Gabriela Lindley
Lynn Kameny
Senior Seminar
October 28, 2013
Senior Portfolio Essay
Life at ACLC has helped me in so many ways from both personal to education itself. I never imagined that I would be as happy as I was at the school nor did I imagine I would grow as person. When I had first heard of ACLC I was very weary and unwilling to attend. I would be away from my best friends from elementary school and even more at ACLC I would be pushed past my academic comforts. These were all very nerve wracking on my young mind. Now, I couldn’t imagine myself happier anywhere else.
With our unique JC (Judicial Committee) system, projects, hands on learning, and most of all, project periods that give us a choice between work and play, has all contributed to the development of self-management. This has all helped me learn to manage my time which many students know is a huge key to keeping up with ACLC. I never thought I’d be able to go home and have nothing to do because I had already finished my work. I would have never imagined I’d be learning about Tiananmen Square from my peers rather than a text book, or building roller coasters, robots, wooden cars, or even rockets! ACLC has also opened my mind more than I think a normal high school and or middle school could ever have. I was never pushed and encouraged to pursue art by both learners and facilitators as I have here nor would I have ever pictured myself trying to push and to get and run an art class ! In my Junior year I worked hard with a close friend and one of the many beloved facilitators to get the Comics and Animations class started. Although now funded as a club I still believe it will be such a huge opportunity for the students of ACLC. If someone told me every Friday I would be holding a meeting with at least 15 younger learners back when I had first attended ACLC in the sixth grade, well I wouldn’t believe you. The school has helped me slowly creep out of my shell and become more social than I ever thought possible for someone that was as shy as I once was. Group projects really do force you to get your opinion through as well as making announcements to an entire student body force you to get past any fright you may have. Public speaking and getting your points across to a large or even small crowd can be considered another huge key in life. How else are we suppose to suceed, inspire, and create when we have no one to listen to us. No one to tell us that we can do it, or give us the motivation to try when they tell us, it’s not possible. This is yet another important lesson ACLC has taught me.
ACLC has helped me take art even further than I ever thought possible when it comes to writing and drawing. Of course I’ve written stories and made small books when I was in elementary school as class assignments, but never would I have imagined that in high school one of my essays would have been chosen for me to read on the radio let alone had I imagined an essay about art would be chosen. The school was so supportive along with just about every facilitator to the point where I’m even able to start working on a portfolio in hopes of pursuing a career in illustration and if not looking into taking art into therapy of course the first step to this however is looking into the colleges I’d like to attend and looking into what they look at when viewing a portfolio. Geography, a class I will admit I was not very good at, has also contributed to the arts for example using it to choose set locations, temperature and conditions certain plants or flowers need to grow or researching ancient Aztecs and the Datoga tribe for cultural references. Writing is another major factor when it comes to college essays, writing stories, or simply getting an idea across.
ACLC has taught me many skills I know I can, and even look forward to using in my future as I head toward graduation and becoming an even more productive member of society. ACLC and it’s classes has assigned me many project that allow me to challenge myself and even teach myself rather than learn from a lecture or a simple text book, such as researching events in history to later present and teach my fellow learners. I’ve already taken these skills into my own personal life and applying it to learn and improve my own artwork. I’ve even become a more confident decision maker as I weigh my options for college and what I want to do in my life, helping me understand the positive and negatives when it comes to deciding to take my first two years of schooling at a community before transferring to a state and or privet college. Further more ACLC has given me a more unique opportunity to problem-solving personal matter other than running to a facilitator. Instead in go through a Judicial Process and as student jurors we hear both sides of a story and talk amongst ourselves to figure if a person is guilty or not and what their punishment should be.
ACLC has contributed greatly to my interpersonal abilities and participating in group projects. In elementary school and even in middle school I was shy and hadn’t voiced my opinions. If no one was listening I felt it didn’t matter and went along with what everyone else wanted to do. Now when it comes to group projects such as creating a miniature roller coaster, a Rube Goldberg in physics and making a bridge in Algebra 2 one needs to have ideas, sketches, plans, and most of all work together. Making a Rube Goldberg Machine was almost like a puzzle. We knew what it was to do, now we needed to piece it together to make it work. In a group of three it’s easy to do when we all contribute ideas and work out the kinks as we move and build. I’ve even helped a few younger students and taught them a few skills when it came to drawing by going Visual Communications as a guest and teaching them a morphing method for their artwork. Even being a T.A. had contributed to my customers skills by taking order and note of what my facilitator wants and how they want things set, graded, or even organized.
Even more the school teaches us the many uses of technology ranging from presentation, to creating music, images, and videos. Not even on my first day of school but in fact on the day of ACLC’s Summer Bridge program I was making a powerpoint with an older learner and later I would learn more about how to make a good power point in my Learning to Learn class during my first year at ACLC. Even later this would lead to creating videos, proper camera care and handling, and editing in DVS and even understanding photo manipulation and editing in Photoshop in both Visual Communications taken in my middle school year and a Photoshop class taken in my Junior year. Even in my Senior I will be learning and helping teach younger learners how to animate and create comics using different programs online. I have a lot in my life to thank to ACLC, my education and most of all, the friends I have made and hope to carry with me through my life. ACLC had taught me to love learning again, to create amazing memories and even more amazing friends. I look forward to taking everything I have learned with me into the world and learn more, laugh more, and create more amazing friends and memories.