to go above and beyond the minimum requirements, and taking college classes further assisted my growth in independence as I was treated as a college student rather than a high school student.

    Before I transferred to ACLC, the way I went about projects and open-ended assignments were very mundane. Due to the fact that all my teachers assigned very straight-forward assignments at my past schools, I learned to contain my imaginative thoughts, and until I came to ACLC it never once struck me that using my imagination could be beneficial in school. This year, we had to make a poster from works cut out from different sources. The only instructions were: try to use most of the works, express what you wrote in your brainstorm. The instructions were very open-ended; with my cultivated imagination I constructed a piece expressing my determination to live, not function in society, but actually live my life. Last year’s HP English class had a project where we were to make an 8 minute movie about the chapter we read in the book. We had to take our own modern day take on it, and we had to use our imagination to recreate our version of Catch-22 chapters 21-26. When McWatt died, we had paper figures and a paper airplane to portray the death scene because we couldn’t pull off a stunt like that. During another scene in the hospital we have to improvise the couches as hospital beds and alter the positions of the character to help the movie flow well. Projects such as these helped renew and reform the use of my creative thinking. It was very helpful because these projects helped me develop as an aspiring fashion designer and amateur artist and photographer. Through Molly Fenn’s English classes and Mr. Rodriguez’s AP European and AP United States History classes, I was able to use the information I learned in one class to relate to a topic discussed in the other class. In the past, I usually relied on memorization, student conversations outside of class, and looking up more information on reputable sources as ways to help me educate myself further. The use of relating history with literature was very new and insightful because I was able to understand the background of the piece and the history affecting the environment in which it was written in. Personally, I found the skill of relating the past with the present and historic events with the literary pieces to be very insighful.

    During my years at ACLC, teamwork gradually became a key strength in my educational field. Although at traditional public schools teamwork was stressed, students were hard to work with, so my group members and I used to split up the work and do it separately. No teacher would know whether or not we worked together. However, at ACLC, emphasis on group work in all classes such as English Spanish, Senior Seminar, Environmental Science, eventually changed me into someone who could confidently work with others while solving any additional problems that would frequently come up. In Environmental Science, my class held a pillow sale last spring, but in order to successfully pull it off we had to plan out which learner would perform what job. There was a lot of communication between everyone. The visual communicator had to discuss the types of goods being created with the people who were in charge of sewing pillows or toys. The people who were sewing had to talk amongst themselves to organize time slots for the sewing machines, and everyone had to report back to Patricia, the facilitator. There were numerous amounts of in class assignments that required working in groups; even if I was reluctant to work with others when I first transferred, I had to because of my grades. As the year progressed; however, I developed the knowledge to solve problems such as scheduling, difference of opinion, and time management. Whereas I was always one to input my ideas and stand firm by them, my years at ACLC helped me see outside the box where my group and I could integrate ideas and discuss others more thoroughly in a civilized manner. As an individual, I find other individuals to be interesting and intriguing. As a Korean American, I understand the difference in culture, religion, and viewpoints on life. To this day, I idolize the Golden Rule almost everyone learned in elementary school, “Treat others how you want to be treated”. To be honest, it’s quite difficult to always abide by that rule, but it’s possible that this one rule I learned in elementary school affected my viewpoint on people with different backgrounds. Diversity doesn’t confine my relationship with anyone because most people as individuals are enthralling.

    In this modern day and age, technology plays a major influence from things such as daily life to businesses. Technology is most commonly defined as the internet, computers, tablets, IPhones, Andriods, and applies to many other devices as well. After coming to ACLC, I discovered the knowledge of using Prezi, a powerpoint-like presentation that help makes the powerpoint look more professional. Before, I had only known how to create powerpoints for presentations, but Prezi helped my imagination soar a bit further. The templates and the formatting of Prezi also further helped me decide how I wanted to produce my presentation to the class in an intriguing way. Another technological invention I enjoy using for my hobby, inspiration, and freedom, is the camera. My camera as well as most of the technological devices I own are bought with my own hard-earned money because it gives me a sense of accomplishment and reward. I do my research online to research each camera that I’m interested in to find the right match for me. My camera, Nikon D3100, was a tough selection, but in the end I’m very satisfied with my purchase and my relationship with the camera. I frequently use it recreationally, for travelling purposes, and for still life photos to reconstruct on paper. My Camera is an example of how I use and select technology because technology is all around us! As an aspiring fashion designer, I take in many aspects of life, technology, and anything I can see for inspiration on my designs. As a very rough example, the sleek and simple look of my computer could be the inspiration for a class black dress. In many places technology is frequently used, so in the modern world, technology is a given as well as a privilege.