Who Am I?

    

Growing up I constantly asked myself, "Who am I?" I felt like I was two types of a person, at school I was an English American and at home I was a Dominican who spoke Spanish. I never thought the two could coexist in the same space. I was always embarrassed of my native language. If you know a Latinx, we are loud and energetic. I remember for the schools events I wouldn't tell my parents about them because I didn't want them to speak Spanish

and be themselves. As my education career continued I hid my culture, my roots. My classmates would say "must be cool speaking two languages" but that wasn't enough for me to feel comfortable and safe I believe those words should come from the educators and from the institutions. I believe my embarrassing stage didn't break through until college. I came to express and love who I really am. I am a straight brown Dominican Spanish female. I have a skill that should be valued, a language that is beautifully spoken and that was in rooted into the English language.

     As I watched the TEDx talk video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4dc1axRwE4 I agreed (snapping my fingers through out the video) with everything Jamila Lyiscott had preached on language in the institution space. 

 I loved the 5 A's 

 Awareness- Who am I

Agency and Access- Understanding the process

Actualization

Achievement

Alteration and Action

                                                                                           

  

 I enjoyed reading Priya Parmar and Shirley Steinberg stories on their experience working in an Urban high school teaching Hip-Hop. This brought me back to my PASA days when I taught dance and my students believe I wasn't capable to teach them because of the age difference ( I was 3 years older than them). What caught my attention was this quote, "We have also found that as educators, we cannot possibly begin to teach with frankness unless we name who we are in relation to our curriculum." I believe as educators we must identify ourselves, who am I once you identify yourself accept it.

Identity is a huge role when it comes to a youth space, I believe this

lays out how you teach, the energy in the space and your relationship with the students. I also think that we do change, our identity isn't consistent. I may be wrong but I take myself as an example. I believed teaching was a straight line, there was a certain way to teach and now my views have changed. I am a Dominican, Latina, Spanish speaker, brown and female.

In Ydev 350 we wrote a journal entry on our identity and a response on a chapter of a book, I would like to share my response

I AM……

Female, Straight

Dominican,Latina

Straight bruinette long hair,brown skin

A dog mom

A college student

An older sister to twin brothers

Bilingual Spanish and English speaking

Creative

Bellydancer

Latin dancer, Latin dance instructor

Leader

Honest

Loyal

Extrovert 

Homebody

Hard worker

A chocolate lover

 I accepted who I am, and I will carry this on  to my youth space. I normally tend to work in Urban settings. When I worked in a youth space I introduced myself as Dominican and Spanish speaker. Once I share who I am I believe there is a bond and a connection between the students and I. 

https://ri-college.zoom.us/rec/play/ZYO020lFHqkt4IyAJKwk1JqGur0Cj5Op6Fb2uyRlCCQgzHZl6jZTdyUwE4JGU0XCEoJ_wVlSn462bmMK._gLxQKoQHVLIhRNa?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=wSCq_7dxS6e65weCXzByew.1605132849358.bf53583c620910c614ebc8f76cbdb189&_x_zm_rhtaid=693

💭What resonated with you?

When Victoria mentioned Pegah's quote;

"When adults talk about "youth-led" work, we often disregard the adult role,

placing the burden of success on young people. Youth in Action doesn't

believe that to make youth voices visible you have to make the adult role

invisible. "

- As a youth worker we shouldn't put all the burden and pressure on the youth to lead

We need to remember that youth-adult partnership needs to exist for success.

😕What confused you?

Nothing really confused me in this mini lecture, Victoria actually clarified the explanation of Zeldin, Christens and Powers meaning of youth-adult partnership. While reading the article I still did not understand the meaning but Victoria explained it and gave examples.

"youth-adult partnerships as the practice of: " (a) multiple youth and multiple adults deliberating and acting together; (b) in a collective [democratic] fashion; (c) over a sustained period of time; (d) through shared work; (e) intended to promote

social justice, strengthen an organization and/ or affirmatively address a community issue"

❔🙋What questions do you still have?

it would be cool to hear from a former YIA student and see where are they now.

Besides having youth-adult partnership Out of school time (OTS) is there a way to incorporate this youth led actions during school time, not just not only in classrooms but as a school its self?

 

 I started writing  this blog a week before it was due. I took a pause between writing because I wanted to wait for the results of current events, the election results. as we all know that our 46th President is Joe Biden and our Vice President is MADAM Vice President Kamala Harris. Through out this election my stress level was out the roof. I watched states turn blue to red or red to blue. But I had faith in our people. Our voices mattered and every single vote was counted and mattered. The results of the election was proof the democracy is alive, our voices were heard and our actions were seen. Throughout this process the youth played a huge role, without them I believe the adults voices wouldn't have roared so load. All of our actions were all worth it! BUT that does not mean it is OVER we have a lot of healing to do this is just the BEGINING! so My YOUTH folx do not silence your voices this time make them LOUDER.

 ( The link below is a video I put together of all the events that has happened throughout the 4 years of pain) 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fJtif_E0icuPIK-Pq3E2mr7iTSgDMQCh/view?usp=sharing

   

   I believe that 2020 has been a rebirth of the youth and adult unifying to fight for their rights. Based on the book At Our Best introduction by Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Deepa Sriya Vasudevan, and Jessica Tseming Fei; youth and adults have been working together for centuries. The youth themselves have been participating in social events for years. This section of the book starts with the history of with the history of the youth around the world. There were a couple of statements that resonated with me, this is one of  them: "Across these historical and contemporary movements, youth-adult partnerships and intergenerational solidarity have been critical to building community power and engaging transformative work." (P. 3, Brion-Meisels, Vasudevan, Tseming Fei) The reason why this statement stood out to me is that I had the opportunity to watch this unfold this year. Like I mentioned in the beginning that youth-adult worked side by side and had such a powerful impact to society. In this introduction Hart's Ladder of youth participation stood out to me, this illustration helped me understand the participation of youth-adult in different levels. 

The authors then lead to the different components of youth-adult partnership and the authentic youth-adult partnerships. I can go on and on about all the factors that has been added to my knowledge of youth work. 

Following this article, the Profiles, Key Moments, and a Continuum of Youth-Led Participation; An Inclusive Model of Youth Development Work by Pegah Rahmanian outlines a Out of school program known as Youth In Action. I remember in one of our class lecture in Ydev 300 Pegah gave a brief description about the space of Youth In Action. Reading this article gave a more depth description about the space and environment of the program. Youth in Action is a youth led program, the participation of the youth is really high on the ladder; I would say that the participation as at

the end of the ladder. I found it interesting on how Pegah describes participation as a continuum, "Imagine each type of participation as a continuum, expanding and contracting, giving growth the permission to move fluidly, and dismissing the idea of absolute." (P.9, Rahmanian) There isn't a straight line of participation. I found her idea affirming that its okay to have adult led participation but for a short term. I agree, in this continuum level adults set the structures or the programming and the purpose of it. I believe this program is successful because of the participation and the safe space that is provided for the youth! Like I mentioned on my last couple of blogs my approach to the youth field is the Social Justice Youth Development. YIA is a perfect example of SJYD, the way the program is constructed is a sense of belonging for youth and adults. 

Ending this post with a quote of our MADAM Vice President Kamala Harris:

 "To the children of our country regardless of your gender our country has sent you a clear message dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a ways others may not simply because they've never seen it before but know we will applaud you every step of the way!" 

    - Madam Vice President Kamala Harris