Livia's First Year Seminar

This week we extended our discussion about Diversity and Inclusion. The class had discussions about immigration with Mathew who is from the Caribbean islands. We also talked to Enysa about her family and she told us that her mom tried to learn how to speak more “American.”  This was very interesting to me because I love to hear people with accents talk. This week I watched the film “Documented.” This film follows the story of an undocumented american journalists name Jose Vargas. Jose immigrated to the United States when he was twelve years old. Jose lived with his grandparents and went to high school and college in the United States. Mr. Vargas eventually became published in several magazines before coming out as an “Undocumented American.” This video provided me insight on the struggles that many undocumented people or people without papers face in the United States today. This document also sprung forward a campaign called “define American.” There is a website for the cause of ...

Diversity and Inclusion This week we talked about Diversity and Inclusion. The main thing we discussed was the film, “which way home.” This film focused on the story of young Immigrants from South American countries like Honduras, Guatemala and Venezuela. This film had a huge impact on the class. Prior to watching the videos we discussed our opinions about immigration into the United States. There were many different opinions on this topic especially since recent government activity relates to this issue. The film which way home showed several people trying to get to the “Estados Unidos” and them riding on “la bestia” to get there. This journey to the United States was very dangerous. Many people died falling off the train and were stopped by corrupt police. Dangers for women on this journey were massive and one of the boys, Kevin, gives a re-account of how he witnessed two women being gang raped on the train. After watching and hearing of the horrors these people faced, I aske...

WEEK 4: Academics This week in Honors FYE we talked about academic integrity, fixed inset, and growth mindset. Fixed mindsets are when people feel like they have no reason to try to improve. For example, like I mentioned in class is that I feel like I will never be good at math. I don’t personally enjoy math and I feel like it isn’t essential for my life. Due to this I typically avoid math classes. This would be considered a fixed mindset because I am closed off to the idea of being involved with math. A growth mindset would be to work harder in math class or to be open minded towards that subject. Doctora did agree with my opinion on math. According to the document shared with us, a fixed mindset “Intelligence is static” and in a Growth Mind-set “Intelligence can be developed”. However, it was brought into question how can we change the way we think or fix our problematic habits. In the video, Neuroplasticity, it is explained that the brain is capable of shifting and can be re...

During this past week and the Dorian fiasco, we were assigned to read and learn about topics such as the First Amendment, Free speech, hate speech, and microaggression. The first article I read illuminated the way in class discussions should be approached. The excerpt from, “I take your point” talks about the way to have a successful in class conversation. I believe London would define effective in-class discussion as when the skills of listening closely to each other, of engaging in meaningful exchanges, and of finding shared sources of meaning are put into practice. London explains that if you acknowledge what the other person says before moving on to address your own point then classroom conversations are enhanced. London states that, “Genuine understanding seems to be the exception rather than the norm in everyday communication.” I think that better communication is essential because as a culture we need to be able to overcome differences, find common ground, build meaning and pu...