Final Project Proposal

For my final multimedia project, I want to expand on the topic of my last presentation, discussing why a lot of Hispanic school's do not succeed and then showing the things that Escuela Vieau does to counteract this. Instead of just focusing on the school itself, I would like to go out into the community, now that the weather is nicer, and just walk around and take pictures and notes on what I see. By doing so I hope to get a better grasp of the experience of living in a Hispanic community, as well as knowing what their culture and lifestyle is like. I feel that if I can get a better sense of the feel of their community, I can then show how that influences Escuela Vieau both positively and negatively. This will allow me to highlight how the school counteracts the negative influences, and embraces the positive aspects of their community and culture.

I might also consider incorporating how art influences the community positively as well (as seen in murals around the community), since I worked mostly with the arts and crafts activity at Escuela Vieau.

Service Learning (Post 3)

It's been a while since the last time I volunteered at Escuela Vieau, since I got all my hours in right away, but I realized I still needed to have one more blog post. So looking back on the experience of volunteering at Escuela Vieau, I feel like I learned a lot and got some great ideas for our multimedia project. I had never really been to an all Hispanic school before, and although it was intimidating at first, it turned out to be a great experience. The kids that I helped tutor and helped with arts and crafts were just like any other kids, except for they spoke a different language and quizzed me on Spanish words that I knew. It was almost like they were just as fascinated with me as I was with them.

Besides just the students, the teachers and helpers that worked with the boys and girls club of Milwaukee had a great attitude from what I saw. The teacher for arts and crafts didn't speak a lot of English, but still made an effort to communicate with me and was excited that I was helping out with their projects. I was planning on continuing to volunteer after getting in all the hours I needed, but with working 30 hours a week and having lots of homework I wasn't able to go back. But I learned a lot from this experience! I've always wanted to work with people that come from different backgrounds and cultures because I love learning about people and cultures that are different from mine, but I was always hesitant to do so and since I'm not very outgoing it was intimidating to me. But now that I have this experience, the next time I get the opportunity to volunteer or work with people from different backgrounds, it won't be as intimidating!

Multimedia Presentation 1

Multimedia Presentation

For Film 150, we had to volunteer at Escuela Vieau, a Hispanic school on the south side of Milwaukee. It was a great experience to work with the boys and girls club, to help tutor the children and help them with their arts and crafts activities. So for my multimedia presentation I wanted to show the things Escuela Vieau is doing to help their students succeed. Hispanic schools are often in rough neighborhoods where not everybody knows how to speak English. There are high drop out rates and high crime rates and many of these schools fail, but Escuela Vieau is different than the typical Hispanic school.

The principle of Escuela Vieau, who recently retired, was the one who started all of the programs and community connections the school has today. It is a known fact that family and community involvement and participation helps students have higher self-esteem and success in school. For my multimedia presentation I wanted to communicate the message that there is hope for all Hispanic schools, and Escuela Vieau is a fine example of the success that is possible when family and community are involved.