Patrick Machado

Self Assessment Essay

ENGL 21002

12/14/20

At the beginning of this class, I was not aware that this class would open my eyes to the problems that we have been facing in this nation. My biggest take away from this course is I learned that social science does not affect just minorities but it affects everyone in all parts of the nation. At first, I thought gentrification only applied to Harlem, but this class made it clear that it expands more than just Harlem. Taking this class improves my writing, awareness of society, and to advocate more in my community and in my future essays.

My perceptions of my writing have evolved in this course being more aware of other communities. My grammar and writing have enhanced a little but I improved more in depth analysis in my sources with APA citations. This is the first English class I have to use APA format since all of my previous english classes use MLA format. In this writing class, I was allowed to interview David, I learned a lot more about Harlem and I visited his dad’s barbershop. My writing has developed by adding more sources from the interview, bibliography, and actual data from journalists. In this class, we learned more about marginalized communities and social problems that the nation is facing. I am glad that I am not the only one who is an architecture student in this class for the fact that a lot of architecture students see this similar issue as well. For example, we saw a video of how individuals in Harlem had to leave their apartment because the rent was increasing. New buildings and apartments are developing in Harlem which is leading families to leave their homes and forcing them to move into affordable neighborhoods.

The research that I have done in this course has helped me understand the significance of David’s community and the struggle of being an architect student online. Before this class, I did not use any resources and data to back up my arguments. I used to make a lot of assumptions however this class taught me the value of data, information, and interviewing people. Thanks to this class I stop assuming the situation and start to rely on information. My favorite essay is the third essay because it relates to a lot of students who are in the Architect major in this class. I was not satisfied with doing my studio work in my apartment and I was able to use my in depth analysis of AIAS Community and most students in CCNY. I was interviewing my architecture friends in their aspects of how they are dealing with online courses. My research shows how everyone is similar in believing that online studios are not healthy for us. We get our work done fast at home however we wished to speak to our professor in person to have better clarification.

During this semester, I learned how to investigate without being biased since I interviewed with my partner David. David explained in his barbershop which is located around CCNY, there is a lot of diversity and not just black individuals living in this area. I learned to investigate with him by taking lots of notes and asked his experience of living in Harlem. David told me to ignore people’s racist stereotypes. Also, I was allowed to speak to one of his clients during the haircut, and told me to ignore other stereotypes and not to be afraid of people living in this neighborhood. Thanks to David, I was able to understand the actual neighborhood of Harlem.

At the beginning of the semester, I learned the importance of the marginalized communities is to not exclude them. It is wrong to think a lot of stereotypes about marginalized communities. Everyone is different in their values and we should respect them. For example, in our last discussion, there was an article about many women with a Ph.D. who only worked in the basement. It was disrespectful to these types of women who had a great degree to be forced to work in the basement. Women have more responsibilities than men in the perspective of taking care of children. Men who are in charge of placing them in the basement are disrespecting women’s society. In this matter, it is significant to not create a barrier of any kind in communities because we do not know what they have been through in their situation. In general, what I learned the most in this class is to embrace diversity and not judge someone’s stereotypes. This class has a lot of diversity which should keep expanding, if more people are open minded then there will be fewer people thinking about creating walls against each other.