Discourse Community of Harold Rojas

Harold Rojas February 19 2020
English 1121
Word Count: 1039

Discourse Community
When I first got into College I noticed that there was a program to help students in college called “SEEK”. I didn’t know much about it until I asked my college counselor and he said that SEEK helps students academically, financially and socially. My initial assumption about the SEEK program was that it was a program to help students enter college that otherwise wouldn’t because of their SAT or GPA.
SEEK stands for “Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge”. It is a program designed for students who have the potential, but would benefit from enhanced academic support and financial assistance. I have researched the SEEK community by interviewing my counselor (Kisha Swaby), observing how the SEEK community works by going to the SEEK office and telling everyone there that I was doing a project for my English class, and that I need to ask them a few questions about the SEEK program. The people in the office were really nice to let me interview them.

The goal of the SEEK community is to help students in college succeed. They do this by providing free tutoring for courses like English, Math and Science, where students can do a Walk-in tutoring or they can schedule one with a tutor from the SEEK program. They also have a Computer Center which is a computer lab dedicated for SEEK students only, so that students can get unlimited access to iMac’s, PC’s and up-to-date software. SEEK students can also have access to Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite and more. Students can use the computers in case they need to use a special software like “Autocad”, “Solidworks” or “Mastercam” to do their homework or if they need to do something quickly, the office is open Monday-Wednesday 9-6pm and Thursdays 9-5:30pm. Additionally, they have academic coaching which is one-on-one assistance to SEEK students who wish to become better in their study skills by learning successful strategies for tackling the challenges students may face during college. Lastly, SEEK students have access to one hour workshops covering a variety of topics to help the students be more efficient during their college career.

The way this group communicates is by email, so that when there are workshops or to remind students of a special event they need to attend. Also, we communicate by meetings so that we can let our counselors know how we’re doing in college and life in general. It’s a magnificent way to express how we feel academically and analyze important aspects of our life to see the correlation of how we do in class. Another method we use to communicate is by one on one appointment. This group primarily communicates via email by sending important information about events, workshops or meetings. This group communicates with the outside world by students talking to their families about the program they are in when they get home from school. The language we use in our group is English, since it is the most spoken.
A person needs to know what benefits the SEEK program offers and also they need to know that they are only accepted if they are a first time freshman or previously enrolled in an HEOP or EOP program which are equivalent to the SEEK program (HEOP at private colleges) and (EOP at SUNY colleges). Also, they need to check and see the requirements for their family income to see if they qualify for it as a student.
When I interviewed my SEEK counselor about the SEEK program I asked her to describe SEEK at New York City College of Technology, to tell me why students should join the program and how SEEK is a community to the students. Her response was the following; “SEEK at City Tech is a program that helps students who are financially needed with academic and financial support. Students should join the SEEK program because it gives them the help they need to succeed in college, and SEEK is a community to the students because it has the common goal of helping students succeed by helping them with academic support such as tutoring and notetaking skills. It also helps us with counseling when students have a problem with the college or life in general we can always talk it out with the student so that we may arrive to the best solution possible to the problem. Lastly it gives them financial support with books, fees and transportation.”

Something that I learned about the group that surprised me was that the SEEK program came out of struggle in the 60’s when people fought for more colored people to be included in higher education and so people decided to set up a program under which they would have criteria that would enable the people to be admitted to the City University and it first started at the City College of New York. What confused me about the program was that initially I thought that the SEEK program was a special type of college at different CUNY schools but then I realized that it’s just a program inside the schools. I also learned that Percy Ellis Sutton was the man who founded the SEEK program in 1965, who was an activist in the civil Rights Movement and was also the legal representative for Malcolm X.

Works Cited Page
Harold Rojas, Re: Interview Questions Received by Kisha Swaby “SEEK at City Tech is a program that helps students who are financially needed with academic and financial support.Students should join the SEEK program because it gives them the help they need to succeed in college, and SEEK is a community to the students because it has the common goal of helping students succeed by helping us with academic support such as tutoring and notetaking skills, it also helps us with counseling when we have a problem with the college or life in general we can always talk it out with a counselor so that we may arrive to the best solution possible to the problem and lastly it gives us financial support with books, fees and transportation.”  Feb 10,2020

www.citytech.cuny.edu/seek/history.aspx by the City University of New York , February 15,2020