SL 394S
SL 394S Service and Social Justice
Course Description
Students explore social movements in service and social justice to understand the linkages between these two avenues for community development and activism. Through their own service experiences, students analyze systemic elements that perpetuate oppression and injustice, and develop their own capacities as catalysts for change by engaging in meaningful and respectful community work.
Course Description
Students explore social movements in service and social justice to understand the linkages between these two avenues for community development and activism. Through their own service experiences, students analyze systemic elements that perpetuate oppression and injustice, and develop their own capacities as catalysts for change by engaging in meaningful and respectful community work.
I had the opportunity of volunteering at the Dual Language Academy located in Seaside. There I tutored and made it my responsibility to provide, adults learning english as a second language, with the right tools in order to succeed. What was most inspiring to me was seeing some of the moms bring their four month old babies to class. Instead of using the baby as an excuse not to come, they used it as motivation in my opinion. For this reason I learned that anything is possible as long as one is driven. To me guiding these intellectuals to learn the dominant groups language was my way of bringing justice. Because these intellectuals don't speak spanish, often times they are seen as second class citizens. Having this in mind, I learned to appreciate my dominance of the english language. During one of the class times, we had a potluck. Each student brought a homemade dish. Here I was exposed to a variety of foods. One of our Japanese students brought salsa. This salsas was different to any other salsa I had ever had. It was made with peanuts and some other Japanese ingredients. But it was some of the best salsa I had ever had. From this experience I learned to be open minded to different foods apart of different cultures. The majority of our students were spanish speakers. This really forced me to dig deep down into my spanish vocabulary to communicate with the students. There were times where a student and I would converse and I didn’t know a word they had just used. Politely I would stop them and asked what that word meant. Later I would go home and look that word up and familiarize myself with it. Because of this I was able to enhance my language skills. One of the students at the site was from spain. From Judy, I was able to hear one of the many dialects spoken in Spain. I heard her speak in spanish during an activity we were doing. In this activity one was to write a sentence about what they had just seen on a video we had watched. Sometimes when the spanish speaking students don’t understand something we try and explain it to them spanish. This was when Judy, in spanish, told me that she didn’t understand what to do. Overall serving at the Dual Language Academy was an honor!