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Gabriela Mendoza

Professor David Preston

Open-Source Learning Academy

10 June 2021
TO LOVE TO LEARN

Why is it that the older we get, the more we want to be done with school? Why is it that
we feel we deserve a vacation after all the school we just had at the end of the school
year? How many of us celebrate the end of the school year because we don't have to learn
anything? What happened to the curious child inside you wondering why the sky is blue,
why dinosaurs are now extinct, what happens after we die? School plays an immense role
in everyone's life. Schools can make us love learning or hate it.
I was one of many who would sluggishly get out of bed to come to school and did not
look forward to it. I then learned about OSLA. My first impression was confused but
mainly interested. I learned about OSLA through Dr. Preston. And I'm so ever grateful
that I told my counselor that I wanted to change to honors English with Dr. Preston
because I was assigned regular English with a different teacher. I am one of seven
members of OSLA. I love OSLA, and I plan to take it again.

PASSION
One of my key interests for the second semester of the year 2020-2021 was nutrition. I
will say I have connected with this subject. I am interested in nutrition, and I believe
learning how to read a nutrition label is vital to a healthy, successful life. At the
beginning of this year, I knew a few facts and wanted to learn more. The OSLA program
allowed me to research the depth of a nutrition label to then be able to inform myself,
colleagues, and future members of the OSLA program.
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LEARNING
I have fallen in love with learning, and I plan to continue staying with the OSLA
program. I want to know what nutrients, minerals, vitamins can do for your body and
how your body takes these different benefits. I want to connect the body and health and
then see where I go from there. There are a lot of things I am curious about, and I know
this semester is just a start to my many possibilities.

THE HERO'S JOURNEY/GROWTH

I unequivocally can state that I have completed the hero's journey. At the beginning of
this journey, I learned about the hero's journey and how it is a template created by Joseph
Campbell in which one goes on an adventure and comes back transformed or changed. At
the beginning of my journey, I was a bit frightened but eager to be learning a different
method, nonetheless. So I can say it was easy in the beginning. After a while, it can get
tiring, but you need to do what you need to do. Thankfully I had a helper/mentor, Dr.
Preston. I often found myself stuck on what I should write or say, but I had my teacher,
Dr. Preston, to help me and support me when I felt unmotivated. There were also
temptations, such as plagiarizing my masterpiece. When I don't know what to do and feel
like giving up, I turn to plagiarize to get things done quicker. I wanted a fresh start. It was
the beginning of the year, I was learning differently than what I was used to, and I also
wanted to change how I write. As the days go by and the end of this semester is coming
to an end, I can see my growth both mentally and in school, and that is what made me a
hero.

TRUST
In your average classroom, it's structured in a way where we have no choice what we
want to learn, nor what we would rather do. We may even feel like we can't raise our
hands because the teacher will yell at us for not understanding what she just said. My
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colleagues did deserve the choices given to us, and we did honor them. When you give
options, you display trust. My colleagues presented "masterpieces." We could learn
whatever we wanted based on our key interests chosen by ourselves at the beginning of
the second semester. I believe OSLA is a lot more successful than a regular classroom. At
the end of the day, your regular classroom has students who feel drained, guilty, terrible
about their learning. How do you know this for a fact? I know this for a fact because that
was me. I got to see year after year how everyone is not learning anymore but just
completing the work needed no matter how they got their answers, trying to pass each
class for a piece of paper (your diploma). OSLA embraces mistakes and doubts. When
we learn, we are inevitably going to feel stuck at some point. At OSLA, you will never
feel whether you should ask a question because we are taught that it's ok to ask questions,
be curious about the world, and we learn to love learning.

CONCLUSION
It's been quite the journey with OSLA, but I am proud, happy, but sad it's ending for the
school year. This semester was filled with learning, laughter, and fun. The atmosphere is
very different compared to a regular classroom. We are all family, we encourage one
another, give ideas, lend a hand, and support each other. It's the last day of school, and I
know learning does not stop ever. Now I am more curious and excited. And the most
important thing I learned with Open-Source Learning Academy is how to love learning,
and I do.