Maywood Educational Fair 2020

REFELCTION

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual 2020 Maywood Education Fair was held virtually. Firstly, I want to applaud Cohort 12 (the Year 2 cohort) for planning the FIRST EVER VIRTUAL Maywood Fair. I recognize that this was likely a huge challenge. Cohort 12 was starting from scratch during a very stressful, unpredictable time. Yet, they pulled off an incredible event with multiple complex layers to coordinate. They have set a high bar for our cohort next year!

I was placed in the 11-12^th grade Workshop Committee. Our Cohort 12 Committee leads had already planned to present a workshop on transitioning from High School to College. It would cover everything from college applications, financial aid, choosing a major, the social transition to college, and more. To support our leads, the Cohort 13 members agreed to create a virtual handout that would list important dates, tips, and resources for applying to college. We also agreed to monitor the Zoom chat and engage with students as needed during the live workshop.

I achieved the first Learning Outcome by collaborating with my fellow Cohort 13 members to create the virtual resource handout “Transitioning to College: A Guide to Fall & Spring. I had to put myself in a high school senior’s shoes and reflect on my own process of applying to college during high school. While making the handout with my peers, I was able to apply my knowledge about navigating community colleges from my current position at Orange Coast College. Since I work with many undocumented students in my current role, I could also bring in a lot of current knowledge on specialized steps for undocumented students.

For the second learning outcome, my Cohort 13 peers and I monitored the chat during the live workshop. Throughout, we would applaud and validate students as they contributed to the chatbox. By validating our students’ strengths, we practiced Yosso’s theory of Community Cultural Wealth (2006). For example, at the beginning of the workshop, our leads asked students to type about one accomplishment they are proud of from high school in the chat. Many students wrote about school clubs, winning scholarships, being a leader in their own way. My peers validated and celebrated all of these experiences. We made sure every student knew that their cultural wealth was valid and seen by us.

For the final student learning outcome, I took note of what I thought went well at Maywood and what could be improved throughout the day. While I appreciated Cohort 12’s amazing work in planning the event, I felt a bit disconnected from the process until the final weeks of Maywood. I recognize that the virtual environment might have made it challenging to include Cohort 13 in the planning early on. To make up for this, I think Cohort 13 should make an intentional effort to include the first-year cohort in the planning process early on. This will encourage a sense of ownership and connection to the event. The week after Maywood, Dr. Rebecca Gutierrez Keeton gave us some class time to reflect on Maywood and brainstorm ways to make the event better next year. This was a very helpful space to put down some of the initial brainstorming into writing and see what my fellow cohort mates thought. Overall, Maywood was incredibly well-executed, especially considering the limitations that Cohort 12 faced. Since it is looking likely that Maywood will be virtual again in 2021, we will have to learn much from their example!

REFERENCES

Yosso, T.J. (2006). Critical race counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano educational pipeline. Routledge.