Artist Statement

Feighbe Solano

Professor Hall

Artist Statement

           This semester has definitely helped me grow and see “writing” in a completely different way. In my high school they had “majors” that would help them decide what group to section you off with. There was agriculture, RTC, and Center for Writing. My mom immediately put me into the center for writing and for my four years of highschool I took classes like Advanced Poetry, Advanced Writing, Creative Writing, and Shakespeare. Because of the consistency of these classes, I was shaping myself into a writer. I wrote poems and short plays and some of my best essays, but then highschool ended. I flunked my first college semester of English 101 and had to retake it. The professors I had didn’t challenge me at all creatively. One of my professors, throughout the entire semester, had us reading short stories and simply answer his questions in essay format, an entire waste of time. It made me lose my appreciation for writing.

          While looking through “Rate My Professor” I found Doctor Carrie Hall, she was rated very high and received so many comments on how she’s a great professor. I had to take her class, and I even rearranged my schedule multiple times in order to make this class fit. I’m not sure what I expected this class to be but it wasn’t what it turned out to be. By this time I only thought we’d be reading more books and short story’s but it was nothing like that at all. The projects that were presented to us through the units truly helped me get back into the hang of writing but not just through pen and paper, by using more creative outlets (Instagram) I was able to use my voice in a more effective way. My Instagram page on homelessness, MPNYC_ (Mission Possible NYC) is in my top two best works I’ve done for this class. I had never taken a writing project and customized it through an outlet where many people would be able to see and interact with it. Many writing projects simply get graded and put aside, for no one else to see and this is the complete opposite of MPNYC_ it is a public page for anyone to visit and read through and comment on, and the amount of productivity that I received on this page through likes, comments, and even followers, in the short amount of time that I had to put it together, was remarkable. On top of everything the subject that it’s based on is a REAL problem, while it doesn’t affect me personally it does affect the thousands of people who are of may become homeless, this project was dedicated to those people and in order to do that I had to step outside the box, remove myself from the equation, and instead think about the victims to this problem. This project shows my growth as a writer, from my first group project of the semester that was based on the education system, where I only had one slide and about two lines to say, which was also my least favorite project, unit two was definitely my best.

           As I mentioned before MPNYC_ is in my top two best works of done for this semester, the second project that’s also up there is my Bob’s Burgers project, this was unit three. What makes this project one of my best and favorites is the way that I took my all time favorite animated TV show, and I completely gutted it for its misconception on transgender women and men. When I say that this is my favorite show, I mean that I literally watch this almost everyday and have rewatched the series multiple times. In the beginning, unit three was a little hard for me to get on track with because we weren’t given the source, we had to look for it and choose for ourselves. I had gone back and forth between two ideas that I cannot remember right now, but in the end I chose to do it on my favorite show. The drawing that I did for this project was fun, but you can only see my growth through the artist statement that I wrote for unit three. I wrote about my process for this unit and I feel like any reader can see my side of the story whether they agree or not. It was a fun project to draw a Bobs Burgers scene and remake it into what I thought it should’ve been instead. Now, looking back at both of those projects while they are completely different because one is a drawing and the other is a Instagram page, they have one thing in common which is that they were both made to fight for a cause. A REAL cause that has absolutely nothing to do with me, but for the people around me. This is why these projects are my top two, because I didn’t do it on me or my story, they were made based on other people’s stories. The fight for equality for transgender people is still a real one, and the fight to end homelessness is a real one too. Never in my entire high school and college years had I done a project made for such important causes as these were and that’s where you can see my growth in Doctor Halls class, my page on homeless will stay active.

 

Essay Response

After reading my groups past experiences with the education system one of the main problems I saw in common was bullying. Bullying has been around forever and I honestly don’t think it’ll be something that can be fully stopped but I do believe the education system has noticed this but has only made a small effort to do something about it. Nowadays we hear in the news about young kids, from kindergarten to high school committing suicide due to bullying, while my groups experiences may not have been anywhere near this severe it’s still within the same realm. The Netflix show 13 shed some light on how someone can be pushed over the edge over a matter of time but also how the school counselor did not know how to properly handle the situation. One of my classmates wrote about how she was being bullied by other students simply because she was new to the country, but luckily received helped from classmates  “Some of my classmates help me to face the situation and help me to inform our teachers.” One way the education system can help stop bullying is by reaching out to both students and teachers, giving teachers the appropriate training on when to notice when a child may be acting different or singled out because of bullying before it’s too late, sometimes it’s hard for a victim of bullying to seek help so maybe teachers can be the ones to reach out first. Also informing students of the outcomes that come from bullying as well as an appropriate punishment if they take part of it.

The New Girl

Feighbe Solano

Professor Carrie Hall

English 1121

February 14, 2019

Final Draft

The New Girl

Growing up with separated parents was “normal” for me. I have very few memories back from when my parents actually lived together, little moments or visuals that I can see in my mind but never a full story that I could tell. My dad moved back to his native country, Colombia, when I was around four years old so every summer my mom would send my older brother and I to him and for the two months of summer vacation that we had, it would be spent there. By the end of August or the first week of September my brother and I would say our goodbyes, board a plane back to New York and begin the school year at P.S 153. One summer in particular, things wouldn’t go as they usually did.

During the summer of 2005 my mother surprisingly made the trip with us to Colombia, at the time I didn’t think anything of it since I was a child, I even recall sitting in an interview room with my brother, mother, father, and another person who I now assume would be the school director. The kind lady would ask me and my brother various questions about our family and our interests, then would ask me to draw pictures for her. She was interviewing us to see if we would be a good match in her school. I was about the age of 8 during this time, I loved going to Colombia to visit my dad and I also loved living with my mother in New York where I had been raised my entire life and English was my first language, my Spanish on the other hand wasn’t fluent and I had difficulty holding a full on conversation, but for some reason when my mom told me I’d be spending an entire year in Colombia going to school, making new friends, and being without her, I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t sad about not seeing my friends over in NY for a year or that I’d be in a completely different school atmosphere, my brother on the other hand was furious, since he was older and in his teenage years, spending time with his friends was everything to him so he didn’t take things as lightly as I had. From one week to the next my mother boarded a plane back to New York and promised to call us everyday, I think this was the most painful part of this experience. Nonetheless the beginning of the school year approached and my dad drove us on our very first day.

We had been accepted at a private school that specialized in teaching students English. Knowing how to speak two languages in Colombia was something very important whether it was French, English, or Mandarin, so private schools would specifically focus on one distinct language to teach students. I remember stepping out of the car and seeing my new school for the first time, and it looked absolutely nothing like how a school in New York would look. Before I could make into the principal’s office I was approached by two girls who looked about my age, they asked if I was the new girl and immediately grabbed my hand to show me around. I was extremely surprised at this. When I compare my experience of studying in Colombia compared to New York one of the biggest distinctions is the students. In Colombia the girls were extremely nice, inviting, and social, meanwhile in NY it was more of a waiting game, the teacher would pair you up and that’s who you were friends with. Aside from this within that one year my Spanish improved, I had learned to read and write in Spanish which has benefited me a lot now as an adult because in certain work settings it may be required to be bilingual or a big advantage compared to other candidates in job interviews.

Looking back at this experience, I wish I had studied more than one year in Colombia, because then I would have been able to continue perfecting my Spanish which is easier to do as a child. I’m thankful my parents had made that decision for me and I see it as more of an opportunity of growth that not all children experience, especially if they are born and raised in the United States. This has encouraged me to possibly even send my future children to study abroad when they are young in order to experience the same opportunities and experiences that I had.

Marginal comments HERE. Your grade and my endnote are in the comment section.Â