2016 Reflection on Mission, Values & Engagement

Moises Claudio

Instructor M. Fitzgerald

Given what I know about the sisters of NDNU and what they believed in and valued most, I feel that their hallmarks reflect their love and care for the community. Valuing every individuals dignity and sacredness in my own words would be to always have an act of kindness towards everyone. To respect everyone as they are and do them no wrong. Most importantly I feel that giving back to the community was one of the most important values to the sisters. NDNU has specified a day in the semester where it is required for every student to give back to their community. My Call to action was helping those less fortunate kids of the Ravenswood School District and supporting/helping them along their field trip a long a boat in the harbor. Among helping them carrying things around the vessel I learned that giving back is important. Those kids looked up to us, my classmates, and seemed inspired to follow in our footsteps.

Apart from my call to action day and helping the kids of the Ravenswood School District, I was able to play a soccer match for young soccer team. It was a match during the season where a group of young kids who have the same dreams and passions as I do came to watch an intense match. We played our game and after the match the kids were extremely excited to meet us. Our coach called the over to take a picture and after we talked to them individually and they asked us for our autograph. Their attention made me feel honored to be part of the community and felt that I was entitled to being a model for those future student athletes.

Through out my first semester at NDNU my moral principles have not been questioned or challenged. Coming here I knew that I was going to face some sort of temptation to do things that I knew were wrong but for the most part I've done good in being able to stay away from what I think is wrong. Having to say no at times  to myself disturbs the peace and at times sets me in a bad mood. Plenty of times have things set me in such a bad moods but I've been able to grow out of it and be the person I know I am too be. Educationally my morals and beliefs don't affect my career plans so throughout my first semester I have not doubted my future plans.

My first year freshmen composition class had dealt with human rights throughout the whole year. Going in I didn't know a lot about the topic but through the six months I familiarized myself with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In doing this I became aware of so much that was going on around the world and in our own backyard. I was able to learn the thirty different human rights every individual since birth is entitled too. I was able to put this in work to how I treated people around me.

I personally define diversity as a mix of race, sex, and cultures. A mixture of different communities and people coming together. Throughout the semester, I've became aware the diversity brings this community together. NDNU is defined by its students and the students come from all over the world. I've met people from places that I've dream of going and was bale to talk and learn a lot about those people. I think that embracing diversity is of value to the community because it brings people together. As human beings I've noticed that we can get a lot off of different people. I've noticed that some of the best partnerships around the world have been made from different communities coming together.

In my time here I have been able to form a sort of community with my teammates and classmates. I came here knowing no one and I can proudly say I've made an impacting connection with plenty of people. As the semester went on I noticed that having important friends in classes was vital for success in college. Having friends that are comfortable with me as I am with them is great when it comes to asking for help and studying with. I noticed that in forming this community set a fun and important relationship needed to be successful in not only college but in life.

Social Justice Speaker Series

Being able to hear Rose Jacobs-Gibson speak was remarkable. To hear such an empowered woman speak about her accomplishments and motives to why she did what she did was great. I found it motivational how she started from having so little & turning out to having so much. Rose Jacobs-Gibson grabbed my attention most when she spoke about the immigrants in San Mateo. Immigration has become a very well known topic in politics and to hear someone defend them and protect them from deportation touched me. Like her I also value diversity in the world. I think it brings the world together. At NDNU valuing diversity is hallmark number 5. In saying that I feel that her leadership is based on loving and bringing every race together. Being able to lead has to be surrounded by love and respect towards others and that's exactly what I felt from Rose Jacobs-Gibson. 

Orientation Engagement Experience (OEE)

Hallmark number five, "we embrace the gift of diversity," is the most relevant to me. My whole life I've been surrounded by  a diverse amount of people. I've been fortunate enough to have met and befriended people from all around the world. Getting to do this has given me the opportunity to expand my horizon and get to know various cultures personally. The hallmark itself resonates a personal value of mine. I myself value different cultures because I feel that they all together make up the world we live in today. I was raised loving my neighbor and in that I grew to embrace and find something loving from every culture that was presented to me. My OEE activity did express this hallmark. NDNU is known for its diverse community and in that, I met people from places that I've never really heard of. That experience led me to meet new friends and new cultures from the world we live in.

Freshman Research Conference

Prior to the research conference, as a class we chose to work on cooperative learning. Ironically, as we worked on cooperative learning, as a class we practiced it as well. Having a number of students that we did made it hard to work and make an effective presentation. As we started moving into the project we learned that because there was so many moving parts we had to have a lot of communication between the class. In effort to make things easier, we decided to make a PowerPoint and share it through google so every student can see and put their individual work on it. As we moved through it we found how easier things got when we all knew what everyone was doing. We figured out what we were missing and even what we didn't really need in the presentation. I personally wasn't able to attend the conference due to an athletic competition. I spoke with my peers about it and realized how we were sufficiently prepared to have an effective presentation. Our presentation on cooperative learning effected us equally to those hearing the presentation, if not more.

Post-Flection

Before we went out as a class to help those kids in Redwood City my idea on how things were going to be were quite the contrary to what actually went down. I knew we were going to be engaged with the five year old kids but didn't really think we were going to be of such importance. I learned that those kids thought a lot about us, being college students, and looked up to us for it. The engagement through out the day with these students was emotional and motivating in the sense that I was at one point in their position. At their age I was going on field trips where a lot of volunteers will treat us how we treated them on that day. At the end of the day it meant a lot to me because at their age I wished to one day be that volunteer being looked up to.  

Learn While Teaching

In reflection to our planned community engagement activity and partners at the Marine Science Institute, committing ourselves to the community and the beyond has never appealed to me as such an important factor for learning. Previous high school experiences, specifically beach cleanups, came to mind as the Marine Science Institute was mentioned. Having some recognition of oceanography under my belt can personally help me help the kids from our other partnership at the Ravenswood School. More precisely integrate service-learning while creating partnerships with community agencies like the Marine Science Institute.