Even though MNIC is to serve any one from any race or culture, who are least likely to be served or wanted in other programs, as of know most of the population are African Americans with few immigrants form Ethiopia and Somalia. So, they have had to develop curriculums and activities that are mostly centered around the African American culture. For example, most of their stuffs are African American which helps because, form what I have seen so far, they feel a lot more comfortable talking to people who they can relate to. Another example is my researchs, which I have been told to focus on stress reduction for African American teens. A curriculum I just finished developing about nutrition also had me researching on the kind of food that is common among African American communities. All this is done with intent to reach out to the students with their culture in picture already.
Because I am normally there during class activities, I do not see them doing after-school activities. However, last week I got invited to a dance club the students have formed. They normally do hip-hop and dance-hall kind of dances. I was excited to have been invited to their practice sessions but I was told by one of the teachers that since they are the ones who run the club, they do not meet regularly. When I asked why not get them a teacher, they told me they want them to learn to be responsible for what they do (which I think it is a good reason.) So they have not been meeting for a while now. They also have a basket ball time, since most of the students are NBA fans and love basket ball.
Another activity they do is a credit-recovery project, where most of the students lean towards art. Pearson, who I have become friends with, is for example writing poems/lyrics and also giving interpretation (like the theme of the poem.) He let me read one of his poems and I was so surprised by how good he is and happy that he is also using this talent he has to express his feelings and problems. The other thing he is also doing is comparing the graffiti between Chicago and the Twin Cities. Since he is originally from Chicago but has been in the Twin Cities for a while now, he feels pretty good about this project. He hopes to also reproduce some of them in a more appropriate way.
All these examples show how MNIC, beside having the culture of the student at heart, it also lets them do what they want to do in a more constructive way. However, I wonder how the few others from a different culture feel. During one of the classes I attended, there were two people from Ethiopia and Somalia. The teacher was also African American like the rest of the students, so the whole conversation took place from their culture point of view, partially because there was no contribution from the Ethiopian and Somalia. Why? There is the language problem. They are both working on their English, which has limited their participation in class. The school has them enrolled in ESL class. So there is defiantly lack of intercultural interaction as the school is focused on African American teens - at least in the classrooms. But the school does arrange for students interested to have internships in places like Macalester (currently two students working with the sustainability office), which exposes the students to different cultures.
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