F¹rst Graduate

First Graduate's intrepid college student blogger, Anjie

This post is part of an ongoing series of blog entries by Anjie (FG3), a freshman at Barnard College writing about her experiences on the blog Uptown Girl. Here’s an excerpt from “Suspended Belief and a Taqueria”:

I don’t want to believe it.

How could a whole school year go that fast? Technically I can’t even call myself a first-year student anymore since I’ve finished all my exams and papers, but I’m not technically a sophomore either. Not that I’m emotionally ready to be a sophomore! I refuse to believe that in a few months, I must pick my major. I’m not ready. I want to stay a first-year student, go on Orientation Week’s walking tours of the West Village again, and have the dining hall closed to all those annoying male jocks that crowd the food lines and weigh down their trays with multiple entrees. (Grrr.)

I don’t want to pack.  I’m already halfway done with packing, but it’s not like I like it. See, the packing itself – putting things economically into boxes and my one suitcase, judging each item I own for its worth and its future usefulness – is all something I somewhat actually enjoy. But packing means I’m leaving Barnard. Packing means I’m leaving the friends I’ve made here (except the ones who are also going back to CA). Packing means saying goodbye. Packing means saying the requisite “keep in touch” to everyone I know even though everyone knows that won’t happen for everyone. Packing means organizing a way to get to the airport – not fun. Packing means going home.

You would think that I’d be ecstatic to be going home. I should be. I have a paid internship lined up that will provide me with invaluable, life-altering experiences and a way to finance my education at the same time. I’ll be back in the city I love (maybe even more than New York? Still deciding), I’ll be able to see my old friends and my sister and my cat…so I should be happy to be going home.

And I am, sort of. But mostly I’m sad and grumpy about it. Going home means dealing with MUNI‘s never-ending nonsense. (The NY subway has totally spoiled me.) Going home means going back to everything I left behind – the good and the bad – when I left home for Barnard. And I’m not so sure that the good outweighs the bad.

On a lighter note, there’s a taqueria, named Taqueria, on Amsterdam and 105th(ish) that has the weirdest “authentic” burritos I’ve ever tried, but they’re quite good. Their tortilla chips are the kind I would make at home when I’m bored and when I have a stack of tortillas and a bottle of oil available in the kitchen. That’s one thing about going home that gets me excited — at long last, good Mexican food!

First Graduate's intrepid college student blogger, Anjie

This post is part of an ongoing series of blog entries by Anjie (FG3), a freshman at Barnard College writing about her experiences on the blog Uptown Girl. Here’s an excerpt from “Perfection”:

Today is the best day in the year to show prospective students how great Barnard is. The African Dance classes are held outside to live music, in the sun, on a bright green lawn. The magnolia tree has littered the ground with its sweet-smelling petals. Seminar classes take place on the lawn. Everyone is smiling and laughing amongst groups of friends.  Everyone is outside. Campus is loud with chatter and discussion and music and brightly colored clothing that speaks for itself. The library is empty; the study room in the Diana is empty; people take lunch outside and sit under blossoming trees and right next to pockets of yellow daffodils. Everyone talks about all the cool classes they’re signing up for in preparation for next semester.

Simply put, today is perfection. There isn’t a single female high school senior who sees Barnard today and decidedly hates it; there isn’t a male student in Morningside Heights who doesn’t appreciate Barnard’s presence today. There might not even be a single male high school senior who sees Barnard today and doesn’t wish he were female so he could attend Barnard.

We’re even classier than the students across the street at Columbia who have turned concrete steps into an oceanless beach.

I love today. I love Barnard. I love my Barnard life.

First Graduate's intrepid college student blogger, Anjie

This post is part of an ongoing series of blog entries by Anjie (FG3), a freshman at Barnard College writing about her college experiences on the blog Uptown Girl. Here’s an excerpt from “Procrastinator’s Reward”:

Last night I learned what happens to you when you stay up all night in an attempt to write an entire essay — you get rewarded for your hard work. See, I stayed up until roughly 4:30 am writing the worst excuse of an academic paper in history. After I finished the page requirement, concluded the miserable thing, and cited as many pages of the texts as I could hunt down at the time, I collapsed into bed for a fitful few hours of half-sleep. I woke up in time to get ready for class – a class in which I had to co-lead a discussion of the latest texts. With only a minor mishap on the way (printing), my partner and I led a pretty successful discussion of race and education. At the end of the class, as I was preparing to turn in my essay, the professor announces that the final draft is not really due until THURSDAY. Now I have everything essential done for the essay as a result of my late night, and all I have to do by Thursday is take a piece of junk and turn it into something not quite so terrible. And trust me, I will be very happy with “not quite so terrible.”

This is not the end of my series of rewards for ignoring my body’s need for sleep. When I checked my email for the day, this wonderful Gloria woman had written to me saying that I was hired for the office of Diversity Initiatives! I HAVE A JOB!

It’s still too early to hear back from the whole BSAR [Barnard Student Admissions Representative] thing, since my interview was only yesterday and they are still performing interviews as I write. The point, however, is that I am employed. This is very important.

There’s more. Not only do I have a job and more time to improve my essay, but I also got out of a class today because the professor was sick – which was not good for her, but good for me because I desperately needed a nap before my PE class. All in all, it seems like the world treats you better when you procrastinate until the night before (you think) your essay is due. Case closed.

First Graduate's college blogger Anjelais

This post is part of an ongoing series of blog entries by Anjie (FG3), a freshman at Barnard College writing about her college experiences on the blog Uptown Girl. Here’s an excerpt of her latest musings:

What I learned from the Internet today:

1. People don’t read my blog when I don’t write in it, with a few anomalous days where I actually got a few readers.

2. I’m not as bad of a college student as I thought I would be, especially transitioning from my tiny, weird little public high school to Barnard.  I actually got decent grades — just shy of a 3.5 GPA, actually, which is really good for one’s first semester of college.  I mean, I hope it is, because something Barnard does is actually TRY to make transitioning from high school easy so all the advisers encourage first-years to take a certain number of credits and a certain number of classes and certain types of classes so nothing is excruciatingly challenging during the first semester.  So maybe this is the honeymoon period or something…I really hope my grades for the semester reflect a general ability to succeed in college rather than just an ability to succeed with some of Barnard’s easier classes.  Cross your fingers.

3. There’s a Maisin Scholar not only at Barnard, who I met already, but one at Columbia in my graduating class, too.  It’s my new mission to find and meet her.

Anjie Diaz (FG3)

This month, First Graduate students Monique and Maria (FG6) traveled to New Orleans to present a workshop at the Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum 2009, an annual event for educators and students. Monique and Maria, both 10th graders at John O’Connell High School, a CES-affiliated school, received training and support from our partner, Youth in Focus, an Oakland nonprofit that educates young people in youth-led action research for social justice.

The student’s workshop, “Contexts of Power: Youth-led Action Research, Evaluation and Planning for School and District Change,” explored the role of youth and youth-generated research as it applies to socially just education reforms. In addition to their presentation, our students and moderator Jayeesha Dutta of Youth in Focus also led participants in a dialogue about research strategies and hands-on activities.

As part of their Youth in Focus project, Monique and Maria also had the opportunity to interview author Tim Wise who addressed the conference with a speech about disparities in education and the need for color-conscious, as opposed to colorblind, remedies. Wise was one of many notable speakers including keynote speaker Gloria Ladson-Billings, teacher educator and author of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American Children.

During their trip, our students also got a chance to tour New Orlean’s Ninth Ward, one of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina. Heavily damaged by the natural disaster’s wind and flooding, the Ninth Ward still bears the scars of Katrina, including faded paint marking the homes where victims’ were found. Today, New Orleans is also known as the site for dramatic change in education, as its leaders attempt to reinvent urban schools and provide all students with an equitable education.

Despite the headiness of the issues and environment surrounding them, Monique and Maria were able to enjoy their stay at the Rathbone Inn, one of two restored antebellum mansions on Esplanade Avenue. The historic setting, the students learned, is the former home of Belle Elizabeth Aubert, one of the first free women of color in New Orleans to own her own home. It’s also located in the Treme Historical District, which is considered the birthplace of jazz.