The summer before my first year on Executive Board, we had a meeting with SPACE and PREP. I think we were trying to discuss how we could all work together. PREP and SPACE were doing the outreach thing to high school students, and PTSP had plans of starting up Bayanihan. We were supposed to present what the "transfer experience" was like. At the time, I didnt really understand the significance of being a Pilipino/community college/transfer student, but at this meeting I began to understand my experience.
I have JP Bareng Schumacher to thank for that. He came up with a very unique, very relevant activity to help put the transfer experience into perspective. He played this song:
Listen to the first verse:
Man I promise, she's so self conscious/She has no idea what she's doing in college/That major that she majored in don't make no money/But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny/Now, tell me that ain't insecurrreThe concept of school seems so securrre/Sophmore three yearrrs aint picked a careerrr/She like fuck it, I'll just stay down herre and do hair/Cause that's enough money to buy her a few pairs of new Airs/Cause her baby daddy don't really careShe's so precious with the peer pressure/Couldn't afford a car so she named her daughter Alexus (a Lexus)/She had hair so long that it looked like weave/Then she cut it all off now she look like Eve/And she be dealing with some issues that you can't believe/Single black female addicted to retail and well
Doesn't it sound like a situation someone would be facing at the community college? "Sophmore 3 years ain't picked a career," "she has no idea what she doing in college," "won't drop out her parents'll look at her funny," and more. When I heard this I could relate. I didn't go through exactly the same thing, but a lot of the issues were similar.
I think we ended up labeling "All Falls Down" the "PTSP Song" for that year. I continued using this activity in future retreats, as I thought it seemed fitting and helped get across the issues PTSP looked to address. This activity was so relevant and effective for me, I implemented it into the Orientation program at the community college I worked at. It was an excellent way to engage new students and have them think about why they were going to college and obstacles they may face.
On that note, I think this would be an excellent activity to use at the focus groups that will be taking place next month. I will see if I can make it, and if so, I'm down to do this activity.
5 comments:
ooo I like the suggestion a lot. Never thought about the lyrics until now. Wow! interesting.
I was actually going to post about how I didn't have that problem at all. And that was because I had it really good. Everything was cleancut for me from the beginning, from all those years in Catholic school where school was basically the only thing I focused on, I was lucky to have folks who just said that all I had to do was finish college.
I hope you can make it to the focus group Dom. I would really like to see this happen at the focus group. Let me know if you can do it okay. Thanks
andrew, its looking like i can make it. i've found a place to stay while i'm down there, now i just have to make sure i can get the days off. my work is pretty flexible, so i'm pretty sure i can make it. i'll confirm in the coming weeks. in the mean time, did you have an agenda for the focus group? i would like to see what you have planned so i can better prepare.-dom
i get nostalgiac when i hear that song.
oh goodness, i remember that meeting too! so many student leader big wigs in the same room- i was hella scared to facilitate, haha.
it WOULD be interesting to see how students connect to this song if this activity were done at the focus group.
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