Shadow Day

Alexis De'Grate, a ninth grader from my Samohi ArtsBridge class, met me at UCLA's Ackerman turn around Wednesday, April 11 at 9 'o Clock in the morning. She was dropped off by her grandmother. There was a alot of planning between Linda Gross from the SMUSD district, Alexis' mother Tenia, and I, to make this day possible. Because Samohi is on Spring Break it made the process a lot easier without having to sign any consent or field trip forms. The day was pretty much close to perfect! At 9:30am we went to my lecture on Vodou and Santeria. At 11:30am we took my beginning yoga class. To conclude the day we worked up a sweat in my West African dance class at 1:30. Besides seeing the mind and the physicality of Alexis be challenged by sitting through a college level lecture on an unfamiliar topic, focussing her complete energy in breathing and body postures, and being frustrated in learning how to move her entire body intensively, it was the experience as a whole, for Alexis, to spend a day in the life of person persuing art and culture in higher education. In fact, it was our time spent outside of class that really brought a holistic aspect to the college experience. Alexis saw how such a great university provides almost everything a person needs from shopping, to food, to fitness centers, to health centers, and learning resources like our libraries. Alexis recived a tour during one of our 40 minute breaks between Vodou and Yoga of the Student Initiated Access Center and Student Retention Center where many communities of different race backgrounds meet, plan, and work in the underserved areas around Los Angeles to give back to the places in which they came from and the places in which they did not. Alexis got to meet my dance teacher, the Chair of WAC, and, my friends. College is not just about going to classes, but its about community, determination, friendship, scheduling, socializing, and learning outside of class. College is about holistic development and character building. These are all the things that i wanted Alexis to experience. I wanted Alexis to have fun and be challenged. I wanted her to gain a perspective on collge. I wanted her to build her motivation to persue her dreams. And i think Alexis did achieve all of this. In our debrief at the end of the day with Amy, Alexis said that she does plan to go to college. We dicussed different steps she could take to get in to collge, for example, work on completeing the A-G requirments, communicate her intentions with her counselor, take the PSATs, and work hard. I got to know Alexis fairly well during our shadow day and she does have many interests that she would like to persue including modeling and someday becoming a nurse. Whatever Alexis decides to do she does plan on going to college and she will always carry her experience at UCLA with me during our shadow day.