Senior Project Presentation Today!

6:15pm in the AV Room, starting with Deja’s animation and Steven’s video game.

I have photos to post of all the art that has been around campus and will make time to post them tonight.

Ode to Cameron’s Room

Random Love

For Mr. Simon’s Ceramics class

and the Varsity Boys’ Baseball Team.

Annual DAIS Conference hosted at Riverdale

Diversity Awareness Initiative for Students is an organization that plans an opportunity to discuss issues of diversity on Friday of every month. I have been to a few of these meetings throughout the past couple of years, but I know that a few of the Junior and Sophomore go to these meetings regularly. It’s a great time to speak up and connect with students from other independent schools around the city. The last meeting is this Friday, May 20th at Packer Collegiate to discuss how the conference went and to acknowledge the seniors during their very last DAIS meeting. If you’re planning on attending meetings next year, check out http://www.daisorg.org/.

At this Conference, I attended two workshops: “The Minority Table” and “Born this Way”, which was a discussion on homosexuality. I loved both discussions and how seriously they were taken. A lot of great things were said, and it was nice to see how open/ comfortable other schools are compared to Riverdale. I’m proud to say that I spoke up at both, which never happened in a past DAIS Conference. The Talent Show had a few technical difficulties, but was still a good time. It was nice to see Danielle represent with her beautiful dancing. Dinner was yummy, and even though I left the dance early, I hear that most people had a great time.

It was nice to see so much color on campus and spend some extra time with my favorite people. :)

Senior Project

My first week of Senior Project was amazing! I’m still going to school every single day from 8:25am-3:30pm, and even stay working until the late bus unless there’s a baseball game. I’ve spent the first two days mostly cutting out images and putting together some small combinations. Then, all of a sudden I grabbed a huge poster board and started coming up with bigger ideas; these “gender bending” collages will definitely range in size. I notice that I’ve been playing around with black and white vs. color, and I’ve started out with some really iconic and simple images. I won’t just stick to that though. I plan to use tissue paper and tracing paper to add on some transparent layers, and Mr. Enright (my advisor) has already told me before that what I consider “overworked” tends to be my best work. So basically, I need to stop being so analytical and go a little crazy. Cool! I’ve also been keeping a journal. My journal is a big sketchbook. I take notes in it during my studio time and write in it every day. A lot of the pages so far also have images I really like and would like to imitate somehow, quotes that relate to my topic, and sticky notes from the book that I’m reading. I’m taking notes on Post-It’s since I borrowed this book from Ms. Quarshie. It’s My Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein, who doesn’t identify as a man or a woman, and it’s PERFECT. It really is a workbook that asks questions and gives me ideas for exploring my own sense of gender.

 

HOLA/BSA Assembly: Voices

One of my proudest moments ever. For those who weren’t there, for our assembly we collected “blurbs” from all of the HOLA and BSA (Black Student Alliance) members about their general thoughts on Riverdale or specific experiences/moments that stand out to them. Then, we had someone else read it aloud during the assembly, so that it could be anonymous, but still feel personal and be someone’s true voice. We actually didn’t plan this, but Ms. Quarshie opened it up for discussion right there in the theater, and that was probably the best part for me. I also made a fool out of myself during both of my “solos” on stage, but that’s nothing new. I proud of myself though; I spoke up.

In HOLA this week, we’re going to have a discussion about how it felt, any reactions (positive or negative), how it could’ve have been better, etc.

Another favorite part:

I must give myself, Nijai, and Ms. Quarshie props for putting so much time into this assembly. Also, I’ve never loved the energy of HOLA and BSA more. I know this was difficult for some people, so I’m proud of us.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Chelsea for taking photos and recording every single part of this assembly, including the discussion after. Woo!

My Last Week of Classes

I’m taking my ILS oral this Friday morning. *nervous laugh*

Math Class

During Pre-Calculus this morning, I had one of those I-am-extremely-lucky-to-be-getting-this-education moments. And as someone who wants to be a teacher, watching so much enthusiasm come from the teachers around me was comforting and fun.

Ms. Nelson set up an experiment involving launching grapes with a spoon and translated into a system of equations with three quadratic functions. I missed the first part of this, so I’m not sure where the numbers came from. Mr. Taylor was there to explain the physics to us and show us how it takes us right back to the quadratic functions, and also how it involves two parabolas. Then, Mr. Bailey explained it to us from a Calculus perspective and told us about the next step we will take when we move in to Calculus. While they collaborated and made so many connections, we all just sat and tried to take it all in. To be honest, I don’t feel like I completely understand and I definitely wouldn’t be able to spit it back out, but just being there and watching the excitement (especially from Mr. Taylor) was special.

Varsity Boys’ Baseball

10-0

They have a game vs. Poly @ Poly on Friday. Because some of my favorite people are on this team, I will be making the trip down to Brooklyn. I’ve also been at the past two games and am now addicted. IT’S GOING TO BE A GREAT GAME. Please join me! They’ll have a bus to take us (and back) if at least 10 people sign-up, so talk to Coach Mac if you’re interested.

^Cole!

Spring (really) Starting

       

Nietzsche is so interesting.

Reflection #15

Growing up American, I have felt most distant from the older generations in my family in terms of faith. The four-generation scale of faith begins at the top with my great-grandmother, who has always lived in the Dominican Republic and who I always picture praying the rosary over and over again. She believes she can heal people with the grace of God and has even seen him during one of her profound healing moments.

Then, there’s my grandmother. She had four out of five children in this country and raised them here for most of their childhood. She lives (mostly) in the Dominican Republic, where she uses the common phrase Si Dios quiere, God willing, whenever she can. Even with hopes as quotidian as “I’ll see you later!” she responds, Si Dios quiere. Phone calls with her always start and end with her energetic voice saying some variation or extended version of, “May God bless you and keep you happy and healthy. Remember to thank God for everything you have.”

My mother was born here. Though, these days, she hardly talks to me about God, I know she sits up on the edge of her bed every single night to pray as she always has. She does not go to church every Sunday, but always carries a profoundly grateful and generous spirit. Just as I think my grandmother experienced, the Virgin Mary has appeared in her dreams. She raised me to pray every night.

I don’t pray every night. For some time I did only because I had a nightmare on a night that I forgot to pray, but then I stopped fearing nightmares. I went to Catholic school for nine years before coming to Riverdale; I am a baptized and confirmed Catholic. Yet, I have trouble calling myself a Catholic. It may seem like I am though. Look closely at my room and you’ll find rosaries (my last name is the Spanish word for “rosary”), a photo of Mary, one of Jesus, a prayer cards of Our Lady of Lourdes (Lourdes is my middle name) in my wallet, and some religious item in every schoolbag I’ve ever had. Even though I don’t agree with the Catholicism, I still try not to take the Lord’s name in vain. And even though I don’t go to church anymore in support of all of those oppressed by the Catholic Church, I can’t deny the beauty is has nourished in the Dominican Republic.

There are statistics that say that the percentage of Catholic Latinos in the United States is decreasing. With this, the percentage of Latinos who claim “no religion” doubled from 1990 to 2008. It seems that for many immigrants, God is dying. I wonder why the idea of God has become discredited in the United States. Nieztche wrote, “the less a person knows how to command, the more urgent is his desire for that which commands” (Baumer 613). This doesn’t really explain my personal loss of faith, but I can understand how the American idea of having control over one’s life (a.k.a. income) can make one stop believing in a higher power having the control. Or it could be the opposite; maybe Latinos in the United States are feeling increasingly hopeless. My reason has more to do with how conservative the Catholic Church is, to the point that its rules hurt innocent people. New ideas and new people made me think differently. I’m not sure if that fits into anything Nieztche stated. I’ll stop there. I’m not sure.

HOLA and BSA

We got together during the last Activity Period to plan our ASSEMBLY ON MAY 10TH. We’re putting together a few videos of situations at Riverdale that stand out to us. Even though, it will give off a comical vibe, we hope to spark conversation. Then, there will a much more serious part that will make sure our voices and stories are heard. IT WILL BE GREAT.

While everyone was around working on their scenes for the video aspect of this assembly, I was walking around trying to keep everyone focused and taking photos:

 

^BSA Co-Presidents

^my HOLA Co-Prez and Chelsea!

On Making a College Decision

I went from deeply confused to completely confident with my decision to attend DARTMOUTH COLLEGE in a matter of two days. During my time of confusion, I was asked how I thought I’d feel after making a decision. I said I would probably think about it for a month and wonder if I made the right decision; I was sure I would doubt myself. I think this answer is what led me toward making a decision. I started wearing out the decisions by spending one day thinking I’ll be going to Dartmouth, and then the next day acting like I had chosen the other school. I realized I felt much more comfortable with the thought of going to Dartmouth and was sure that if I had made the forced decision to go to the second school (because it feels like a first love and is school to which I almost applied ED) I would definitely had spent about a month thinking about it.

I am stunned at how great it feels to know where I’m going to college.

GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!

Also, during my visit at Dartmouth I discovered that wearing my Mountain School sweatshirt is THE way to make friends. haha

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who has made a decision! and GOOD LUCK to everyone who hasn’t!