Alyssia
Psychology Undergraduate |
Alyssia
Psychology Undergraduate |
Tuesday 1/10/23 Tuesday, we got to work and woke up early in the morning to tour the schools. Tricia, the founder of the Mariposa DR Foundation, took us to these schools and told us a little bit about them. The first school we went to was Coral. This is a private school in the Dominican Republic that goes from 1st grade to 12th. In the Dominican it's considered 1-6 Primary and 1-6 secondary school. The secondary school students go to school in the morning and the primary students go in the afternoon. While it’s a private school it did seem to lack some things that a US school would have. We saw a few classrooms and met with the principal of the school. Coral was interesting because that is one of the best options for schooling in La Cienega. After leaving there, we went to 2 public schools. These schools were different. The staff didn’t seem as interested in teaching as Coral did. If there was a teacher in the classroom the students were working alone. It definitely was different than any school in America is. I am not here to bash on a school because this is the day we learned, that in order to qualify to be a teacher in the Dominican, you only had to pass eighth grade!! That’s vastly different from the United States. In the US you can't be a teacher without a master's degree at least. Knowing this information, it made me think about the way the public schools are run here in the Dominican Republic. My favorite part of the morning was getting to visit the Mariposa DR foundation. We were greeted by absolute beauty as we entered through the gate to the facilities. Tricia told us about the Mariposa Promise. This statement lets young girls know what is expected of them and what the foundation is there to help them with. It talks about women being a step behind others and how it's not fair, but it doesn’t mean they cannot flourish. The end quote of this promise stuck with me and even made me think about myself… “You are a Mariposa. Your wings were fashioned by many hands. But only you can put them on and soar for as long as you are on this earth.” This really stuck with me because, it really makes so much sense to me. A lot of people help me along my way in this life, but if I don’t take the time and put in effort to make things happen, they never will. After reading that, the girls and I sat down under a beautiful mosaic pavilion to listen to Tricia talk about why girls' education is so important and should be focused on. Tricia talked about The Foundation and how it was founded. She talked about their future for expansion. As we kept talking Tricia started to tell us why most girls don’t finish school. She talked about how many girls are subjected to sex work and are pulled out of school to do family duties instead of learning. One of the purposes of the foundation is to keep these girls in school and to provide them with a health and safe place to learn. We took a tour of the facility which actually was an old hotel that they converted to the beautiful place it is now. Each room was named after an influential woman. The amount of Women Power I felt as I walked through that place was intense. A place for girls made by girls. It was my kind of place. We ate lunch prepared by the staff at Mariposa. That was another meal where I was nervous to try things because I am picky at home. It was good though. There were some things like cabbage salad that I didn’t like, but I was proud of myself for trying it. However, I did like the rice and pigeon peas (lentils). I even tried avocado! It's very fresh here and I thought it was just ok. Little by little I'm expanding my pallet. Once we left the foundation all of us girls decided we needed another shopping trip. We went to Janet’s grocery store and bought the essentials for the next week. My housemates and I had made a list and we took the store by storm! Us girls were in every corner of that store! I even got to use some Spanish to ask where ice cream was. Even in the Dominican I need my ice cream! After consulting with my Spanish speaking housemates (they know more Spanish than I do) I went up to a worker and asked “Donde esta el helado?” (Where is the ice cream?) The worker understood me and pointed me in the right direction. I was proud of myself! We left the store and went home to unload our groceries. After that we all decided that we were going out to dinner! The eight of us girls walked down the beach to LAX Ojo Club. It was about a ten-minute walk from our beach houses to the Club. We sat outside on the sand and all ordered drinks. I got a strawberry daiquiri. Then it was time to look at the giant online menu. I ordered the Pasta Pomodoro, and it was fresh tomato basil oil sauce and pasta. It was so good!! We sat around and laughed for hours. It was a good bonding experience. We walked back down the beach in the dark which was interesting to say the least. I was nervous about it, but I did it anyway and again was pretty proud of myself. Wednesday 1/11/23 Wednesday was the first day in the schools for us. We started our day at Tres Mariposas Montessori school. That day we talked with the founder Sarah and learned about the Montessori way and why she chose to run this kind of program. She talked about the benefits of Montessori and about the schools' future plans to build a student run restaurant and more. We met a parent at the school named Manny. He is a Clinical licensed therapist with a master's in social work. We got to listen to him talk about his ideas for the mental health clinic he wants to start with the school. He talked about the different types of therapy and that therapy isn’t just about sitting in a chair and talking about your feelings. He knows that it's important to build trust and rapport with the kids. He talked about his education path and what made him go into psychology. I took a ton away from him and I'm extremely excited to do an interview with him this coming week. I think his knowledge would really add to my research. After talking with him, we went to observe the first Montessori classroom. Anna and I learned a lot from observing the classroom. After a morning at the Montessori school Anna and I paired up and went to meet our lunch host family. Our host moms name was Kerlande. For lunch that day she prepared us chicken, rice and beans, and salad. We were at her house for about an hour, and we talked with her in Spanish (I relied on Anna a ton for help with my Spanish). It was cool to see how a Dominican family cooks and lives on a regular basis. She was so welcoming and made amazing food! We walked back to 3MM and took a taxi to Coral. At Coral, I was pared with Andrea, and we went to observe 3rd grade. This was extremely different from the Montessori. The kids were very interested in us and why we were there which was different from the Montessori where the children didn’t care about us being there. Toward the end of our first day, Andrea and I decided to start working on our lesson for the following day. The observations were very simple. Coral classrooms were chaotic. The kids get up from their seats and the teacher would just leave the room at times which isn’t normal for a US school. At 5pm we loaded onto a bus and went back home. At night we had a cohort meeting to talk about our first day at the schools. We talked about our lessons we would be teaching the next day at Coral. My partner and I decided that we would teach the kids about families in English. We got together during the meeting to start working on our lesson. We got all set up for the next day and we all went back to our homes. Before bed I had some ice cream and worked on my blog. These two days were eventful, and I learned a lot!
2 Comments
Pixita del Prado Hill
1/16/2023 11:35:33 am
Hi Alyssia (I think we have met in the EELEL office when you have stopped by to say hi to Sara and then again at the Hall Event) -- I'm enjoying your blog -- what an incredible experience! Safe travels, Dr. del Prado
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Sue Rubino
1/19/2023 09:42:08 am
Hi Alyssia. I work in the School of Ed Dean's office. Just read and thoroughly enjoyed all your posts - so detailed. Sounds amazing! Love the quote about wings and soaring...Have a good trip home.
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AuthorHi! I am currently studying psychology at Buffalo State College! I hope to be a clinical child psychologist in the future. I love to spend time with my friends and family and I love taking naps! You’ll catch Me on the couch every Sunday for the Buffalo Bills game! Im always busy learning or trying new things! :) Archives
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