8 minute read
Vishnu Raghavan
-Albert Einstein
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Vishnu Raghavan
Hello my name is Vishnu Raghavan. I am in Cohort 5 and am a junior. I am studying Political Science Major with a Minor in Spanish. I am passionate about education due to the injustice in the world for students and the lack of justice for educators. I love traveling the world and hiking. I am correctly at a internship helping youth in the Juvenile Probation for Maricopa County. Where I am working to educate and mentor the youth.
Impact
“I gave [my students] a saying to say: ‘I am somebody. I was somebody when I came. I’ll be a better somebody when I leave. I am powerful, and I am strong. I deserve the education that I get here. ’” -Rita Pierson
Networking
As the Semester ended and students began it was clear to our team that students needed an event where they could interact with others while doing a fun activity. In this event, we decorated gingerbread houses in the spirit of the winter season and offered hot chocolate. Students were free to use decoration to express themselves and decorate cookies. While interacting with students and networking. Many students were able to meet new friends and engage with other mission teams. This benefits students in understanding networking and doing creative activities with other students.
Monday, 29 March 2021
We wanted to introduce Next Generation Service students to the Zen Den a space where Mission Team planned to have events. I wanted this event to be not just focused on the space and the importance of spaces like this in education but also on the importance of taking time for yourself and doing something that is fun and interacting with other students. In the event, students were able to socialize with education majors and the teacher's college, while also networking with NGSC students and our team.
Servive
Appreciation, It is clear that we at times do not appreciate those around us from teachers to classmates. We wanted this event to focus on appreciating each other and understanding the importance of each other while teaching a fun small way for future teachers to understand how a holiday like Valentine can be used to learn about each other. At the event student decorated cookies and cards that they were gifting to someone that they care for and sharing with each other and those they loved. We helped students understand the appreciation for others and how to appreciate even those we are close to but they need to be appreciated. The event went very well and we had tons of students who came in and excitedly made cards and decorated cookies.
Wednesday, 16 February 2022
Advocacy and Learning
Wednesday, 23March 2022
As we come out of the pandemic we see a spike in students stressors and anxiety due to being in the classroom both current students and future educators struggle to find ways to keep students motivated and reduce stress. We held this event for anyone that wanted to come from ASU students, future students, and individuals working in education to bring awareness to healthy and mindful ways to cope with stress and teach how to reduce anxiety. At this event Mission team 18 and 28 worked together and put together stations full of fun activates that educated about mindfulness and what to do in stressful moment's.
Advocacy and Learning
Vishnu's Internship: Working with the Youth at Juvenile Discussion
My internship is with the Maricopa County Department of Juvenile Probation. This full-time internship helped me with education policy since I learnt the issues that many youth have in accessing education. I joined the internship with the intent to understand those individual who most need support and education. I felt that this would help me understand more about education and how policy had impact students. As a team we discussed the different ways teaching does not have to just happen in a traditional classroom but with anyone that wants to learn.
Department of Juvenile Probation for Maricopa County has taught me the value of education, and what can be done to fix education, specifically, the laws regarding children showing up to school. Previously, I was not aware that, by law, one needed to be over sixteen to drop out of school; i.e., for those under sixteen, schooling was a requirement by the laws of Arizona. I learnt this during my Teen Court assignment for the job, in which I needed to observe proceedings to divert youth from the formal justice system. This internship taught me the penalties that can occur in regard to truancy, and the importance of education.
Resources and Recommendations
Walk Out
"Walkout" tells the story of the students in Los Angeles high schools in 1968, who stage a boycott of their schools in order to improve the quality of education for Chicanos. The film was skillfully directed by Edward James Olmos, who presents the story in a simple, direct way. There was an especially frank portrayal of the unacceptable educational standards in the schools attended by the young Chicano students.
Waiting for “Superman”
Nothing tugs at the heartstrings quite as hard as watching the hopes and dreams of ten-year-olds crushed right in front of them—but that’s exactly what happens to some of the characters in this unflinching critique of education in America. The film follows five young students from around the country as they and their families try to earn coveted spots at some of the country ’s top-ranked charter schools. It all comes down to a lottery: if your name gets called, you’re in. If not, it’s back to the struggling neighborhood public school where, statistically speaking, kids are much less likely to succeed. Waiting for “Superman” is a sobering—scratch that, maddening— reminder that, even in a country as wealthy as the US, a bad education can set a kid back for life.
Freedom Writers
A dedicated teacher (Hilary Swank) in a racially divided Los Angeles school has a class of at-risk teenagers deemed incapable of learning. Instead of giving up, she inspires her students to take an interest in their education and planning their future. She assigns reading material that relates to their lives and encourages them all to keep journals. Showing them the meaning in writing and learning.
Resources and Recommendations
Race to Nowhere
Featuring the heartbreaking stories of students who have been pushed to the brink by the relentless pressure to achieve, Race to Nowhere points to a silent epidemic in our schools where cheating has become commonplace; students have become disengaged; stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant; and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.
The Knowledge Gap: The hidden cause of America's broken education system--and how to fix it
It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country 's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware.
As Yet Untold
When it comes down to it, do you know the people in your life as well as you think you do? Or are you surprised at how often you learn something new about them? Everyone has a story to tell, a collection of unique experiences, triumphs and struggles, highs and lows. Dr. Javaid Siddiqi, President & CEO of The Hunt Institute, is the host, and will be talking to some of the best known names in politics and education to get to the "real" story..
Mission Team Q&A
What partners do you recommend?
We strongly recommend working with the Zen Den at the Mary Lou Fulton teachers college they were great to work with and always supported us in any of our ideas.
What are your future Goals?
Our Future Goal as a team is to increase the amount of events that we are able to do next semester while also increasing the amount of advocacy for education and change for education in our country
What was a highlight as a team?
Working together every time we met and came together to plan events the passion and creative was amazing. After each event were able to sit back and see the amazing things that we were able to do and the people we were able to meet
