Competency 2.

C Reflection
One of the most prevalent topics that is talked about in almost every single Teach and
Learning class that we have to take is the topic of race and diversity. This is a topic that I feel
very passionately about because of my own personal background and experiences. I am from
both Asian and Hispanic descent so I would say that I fall into the minority category of students
but I also come from a fairly predominant white community. With this experience, I believe that
I have been able to develop a strong sense of familiarity with both sides of the spectrum when it
comes to diversity. In addition, I have first hand experience with the topic of refugees and
building a strong sense of compassion for them as my own father was a refugee. The trials and
triumphs that he has described to me throughout my 21 years of life have always stuck with me
and through that I have developed empathy and strong beliefs that these individuals deserve
representation and overall someone to advocate for them. As a teacher and influential role model
in my community, I have made it my duty to be an advocate and support system for people like
my dad. With all of this being said, I have had a lot of opportunities to critically think about how
diversity affects myself and any future students that I may have. The classes that I have had the
most practice with this topic have been my ELL endorsed classes, through these classes I have
been able to produce evidence where this critical thinking and deeper analysis may be seen very
evidently.
My first form of evidence actually comes from this course, the “Self Assessment”. In this
assignment, I reflected on my own experiences and knowledge of ELL students in general. I
began by introducing myself a little bit; describing my own ethnicities, the community that grew
up in, and my experiences with immigrants and refugees. Like I stated before, my dad was
originally a refugee from Vietnam so throughout my life I have had first hand experiences with
language barriers, different social tendencies, and overall struggles of a refugee. It was not an
easy path but my dad has made a life for himself in America and wouldn't want it any other way.
He views his journey as a blessing in disguise as he was able to mature at a very young age and
truly understand what it is like to face and overcome adversity. My dad is one of my biggest
inspirations in life, I look at all of the things that he has done and overcome and I can’t help but
just feel so fortunate to have had a pretty easy, fair upbringing. Much of his family and friends
that now live in the United States were also refugees and overtime of getting to spend quality
time with them, I have been able to pick up on and understand the realities of being a refugee.
Understanding the suffering but still grasping onto any sense of hope that you may begin a new,
better life. Refugees are some of the strongest people that I have ever met and I am so grateful to
have the opportunities I have had to interact with and learn from them.
The final form of evidence that I have comes from Communication in Diverse
Classrooms (Tch & Lrn 339) where we had to record our response to an article on Black Lives
Matter. This gave me the opportunity to really think about the African American community and
what it would be like to be in their shoes. I completed this assignment even before the social
justice movement that we are currently experiencing but it was still a very relevant and crucial
topic then too. My response really focused on the discrimination and unfair treatement that
African American citizens have to face everyday. I think that this assignment allowed me to
think about diversity in a different way than my other 2 pieces of evidence. This assignment had
me focus on individuals who were born in America but still are not receiving the proper and fair
treatment that they deserve as American citizens. Obviously this discrimmination and treatment
is nothing new, it stems from a long life of racism and ignorance. I think that people fear what
they don't know or understand and sadly black culture has fallen into this category. This is due to
the fact that people don't care enough to learn about their beautiful, deep culture. But if people
made the decision to learn more and educate themselves then I do not think that there would be
as much hate and discrimantion as there currently is. This assignment gave me an insight to the
impact of lower socioeconomic status, lack of proper education, and overwhelming
discrimnation of a race. Through this experience I was able to grasp a better understanding of the
reality of these poor individuals' lives, where they have to live in constant fear and deal with hate
around them.