Unity

Why do people join gangs? Sometimes it is to feel that they belong, and spend time with people that they enjoy being with. People like them. That is why I have joined different organizations and clubs, to spend time with people like me. People dedicated to academics and helping the community, that's why I joined the National Honors Society Board. To become leaders in our Spanish language, that is why I became president of the National Spanish Honor Society. And to spend time with creative and artistic people, is why I joined Art club and band!

Being part of NHS keeps me engaged with other students like me. People that come from diverse backgrounds, and care about their academics and community involvement. That is also another reason I engaged in NSHS. This society also becomes involved with the Hispanic community, and encourages the use of the Spanish language. In both of these organizations, I feel like a leader. My peers are people I enjoy being involved with when we do community service, and we all have a similar goal in life, to succeed.

A club that is a big part of me is Art club. I am the vice president, and feel that with our creativity, we can achieve more than we have. In this club, many students are like me in the way that they enjoy art and might even see it as a way of life. They are enthused by it. In band, there are also many creative peers. In this group many students are like me, because they enjoy music! The band is like a gang, we are a family, specially during marching band season. We are engaged with one another from July until May.

During Marching Band season, band camp takes place. All of these people whom enjoy playing music, or as I do, spin flags to its rhythm, have a great time. The long hours we put into a show and the dedication brings us closer than other organizations. After Marching band, Concert band keeps us together. These people are very fun to be with and seem like me in several aspects. The band at Omaha South is diverse. Many people are into other kinds of arts like visual, theater and choir. This shows peoples creative power, and that is what they like. As many do, I enjoy all arts. In band, we all work towards the same goals: having fun and putting on a great show for the audience.

The organizations and clubs that I join, I join for many reasons. Some are that there will be students with the same interests as me in the club, and that their personality will make me enjoy my experience. Clubs start being part of my life when there are people that I can relate to and they will contribute to it.

Immigration

As an artist, I show my feelings towards social and political issues through my art. Immigration has been a subject I have focused on and even been disqualified for.

This year my artwork titled Anti-Boarder Patrol won first place for the Caucus Art Contest,but was then disqualified hours before the award ceremony for involving political issues. This was upsetting, and then yet intrigued me more towards this issue.

Coming from the Hispanic/Latino community, I support my people. Immigration has been a big issue in the United States for decades. It is getting more and more focused on now that the economy is in bad conditions and more and more people are needing jobs. The illegal immigrants get the blame for stealing job opportunities and taking advantage of things that may belong to "Americans". But aren't we all Americans because we are from North, South, and Central America? I am an open minded individual,and can see both sides of this story, and I find it hard to take a side on this issue.

Illegal aliens are not job thieves, but hard workers. Can you imagine how hard it is to live a normal life if you are hiding from the government most of the time? Is this really necessary? Many illegal immigrants come to the United States seeking a better way of life. It bothers me how these people have to suffer so much just for this. The governments of their own nations are not satisfying their needs for a decent way of life. They seek the opportunity of being able to support their families by crossing one or even more boarders as well as oceans. It is saddening when one hears about someone who has died trying to reach the American Dream. What dream? The dream of being free. So I ask myself, what freedom is this if they have to pretend they are someone else to be able to get hired? I understand a few of these illegal immigrants don't make the right decisions and create more problems for this nation, but one cannot judge everyone based on the behavior of a few. Decent hard workers exist in every race and color, and many people in the Latino community know the importance of working hard. They do not take jobs from legal people, because anyone can apply for these. They have just shown to be hard workers and get hired as well. If illegal immigrants could come legally to the United States, it would be their dream come true.

I understand and I am open-minded to different points of view on this situation. I have been part of this community and have relatives that have an illegal alien status. It is hard for them to seek jobs, buy a home or drive a car. They live afraid. I see this every day in my community and would love to help everyone if I could. I also understand why it is not possible to just simply make everyone legal. There is a large number of immigrants, not just from Latin America, and I don't see how it would be possible to help everyone. Then,once again, they are here and the country has been working properly with them here.

If the United States is ever able to support illegal aliens, I have some ideas on how. In my opinion, this country would run as well as it has before. Some people say there would be trouble with the economy and jobs. I do not see how this issue would come to play. If undocumented people could obtain a job with their own identity, they would be able to pay taxes and contribute to this economy as well as they do now. They shop and pay for things just like everyone else with a legal status. The issue on giving every person proper documentation would be the amount of people who need them. I see a problem with more and more people migrating into the United States once this happens, and taking advantage of the situation. This would not be fair to illegal aliens who have lived here for a significant amount of years.

I have also heard of the anchor baby issue. Everyone is free to their own opinion on this subject and I respect it, because we each have different ethics. I understand why people are discussing things about the anchor babies, but if one thinks about it, these cultures are cultures that typically have large families. People think that some people are having babies in the United States to obtain documentation in the future. Latin American families usually consist of having many children to help out with the family. This is typical in countries like Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and many others. I also understand why some people are worrying about this, and there might be some women who do have babies for this reason, but one cannot blame all for the actions of one. Plus, if a parent is ever deported from the United States, there is not much concern given by officers if the illegal aliens' children won't ever know what happened to their parents. It is always saddening to me to hear of children left at school and never having their parents come pick them up. The poor kid waiting until the teacher calls him/her in because his/her parent was taken away. This happens more than what people notice.

The immigration issues of the world will never end. People will always be seeking for a better life, even if it's just moving from state to state for a better job. This happens within the same country. It is an issue that illegal aliens wish was just a nightmare they could awaken from. People have different views on this and mine are strong on helping everyone. It would be great for everyone to be happy and people to not have to hide or use false identities. Jobs could be created and the United States could be prosperous, but this is something that is very hard to achieve. One has to understand the different sides on the issue. It is not an easy one to resolve. I could discuss many points on this topic, but it is a large one. I as an individual have my own beliefs, and hope to see this all work out in every ones' favor some day.

College Student al Fin!

No one can wait until the moment they get out of high school and finally attend college. That's how I was, and let me tell ya', it sounds easier than it is. It was a change, but one can manage.

As I stepped into my class, Small Group Communication, I didn't know what to expect. I was told professors were not quit nice, and only gave lectures. To my surprise, my professor, Dr. Toller, was a nice lady. Our class started by having every student introduce themselves and saying something they enjoyed doing. Then she started explaining the course, and the course syllabus.

In high school, we are treated differently in the way the professor teaches, and the interaction between student and teachers. In college, we teach ourselves. In this speech course, we had a quiz the second day of class over about thirty pages, and have had six quizzes in less than two weeks. As I mentioned before, we actually have to study before our quizzes all by ourselves! Sounds harsh for any high school student who thinks they have it easy once they get to college. I enjoy our class though. It is all about working in groups and leaning how to cooperate. Our professor treats everyone like peers and our groups discussions are very mature. In Group Communications, our class consists of going over what we already tested on and watching video clips that reflect on the topic.We are also divided into smaller groups and do projects together to learn how to do group work. If one reads the chapter and cooperates with our individual groups, the class is not so bad, but actually a fun class.

To help us prepare better for our tests, Car'lika, our RTA has been helping us study on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Our small study group consists of us reteaching the material to each other. This seems to help with the ten question quizzes. And on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, in college 101, we've been learning about resumes and been given presentations. It will help us much by making our senior year less frustrating, since we will have more background knowledge than others.

College is actually very different from high school.We study the material before it is taught and the diversity in age groups is large in different classes. It is cool to walk to a different class and enjoying a little more liberty, well a lot more liberty, than in high school. One is responsible for one's self, and how one wants to succeed.

This is a great experience, and will make my freshmen year of college way easier. I will have developed a better way of studying. This will help me be prepared because I am a college student. I know what to expect, and other people might have a harder time than me. I'm glad I had this opportunity to be a college student during my summer vacation. I just have to get up earlier and be ready to go while most high school student are still sleeping, but it's manageable.
My college transition consisted of studying, which I was not used to, but my freshmen year will be a successful one!

Residence Life with Summer Scholars

How do I fit in with all of these new people? Should I be myself and not talk to anyone because of my shyness or be fake and try to belong? My experience at the dorm was awesome, but I was hurting myself and others by trying to be liked.

Getting to meet new people was great! Each person's personality came through, except for mine. I know most people saw me as an outgoing, "funny" person, but I guess I was not being myself. Living with so many different people and trying to belong made me forget my true colors. Don't get me wrong, living in the dorms and socializing was a great experience,but I blew it.

We got to meet new people on another level. Many of us had a clique with others, and we didn't realize we left people out. Most of them were shy, but when I talked to them, they were some of the coolest people I've met. Everyone in Summer Scholars was kind and fun to be with. I regret not getting to know them more in depth. The people I knew and the new friends I made were awesome. I apologize to those who know me and could realize I was trying to belong by being fake and ruin it for them.

In this program, I felt comfortable around everyone. Everyone respected each others way of viewing things. The time spent together allowed us to create new friendships that can last forever and ruined others for personal reasons. The experience was an unforgetable one. We learned to trust other people and cooperate to make the experience worth it every bit.

Living in the residence and doing many activities together as a team like going to Ashland, having a dance, eating together, watching movies, playing volleyball, and drawing on the sidewalk made us bond and get to know each other more. I developed trust for the group. Sometimes one can realize there are many great people out there. The whole experience was great! The scholars of 2010 made me laugh many times. We had much fun staying up late, and creating trust. The RTA's made me feel the same way.

This week in residence I became someone I was not, trying to fit in. But I realize it now, and still think the people in the program are great people! Outgoing and kind individuals that made this experience one of the best! I really do wish that I would have talked to different people and expand my friendships. This was a great learnig experience for me. I made new awesome friends and had a great time with them!