2023 Participants from Mr. Seligman's 4th Grade Class
2023 Participants from Mr. Seligman's 4th Grade Class
Frank Alonzo
Nora Altun Blanco
Libny Balan Pinzon
Alexis Calderon
Anderson Capriel
Christopher Chan Cux
Yustin Coche Cutz
Emily De Leon
Grayson Deming
Brithany Gonzalez Reyes
Angel Gonzalez
Liliana Jimenez
Jonathan Lucas Ortiz
Daniel Mejia
Dylan Mejia
Jacob Ortiz Rivera
Keyvin Paxtor
Xavi Ramirez
Aaron Reyes
Andre Ribeiro
Arleth Rodas Enriquez
Cristian Rodas Ruiz
Allison Teh
Elmer Velasquez
Genesis Velasquez
Yesmi Vicente
Juan Yes Monzon
March 2, 2023 while on a visit to Dominican’s campus, Mr. Seligman’s fourth grade class at Laurel Dell Elementary school received a challenge question from Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Mojgan Behmand: What are the bridges, pathways, and gateways that will lead you from your home and school to college and beyond–and how can people at Dominican University of CA help? The elementary students were able to creatively address this question and envision a path to their future lives through architecture and art.
The fourth grade students continued to explore the themes: bridges, gateways and pathways. After their wonderful trip to Dominican University, where they viewed examples of all three, this week the students focused on pathways. After viewing a slide show featuring fun and exciting pathways around the world (some of which they drew in their sketch books), they got to work. Nine teams—composed of three students each—created themed segments (Art, Math, Books, Nature, Pollinators, Vegetables + Fruits, Adventure, Sports, etc) each segment featuring a pathway, a gateway and the surrounding environment. They then linked all of the segments together to make one long pathway. An amazing project and lots of fun.
Dominican University students Isaiah Amoranto (Nursing ’26) and Alyssa Dela Cruz (Biology ’24) from Dr. Emily Wu’s The Power of Words: Culture & Conditioning class accompanied the fourth graders weekly as the kids brainstormed and designed poems, drawings, models, and games that showed the kids’ own visions of paths from elementary school to college.
Watch this video to learn more about this collaborative project from Shirl, hear Alyssa and Isaiah explain the larger social context, the dominant narratives that impact the students they engaged with, and hear from the fourth graders themselves as they share their goals and aspirations:
The cohort also created a wildly popular board game that represented their vision of the pathway to college:
Read more about the Dominican campus visit, the culminating presentation, and the award certificate that will contribute toward the participants' college education if they go to Dominican University.