11th Grade: 2022-2023

Communicate Ideas–Demonstrates an understanding of diverse audiences by communicating and collaborating using verbal and non-verbal behavior, language, and strategies that are appropriate to specific audiences.

Within this artifact, it was for Spanish IV. I was tasked to create a travel brochure for a Spanish speaking country and to perform a persuasive speech to my teacher (Sra. Muñoz) in order to convince her to visit the country on a vacation. This project was huge, not because of the sheer size of the project, but also because it was a midterm grade so it would be weighed more than an average assessment. As you may anticipate, this whole experience was nerve-wracking. Not to mention that I procrastinated the project until the week it was due. I created the brochure on El Salvador using Google slides, which I did not anticipate would take a very long time–but it did. Making a brochure in your native language is one thing—another thing is making a brochure in a different language. I found myself constantly making Spanish grammatical errors and vocabulary mishaps, which made the project pain-stakingly long. But a few extra hours spent in the library after school helped me to accomplish the easy part of the project. Now I actually had to present my pitch to the teacher. 

The night before was something I never want to relive. Practicing over and over, worrying about receiving a failing grade, not finding enough time to sleep–it was mortifying. The drive to school was blistering cold but my mind was firing on all cylinders, going over in my head the correct words to say–and going over every possible scenario in which I messed up. Yet, when the presentation actually occurred, I spoke fluently. Obviously it was memorized, but I truly felt on my own when I spoke that day. My words were comprehensible and not conjumbled–and I felt proud of the fact that I, a stuttering individual, was able to speak basically fluently in a completely different language. It made me confident in my ability to speak to someone in a different language, not to mention a native speaker of Spanish.

Take Action- Reflects on the effectiveness and cultural appropriateness of own actions and advocacy for improvement; and honestly describes the results of actions and implications for future actions and advocacy.

For this artifact, I had an opportunity to express my true feelings about the art of writing and methods to express myself. The task was to write a college essay for AP English Language and Composition, and I ran with it. I chose the open response option because I had a vision of what I was going to write about once I heard the assignment. I had a stutter that has made me unique to everyone else, and while it may be a hinder, it also has been a blessing. I crafted this essay with precision and accuracy, using vivid imagery and writing craftsmanship like a welder. The essay was based around my experience within middle school, kind of like the Wild West of school in my eyes, and my struggle to communicate myself in that stage of education. Presentation days were the worst ones, everyone knew that I was going to fumble the presentation, even I knew it. Despite the many practices in front of my mirror and my family, I knew as soon as I took the stage I would be struggling to spit out the appropriate phonemes and morphemes and my speech would be unintelligible. I would receive a failing grade not because my content was poor–it was probably the best in the class–but because my delivery and fluency was flawed–something I cannot control and something I will never be able to control. But I learned the art of writing and the art of academia in expressing myself–which suppressed my stutter and made me able to be communicable despite my evident struggles with speech. 

This essay made me very proud of myself for two reasons. 1) Self improvement. Being able to reflect on my past struggles as an upcoming student was difficult to face. Those memories are one of my scariest moments in my life–and throughout the years my memory has worked hard to repress those terrifying mementos. But I faced the fears and wrote an air-tight memoir regarding my struggles–which signals improvement in my ability to cope with my stutter and with my ability to express my emotions–whether they be fearful or not. 2) Confidence. Along with self improvement, I gained confidence from this essay. My teacher, Mr. Gillete, loved the essay and showcased the class. This was also terrifying, considering I never shared my experience with stuttering with an entire class before (other than me butchering every word in presentations), but I felt happy that more people learned about the experiences that stuttering people have and I hope that my peers gained a better understanding and appreciation for stuttering people, not just for me. I´m for sure going to use this essay on future college applications.

Take Action–Acts individually or collaboratively to execute a plan that is culturally responsive, and strongly likely to improve a local, regional, and/or global situation, and assesses the impact of the action

In my opinion, I think the event went as well as it could have gone. Freshmen will be immature, and even Juniors will also be immature from time to time– but I think the combination was feasible and translated to a positive experience for both parties. I think we set the stage for the freshmen, and what will be expected of them in the future with JAGS. I think we also ¨weeded¨ out many of the freshmen. It was clear which freshmen were engaged. Some of the freshmen exchanged ideas, encouraged others, and overall performed well as a delegate. On the other hand, some freshmen were on their phones, did not vote, or talked the whole time and were disrespectful. I think we´ll see many of the delegates who were engaged in the future, and not see many of the delegates who were on their phones–and that is fine. JAGS is not meant for everyone. If JAGS were easy, everyone would participate. On to my role, I think I participated well. I created the country placards on Canva with Blaire, which I think turned out well. I also organized and filed the spreadsheet for the counties, which was important for the order of the freshmen. On to my actual role during the event, I helped organize the placards in the morning before school for the order. But my first and most important role was allowing the freshmen to flex their JAGS muscles. I gave the freshmen general pointers and a guiding voice to start, but after that, they were their country. I think this supported their independence and self-reliance, and encouraged them to speak out without a teacher present to grade their every move. One of my freshmen flourished, while another was less engaged. And that is totally fine. I understand the pressure of speaking to a room full of students and chaos, and not everyone is adept at that skill. After that role, my next role was being a page. Being a page appears to be my calling card when it comes to Model UN, and I'm content with the role. Thus, the next three periods I spent racing across the aisles, gaining every note possible and exchanging every note possible. My height and strides for sure supported me during this role–despite my evident exhaustion and sweat. I think I played this role to the best of my ability. 

For how I think I changed due to the event–I think I changed because I had more of a teaching role rather than a participatory role. I think this role fits me because I'm clearly not the most outgoing person, but teaching came naturally to me. Guiding the freshmen, seeing their smiles, their curious eyes, and their immaturity–I think it reminded me of freshman me. A mind full of ideas, ready to burst into action. This sort of sympathy I had toward the freshmen made me more enthused with the event and supported my teaching. This guidance and teaching perfectly exemplifies the JAGS pillar ¨Communicate Ideas,¨ which I for sure grew with due to my teaching of the freshmen. I also used the other pillar, ¨Investigate the World,”as I researched Ecuador and its current crisis. I think I recognized perspectives well as I expressed sympathy toward the freshmen perspective and to the native people´s perspective in Ecuador. I took action via participating in the event. Presenting that presentation on Ecuador was one of the scariest moments of my school year, but I trudged on. I stepped up to the plate to be the page because I needed a way to participate and make my mark on this event. Finally, I investigated the world by participating in the event and learning about Ecuador and surrounding countries. Also, Model UN is all about the cooperation of countries, which clearly shows investigation of diplomatic issues. In general, I think I grew as an educator and as a JAGS student. Seeing the freshmen come to their own kind of made it full circle for me.

Recognize Perspectives– Explains the perspectives of other people, groups, or scholars and distinguishes it from one’s own perspective.

For this artifact, this was the induction ceremony for the Spanish Honors Society. I was eligible to participate due to my excellence in Spanish in the past two years. I felt really encouraged to participate as my sister was in Sociedad before so I felt like I had to maintain that tradition. Also, Spanish culture has always piqued my interest, and I finally was able to join a group with shared interests surrounding Spanish. Just the vibrant culture and the language is so interesting to learn about. The differing dialects that exist across countries and the history of the language through colonization is very fun to learn about and is enlightening to compare the two cultures of the United States and the many different Spanish cultures that exist throughout the world. I felt very proud to continue the tradition of excellence in Spanish within my family, plus with the greatest Spanish teacher in the world, Sra. Muñoz. 

Being part of a group that all has a common passion is very fun to experience. Everyone speaking Spanish instead of English, dancing salsa, and learning history and participating is highly enjoyable and I've gained tons of knowledge, friends, and relationships from Sociedad that I can never replace nor forget. In regards to comparing the two cultures, Western society compared to Spanish society, the West is much less fun in my opinion. We all take everything so seriously and just cannot enjoy something for what it is. Spanish culture is dancing, savory foods, history–all of Spanish culture just seems so vibrant in comparison to the US. We take pride in our guns, our founding fathers that were around hundreds of years before–but fail to enjoy change.

Take Action–Assesses options and plans actions based on evidence that indicates the potential for impact by evaluating previous approaches, varied perspectives, and/or potential consequences.

For this artifact, I had to study for a long time. Math has always been my least favorite and least interesting subject to me, consequently leading to it being my worst subject in school. But for this midterm, I was determined to study and receive a very good grade. In the past, I had always waited until the last minute to study, if you even call it that. My version of studying is looking at problems and their solutions and not even practicing the problems myself. Ultimately, this leads to a lack of encoding in the brain once the test comes up, although to my relax-craving brain, it makes it seem that I am working hard and learning the material while, in reality, I am simply using it as a coping mechanism for my lack of affinity for mathematics. However, I decided to change things up for the better because I realized the importance of this test. 

Instead of waiting until the last minute and stressing myself out, while minimizing my sleep capacity, I decided to plan ahead. After every single school day, for two weeks leading up to the test, I studied for a half hour. Now, it wasn’t the studying I previously did. This time I actually practiced the problems over and over again, changing numbers around in order to ensure I simply did not memorize but actually learned the material. This method of studying seemed to work a lot better than my previous scanning-over method, and I quickly was able to complete problems effectively. With a day until the test, I did not study at 4:00 AM nor 1:00 AM. I simply went to bed at a reasonable time and received the sufficient amount of sleep, 8 hours. I was prepared. I learned from my mistakes in the past with mathematics and accommodate this new knowledge for this test. To put it boastly, I simply dominated this test. Every question and its following answer seemed like elementary math to me. This Napoleonic-like dominance was met with a perfect score, far surpassing my fellow peers in my class. With this artifact, it was proof I was able to change my understanding and cognitive thought processes to accomplish a goal important to me, however boring the subject may be. From then on, mathematics was a bit easier for me to succeed in due to my new views on studying and how to best be prepared for examinations.