English 10: Through this class, I was able to read about and discussed important topics which have a global lens, like prejudice, inequality and justice. This included reading Night by Elie Wiesel which is about the Holocaust and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi about the Islamic Revolution in Iran. These stories had important lessons that have shaped my perspective on issues around the world, specifically how I take in information about devastating events in our world.
Spanish III: I was able to learn more vocabulary, and improve my writing and reading skills in Spanish. I learned about South and Central American countries, like the the Dominican Republic, and even read a book about Felipe Alou, the first Dominican baseball player to make it to the major league from the DR. I was able to connect this to my personal life because I grew up watching David Ortiz (Big Papi) play for the Boston Red Sox who is another professional Dominican baseball player.
AP Psychology: This was one of my favorite classes in high school. It challenged my thinking with complex theories and ideas. I enjoyed learning about what motivates humans, group behavior, and how we problem solve. We discussed concepts of prejudice, racism, and stereotypes and examples of them in history and present day. This has influenced my global lense because now I am more conscious of certain prejudice or stereotypes I may have and especially while traveling to new places.
Latin American Studies: For Social Justice: This course taught me a lot about Latin American history and how it has shaped the current day. One of my favorite topics we covered was about comida callejera or street food! I was able to compare food in Latin American countries to the United States and learned that because of certain cultures, corporations like McDonald's aren't successful in some countries that follow more traditional methods of cooking and eating. These lessons have shaped my views of growing, making, buying, and selling food around the world.
Advertising and Social Media Marketing: I was really excited to take this class becuase it relates to what I hope to do as a future career in the business world. In this course I learned more about demographics and how to market to specific groups of people. I had the chance to make my own social media graphics to market services and products to a demographic which will certainly help me in the future. This class helped me understand what factors influence/convince specific groups of people to buy certain things.
Latin American Cinema: The goal of this class was to explore Latin American culture through cinema. By watching films from various time periods and Latin countries, I was able to expand my perspectives about Latin Culture. We watched films about immigrants trying to build a life in the United States, learned about family dynamics in Spanish culture, and even viewed films involving war and oppression. This class changed my global lense about how war and tragedy can affect families and entire countries.