Author Archives: CAROLINA CASTILLO

Carolina Castillo

English 2100

12/20/19

My Very First College English Class

            English has always been one of my weakest subject areas ever since elementary school. I’ve always struggled to keep up with the class in terms of the content of a book or a novel we were reading. Comprehension is something I’ve always had trouble with. As a seven-year-old girl, if a teacher were asking to me “what was the book about?” It would be the hardest thing ever for me to answer. But here’s my English class journey at a college level.

Junior year in high school, I decided to challenge myself and take an AP (advance placement) English class. That way, I was able to experience how it is being in a college level course a few years before college just to prepare myself. In that class however, I failed miserably. I was struggling so much and had to work really hard in order to understand what’s expected in a good essay, and what’s expected in a college level essay. Although I failed miserably, I didn’t want to give up on my English skills. My hunger to be a good writer still stood within me therefore, I took an AP literature class my senior year in high school. This class consisted of writing so many literary analysis papers. Although  this wasn’t my expertise, my failure is a form of practice and a form of improving my writing skills that would be essential for college. The entire point of all these class was to in fact prepare me for that English course I was going to be taking at Baruch College. As my senior year progressed my writing started improving little by little until I got to my very first college English course.

Going into college was one of the biggest transitions for me. Going from being 100 percent dependent by my teachers to being independent and making sure I’m responsible for my own things was huge for me. To be very honest besides my pre-calculus class, I was afraid of my English class as well. Especially knowing it’s one of my biggest weaknesses. However, going into my English 2100 class, it has changed my point of view for English in general. Going into professor Sylvor’s class I knew she had a passion for English and knew the meaning behind understanding different stories. I actually enjoyed my English class and learning how stories can connect to reality and real life situations like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Fiesta 1980” and “Mother Tongue”. In my English class, I felt like I had to the freedom to think the way I wanted and not strictly follow a rubric on how to view a story. Which is something that’s differentiable from college and high school. Also, getting the opportunity to go and watch “To Kill a Mockingbird” on Broadway was such an amazing experience and I appreciate the professors for giving us the chance to see the book in real life. To elaborate, writing my essays for this course wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Yes, they were no where near perfection but I’m glad for the effort I put into all my assignments in that course.

To conclude, English 2100 has taught me that English isn’t so bad after all. Ever had that one class where you hated the fact that you had to be there? That wasn’t case at all for this class. It was designed to help us become better writers and I’ll also be using many skills I learned in this class in future English classes at Baruch College. However I’m not saying my writing is awesome; I’m saying that I have so much room for growth and improvement in English that I’m willing to work on.

Theres many issues in my community that arise to say the least. But one of the most interesting topics that I’m going to spend time researching on is: Inequality in our educational systems correlated with different incomes. It turns out that we don’t all receive the same education nationally. Some schools give better education than other schools depending on certain social demographics. The amount of resources distributed in this country is quite unfair to say the least. Certain student preferably high income are most likely to get amazing grades of tests whereas low income students, that percentage is incredibly low. Who is most likely to get high SAT scores, or get high scores on their promotion exams, or how are AP scores different amongst different income levels. These certain things I want to get to the bottom of. Is it a race thing? All these questions arise when it comes to our education. Does it explain why our universities and colleges lack diversity? How come folks who attend a high school in a low income community tend to have high levels of drop outs? I feel like everyone deserves an equal amount of education and opportunities regarding how they learn and what resources they actually have access to. Also what about clubs and exposure to the field of their interest? Can certain schools provide that opportunity for their students? All these questions Im willing to  research, and put on a 6-8 page paper!

There’s many pop culture out there that really catch my attention nowadays but one thing in particular that interested me the most and something we can ALL learn from is the “Rate me” episode of the series “Black Mirror”. The basic idea of the episode is that people in this virtual community rate each other based on the smallest things they do and have. The biggest goal of this community is have the highest rate. The high the rate the more “likable” you are. Watching this episode really made me relate to how social media can have an effect of people’s confidence and self-esteem. In this virtual community in the “Rate Me” episode, people were constantly looking for the validation of other people and trying their best to filter themselves to fit into society and being liked. It’s crazy because this behavior occurs in real life especially in the junior high- college age groups. These young people nowadays are constantly trying to be someone they’re not in order to fit in and be accepted by everyone. But unfortunately that’ll never be the case. The episode ended by the main character receiving a low rating but, not caring about what others have to say about her. Being transparent and crystal clear about your character isn’t something to be ashamed of. No matter if you don’t receive the validation you want. I’m not going to lie, when I was younger in junior high, I attempted to change the person I am to be liked by others. I went through a lot of insecurity and my self-esteem was extremely low. But it wasn’t too long till I  realized that other’s opinion don’t matter at all. Therefore, I  want the youth to take an hour of their day to sit down and watch this episode. This pop culture can really open eyes and teach social media users to love their selves the way they are. Out of the billions of people in the world there’s only ONE version of you that’ll ever exist. Think about it.

Thank you.

The post on this blog that stood out to me was Hadeel’s post about gun violence here in America. I 100 percent agree with her. There’s many innocent lives being taken away due to an act of hate. This behavior is unacceptable and its about time that the government does something to change this. I agree wit Hadeel when she mentioned, how many more lives have be to taken in order for action to be done? The second amemdment the right to bare arms didn’t mean that people owning assault rifles in their homes was okay. It was a form of protection against the enemy. Since when are we each other’s enemy? Since when was owning these weapons ok in the first place? Gun control reforms have to be considered as soon as possible in order to stop all of this. It’s not fair that people are living in fear thinking that anything that sounds like a gun shot IS a gun shot.

August 2019, in 42nd street there was a huge scare. Where there was a motorcycle staring up but it was mistaken with gun shots. People began running for their lives thinking they were going to get shot and killed. People were tripping and children were scrapping their knees running for lives. But it turned out to be just a false alarm. Me myself witnessed and experienced this scare along with some friends in 42nd street when it happened. Saying I was terrified is a understatement. I  thought I was going to get shot to death, I ran for my life. This isn’t ok. All of these mass shootings occurring all over this country needs to stop! The government needs to really consider background checks when it comes to purchasing a weapon that can kill hundreds in minutes. Finally, no one deserves to live every day of their lives in fear of guns.

In the Article “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, he  speaks on the reparations African-American deserve. In other words Afro- Americans need payment for everything that they’ve gone through throughout history. Such as many years of slavery, many years of segregation, and many years of abuse. He believes that the nation owes the African-American for many years of abuse. Which is something I  agree with because after the 13th amendment, discrimination against afro-americans became very popular and KKK advocates began to rise and many death out of hate began to rise as well and nothing was being done to fix these issues. Civil rights leaders like Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr were murdered just because they wanted to see equality in between races in America. Ever since the 13th amendment the abolishment of slavery; afro-americans should’ve stopped being viewed as animals but as humans with blood and flesh. Instead they were judged by the color of their skin and not their character. Their lives were taken away due to the simple fact that they had more melanin then others. So what race deserves reparations in this country? I say African-Americans.

Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

Personally when I  have to write an essay as an assignment for school, I don’t hate it. My best work is done when I’m brainstorming my ideas by just typing them on a word document. That way, I don’t forget my thoughts and just go with the flow. After my writing is a decent length, I go back and fix my grammatical errors, better my vocabulary, and make sure my sentences are CLEAR. As long as my writing is clear to the audience, I’m good to go!

What’s hidden in this photo? Actually as I  shared last class, this photo was taken in the last day of my sophomore year in high school. My sophomore year has to be the best year of my high school years. How come? That year was full of positivity in all aspects such as academics and social life. During that year I  was lucky enough to be considered one of the only two sophomores sitting in a AP course. Which was a challange but the difficultly made me want to achieve that academic excellence that’s still stuck on me today. That year made me realize the love I have for learning and getting good grades. Therefore, I  would often challenge myself to do better. That year I  was one of the 20 people out of 100 in my class that passed the chemistry regents and got 80’s and above in all my regents! Which was new for me because I wasn’t the best student and would let my laziness get the best of me sometimes. But sometimes we all have to learn the hard way when it comes to certain things especially in education. However, through my social life, I  was able to be a cheerleader for the first time and let me tell you, it was an amazing experience. I was able to learn so much about myself when I was learning how to cheer. Overall, my sophomore year was the best year for me so taking this picture sadden me because it was over. Hopefully I’m able to have a repetition of this year in the future at Baruch!

One of the many factors in my life that matter to me the most is education. I  grew up in a household where my parents believed that education is essential for success in life. Obtaining knowledge and being educated is something I truly value and something I’ll always value. Growing up with parents who didn’t finish high school really motivates me to do the opposite and I did! . I’m truly grateful for the opportunity that was given to me to receive an education in the first place because it is a privilege in today’s society. Knowing that people from foreign countries aren’t getting an education due to their gender and their gender roles or whatever situation that might prevent it saddens me because everyone deserves to be educated no matter the circumstances. Activist leaders like Malala amazes me because she advocated for women education rights. I  100 percent agree with her beliefs; just because you’re a women doesn’t mean we only belong in the house absolutely not, we have the right to be educated as well.

The beauty of learning and becoming more intelligent just fascinates me. To be quite honest, the fact that the percentage of Latin people like myself involved in education especially in post-secondary education is devastating. Whether they’re most likely to “get pregnant” get involved in “gang activity”, dropping out of high school etc. Well, in my opinion, that’s how society views us, but in reality most of us truly do seek for higher education and life changing opportunities.