Critical Language Scholarship Program: Personal Statement

This Semester I want to set some goals for myself. I am going to set goals for myself in language Arts, Math, science, and P.E. I am going to have goals for myself outside of class too you should make goals for yourself too.

I had the amazing privilege to serve as an informal ambassador for my country of birth (Italy), clearing up cultural stereotypes, and creating positive connections between two cultures. I had the joy of meeting people from other cultures. Sharing problems, connecting with cultural differences and similarities gave me the opportunity to learn not only about other cultures but also about local and global issues. The desire to understand these issues, and to solve them (like for example immigration issues with Mexican-born people living in the United States) inspired me to apply for the study abroad program-language immersion in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

I am elated to have the opportunity to apply to California State University of Fullerton's Master of Literacy and Reading program. I graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, in 2013. There, I received my Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies, with an emphasis in Spanish, as well as my Multiple Subject Credential. After graduation, I taught Kindergarten for two years in Greenfield, California. It was there that I learned my passion for teaching reading skills to English Language Learners. I soon realized the joy and cohesiveness literacy can bring into a classroom. For the past three years I have taught first grade at a small rural school in Shandon, California. I was extremely honored to be chosen to travel to Kansas City in July 2017, to

This year I will be helping out at the primary again, and I will also volunteer to be a translator for the parents. The only difference being that I will actually be more one-to-one with a 2nd grader, helping learn her English. I was overjoyed when I was offered this opportunity, I couldn’t wait to get started. I also couldn’t wait to get started with a new project I started at school. The step forward that I took was that I started my own program at my school, the unique factor being that it’s a spanish based after school study table. The goal of the program is to help out the students who are having trouble in class because they don’t know as much English.

After so many incidents, I was determined to learn this foreign language and prove to people that I wasn’t not lost in this country. Every day afterschool I would ask my family to help me with my English. One year later, I was able to understand what people around me were saying, and I could do basic communications with people. School came to me as an enjoying part of my day, something I looked forward to when going to bed, and an opportunity, a gift for me to learn the language of this new country.

A forth arguement, critical literacy, exists in small american accedemic communities as oppotititionall material rather than a popular and driving theory. As primarily a marxist idea, it is popular in 3rd world contries used as a means of power and controll over those regions. Seen as a threat to capitalism, it is considered danagerous and will most likely continue be banned from american classrooms for the forseeable future.

Learning a new language seems to have only positive effects. However, for a Mexican American, accomplishing this goal brought him drawbacks in the interaction with his family. In his essay, ‘’Public and Private language,’’ Richard Rodriguez describes the difficulty in learning a new language and the sacrifice he makes to accomplish his goal. Richard Rodriguez shares the difficulty for older people, as they learn a new language; however, for younger generations is easier to learn a new language. Also, the new language creates a lack of communication for Richard Rodriguez.

My personal and professional lives are undoubtedly interwoven, and have been affected by my independent emigration from my native Iran at the age of 17. I knew that my desire to pursue higher education would be better fulfilled abroad, so, with the support of my parents, I decided to move to France. After I gained a degree in French language there, I moved to Los Angeles with my eyes set firmly on graduate school. The linguistic, cultural, and financial difficulties I faced during these times have played a significant role in teaching me about independence, perseverance, and resilience. Additionally, my diverse exposure to three very different cultures and languages has allowed me to become more accepting of others who are dissimilar from me, and has made better capable at communicating effectively.

For the past six years, I have had the privilege of sharing my first language, Spanish, and Spanish culture as a teacher at a small private elementary school in a small rural town where diversity is almost non-existent. It has been a pleasure to open up a window to the outside world in the classrooms of this school where the students and I get to explore Spanish culture and language without having to leave town. My experience sharing my culture as well as my bilingual skills, however, extends beyond the elementary school classroom. Prior to teaching Spanish at the elementary school level, I worked as a Spanish-English translator and interpreter at various companies, and I also taught Spanish to adults.

On September 1, 2012 I moved to Virginia, United States. Many can say that, but to me it is one of the greatest things I have done in life. Being born in Puerto Rico, an island in which Spanish is the main language, the wish of learning English was constantly in my mind. As I grew up I started to take English courses in school; however, the courses were not as effective, since I only learned the basics of English. Later on after graduating from sixth grade I was enrolled in a bilingual private school. The fact that the school was mostly in English and that it was private challenged my learning even more than in a public school. Although the school was a great one, I was doing badly accademically. It wasn’t until the school year was over that I decided to move to the state of Virginia in order to begin with my journey. A journey in which I learned many things from life and because of this experience I am preapared to overcome anything that comes between me and what I want.

Being part of the Dual Language program is an experience I cherish because of how it molded me into the person I am today; someone who appreciates their two cultures. I was apart of the Dual Language club in high school, that was a club for bilingual students and for Dual Language students. Further, being part of a diverse program made me realize that I want to continue to celebrate and appreciate my two cultures. The Dual Language program exposed me to a culture embedded in my roots, for that I am thankful for it. Being active and part of two different cultures has impacted me more than any other experience.

Over the past few years I have discovered how deeply I want to be involved in politics and international affairs. With those goals in mind, I researched colleges with the best programs for those majors. The college that stood out to me the most was George Washington University. One of the biggest things that stood out was that there is an entire school dedicated to international affairs. This means that there is room for me to grow in any concentration I wish, with a quality staff to guide me along the way. Moreover, it is important for me to be in a diverse and understanding community so George Washington’s involvement with increasing inclusion and creating a culture of cultural empathy makes the school a great fit for me. Additionally, I

Being born into a Persian household was such an exceptional privilege I had, in which today I am extremely grateful for. From the profound history to the intrinsic culture, having a Persian background opened doors to endless pleasures. Yet, it was not too long when I started school and experienced

Unlike most of my peers, I came from a family where my home discourse conflicted with “those that dominate literacy education” (Williams 343). This conflict of discourse made it harder for me to succeed in school. I often found myself afraid of raising my hand, or speaking out since my remarks stemmed from discourse learned at home, which I was the only one privy of and in an environment where academic discourse was the dominant form of discourse. It was not until I learned academic discourse, until “[I understood] not just how the language works, but how to use it in the appropriate cultural context” (Williams 343), that I fully became a member of the school community. Thereafter, I found myself taking a “detached, analytical position when arguing” (Williams 342) my point. Similarly, Mendel touches on the notion of academic discourse as “detached” from one’s emotions when he describes the weakness of one’s language when “I” is used inappropriately as the subject: “Starting sentences with I encourages you to choose emotional herbs instead of the action verbs that drive powerful language” (Mendel 25). My academic writings from year’s prior were stricken with an inapt usage of I’s. My writing was weak, but not irreparable. Today, I am privy to my nuanced used of weak language and correct them before turning in an assignment. However, my success with language does not stop at the school setting, it progresses into my social life as well.

The areas the case studies are located, have some outstanding similarities in terms of their peculiar position in the geography of Georgia, respectively Azerbaijan. But also several social, ethnic, economic and ecological factors are comparably particular for the regions (c.f. Tarkhnishvili, 2001 for Georgia). In particular, the influence of the Soviet legacy on agriculture and local knowledge cultures seems to be an outstanding similarity.