* EDU 280 Portfolio

Artifact # 1--Individual
Cultural Project
By
Karen Estrellado
* My name is Karen, but my family calls me Kat…I am also called mi
Amor, mija, mom, mommy my little brother randomly calls me
“Katherine” we are weird like that. I am someone who always hopes
for the best and prepares for the worse. I would like to think of my
self as a person who will move heaven and earth for the people I
love. Many things are important to me obviously my family, but
what I have learned throughout my years is that I am important . I
must take care of myself in order for me to take care of my love
ones. I am whom they count on and I am the glue that sticks my
household together. Most of my decision making come from 2 places
my heart and mind. I try to manage fairly any decisions I make. I
tend to look at the pro and cons of any situation and I am blessed to
say that it has worked well for me. To me balancing life, goals,
finance, home, school, church, and decisions is a daily thing.

*Who am I?
* I identify myself as Hispanic female. I was born and raised in San
Francisco, California until 2003 when I moved to Henderson, NV. My
mother has been the main influence in my life. I admire her in
everyway. She taught me hard work and perseverance and till this
day I learn from her. Traditionally in my culture family and food are
HUGE!! and in my home this is so true. We love to get together and
celebrate every and any accomplishments our family has achieved.
Very fortunately my husbands culture is very similar to my.
* I celebrate most holidays like Christmas, Halloween, 4th of July, New
Years, and Thanksgiving! My family and I acknowledge traditions
from other countries. We LOVE food. If I had to pick a favorite it
would be Italian, Greek and Salvadorian. I like to try food from all
over the world and learn fact from that country in the process, my
family also enjoys this with me.

*Cultural Belonging
*In my household we are a multiracial family. I been
married for 10 years to my husband who is from the
Philippines and was raised in Saudi Arabia. We speak
3 main languages at home which are Spanish, English,
and Tagalog. I live in a very full and busy house with
8 people. 5 Kids, 3 adults and at times a lot of times
we have more kids over. My bonus baby as I call my
step son who is 16 has 3 siblings on his mom side who
often hang out with us. They are all around the same
ages of our kids and get along great. So when I say we
are always busy and full we truly are!
*
Cultural Belonging
* Things that I do for fun include going to the
library, baking, and adventuring.
* I lived in the city my whole life and I like the
excitement, but I see myself and my family
living in a farm in a more remote area.
* Some of my work experience included Medical
Assistant and Pawnbroker. Both I enjoyed and
learned a lot from.

*Life experiences
* I use my free time for volunteering at Shadow
Hills, or at my children’s school.
* Some of the skills that I have acquire during my
life are communication, multitasking, and time
management to name a few.

*Life experiences
* Values and Standards that are important to me are:
Compassion, Responsibility, Perseverance and
Accountability.
* My goals are many, short term goals mainly have to do
with school, and my personal success. My long term goals
are focus on my family life. My long term goal in life for
my self and my family is to be appreciative of what we
have and share positive thoughts and feelings with the
world. I think happy thoughts would replicate happy
actions and in general make each persons we come in
contact with and ourselves into more positive people.

*My goals and Values

To be honest I view the world as big scary
adventure. There are times that I wonder how I
got to be where I am. There is times that I think
oh my goodness how am I going to figure this out.
As scary as the world is to me and as paranoid I
am about having my family and I adventure off
into it, I know that I must have faith. Not just in
a higher power but in myself. Knowing this and
practicing it makes the world seem less scary and
more manageable. In my eyes.

My world view
* Through out my life I have learned how to bake, how
to sew to make a custom Halloween outfit for my kids.
I have done knitting and gardening. I have practice
Taekwondo and Krav Maga. I have gone all over the
map. I have acquire helpful phrases from all over the
world. I have grown I have fallen I have cried and I
have laughed so hard that I snorted and through all
this I have matured I have learned and I have grown
up. Artifacts are defined as an object made by human
beings. Well the many wonderful and some not so
wonderful memories are my personal artifacts.

*Cultural Artifacts