Marvyn’s Student Story
In celebration of student voice and storytelling Marvyn student story is written directly by him
To start off I’d like to talk a bit about my high school experience. I attended George Washington High School in the South-East side of Chicago for all four years, one of them being fully virtual.
On my first day of freshman year, I walked into school and instantly felt like I belonged. My school was majority Latine so in each period of the school day, I was constantly around other students who looked like me. At school, I felt at home. But then that all changed in March of 2020.
Majority of you, I was told, weren’t high schoolers during the pandemic, so I’d like to invite you all to imagine with me right now.
Could you imagine how different your high school career would’ve been if your entire sophomore year of high school was just erased? If you had to spend the entirety of your schooldays that year at home in your room? No sports, or clubs or lunch with friends, or potentially reconnecting with that classmate you were JUST starting to become friends with?
Sounds weird right?
One day in freshman seminar, we heard an announcement that we would be out of school for two weeks because of Covid, and before I knew it the rest of my Freshmen year and the entirety of my sophomore year were all fully virtual. During that time I felt fortunate because I honestly did not feel the big academic and social slump like many of my peers felt throughout the virtual year in school. I established many of my closest friends early on in my freshman year so during quarantine I had friends to talk to and did very well academically.
But still, online High school was definitely odd sometimes. I took an argumentative literature class that required me to discuss with other classmates what we were reading about. Since we were on a video call, we had to go into separate smaller video calls with our groups for discussions. These breakout “discussions” were SILENT. No one would ever actually talk. At most we had a couple messages in the chat.
I started freshman year in person but I didn’t walk inside my school again until I was a Junior. And transition back to in person classes was very interesting. For the majority of the time in my virtual classes no one ever turned their cameras or microphones on (including myself) so the only way I remembered people were through their profile pictures on Google Meets. I can recall going up to people saying “Oh you had that anime profile picture right!” And they remembered my profile picture too ! It was definitely a unique experience. But for the most part, I returned to school and things felt almost back to “normal.”
The transition back came with a couple funny moments. While I wasn’t in a classroom, I felt I was still able to cultivate a few good student-teacher relationships. However, it was funny going back to school and having a teacher you spent an entire virtual academic year with not recognize you because you had your camera off.
The transition back also came with some challenges. One of my interesting experiences in CPS was feeling the teacher shortage in real-time. For my entire senior year of high school I had no math teacher and all the coursework was online. This class essentially became a study hall period so my friends and I would spend it goofing around in class or in other teachers’ rooms.
Looking back, although it was sad to not have a math teacher, I felt fortunate that I had other teachers that I could go to during that period. I developed meaningful relationships with my teachers, that will forever be important to me. My favorite teacher in high school, was my band teacher. She was my teacher for both my Junior and Senior year. She trusted me and my friends, and us to hang out in the band room during our math class. This trust made me feel respected as a young adult and showed me that she really cared about me outside her classroom
It’s thanks to her and the other teachers at Washington that left a profound impact on me as a student and inspired me to become a future educator.
I was always the type of student who liked to have conversations with my teachers, whether they were related to education or not. My physics teacher and band teacher were prime examples of this. During my lunch period senior year, I would constantly go to my physics teacher’s classroom during his free period. He was sorta popular, there was always a good handful of seniors who would eat lunch there as well. My teacher and I would spend a lot of time just talking about things we were interested in such as pop culture, or a variety of other things. I also had similar conversations with my band teacher as well.
I would also ask them questions about education. I wanted to hear real stories from teachers about what led them to their decision to teach and how their teaching experience was going. It was in these 1 on 1 personal conversations with my teachers that inspired me to pursue education.
Even though I knew early on I wanted to go to college, by the time my senior year started, I was unsure where to enroll. My dream was to attend ISU for their robust teaching education programs but money was a huge barrier. My mom was very anti-loan at the time, as she didn’t want me going into debt for college. She thought it would be a great idea if I was a commuter student and went to a college within the city like my sister.
Thinking about that idea, I got flashbacks to the super early mornings and late nights my sister would do day after day. I saw how much of a struggle it was for her to commute to school every morning and doing that didn’t seem appealing to me, I wanted some of the “college experience” I heard about at school. Thankfully due to my highschool and institutional scholarships and aid, I was able to attend ISU without needing to take out any loans. This was all very exciting to me as I was able to attend the University I felt could best prepare me for my educator goals. After walking across stage and getting my diploma, I was excited to start school at ISU.
Now for some context, as a CPS student who has been in Chicago my entire life, the transition to ISU was a bigger challenge than I expected it to be. During my first semester at ISU, I realized I had taken for granted how connected I felt to my latino heritage and community back at my high school and in my city. ISU is a predominantly white institution which means I’m not surrounded by students who look like me anymore. This was an experience in my life that made me feel imposter syndrome, and feelings of doubt within myself of whether I truly belong at my school.
Leaving Washington was tough but leaving home was an adjustment as well, as to be frank my mom was my alarm clock for school. Having to be much more independent in nearly every aspect of my life was a bit of a hard shift for me. This led to some struggles my first year, such as missing class, falling behind in schoolwork, and socially isolating myself. I had trouble managing my new schedule, as well as feeling academically unprepared for some of my courses in school. In high school I felt I didn’t challenge myself academically, I took general courses with few AP and Dual Credit but I feel like taking more college prep courses like IB, would have benefitted me.
The harsh adjustment to all this new independence, struggling in my course work and social isolation took a toll on my mental health. However, it hasn’t all been a struggle. My university has been a great support with their mental health and student health resources. Being enrolled at my university has given me access to a student health insurance plan better than my parents plan, which has allowed me to see a therapist for when I need extra support.
I am also very appreciative to have a pretty good support system at school as well, such as my wonderful girlfriend, who goes to school at Illinois Wesleyan 10 minutes away from me, my friends at my university such as my roommate, and my friends back home.
I also have been successful in connecting more with other students by joining various clubs and organizations. Now in my sophomore year, I have gained a greater sense of independence since starting university. While there have been challenging times that I’m sure are yet to be over, I’m eager to continue pursuing my education to become a great teacher one day.
Now I’d like to share with you some of my aspirations for the field of education.
As an alumni who attended CPS and a student currently pursuing a degree in Special Education, there have been many things I enjoyed about my experience in the CPS system and higher education. There are however challenging systemic issues that could be improved upon.
As an aspiring educator looking to enter a high demand field, there have been some hurdles that have unfortunately have made it difficult for me to enter the field as soon as possible.
When I entered college, I originally started as a Spanish Education major. But recently, I’ve decided to switch to Special Ed. This switch, although exciting because it aligns to my passions, has not been easy.
Even though I am a sophomore, switching education programs now is “late” so I have to spend an extra year in college if I want to pursue this field. Also because I am still going through the process of transitioning majors, I don’t get priority when enrolling for the required special education courses. So I potentially may not be able to take the classes I need for my new major next semester as I am considered a low priority over other major declared students.
On top of this, every course is a prerequisite to the other, which means I can’t do multiple classes in the major at once to catch up! Leading to even more lost time and frustration!
The current major structure is just way too restrictive. It offers no grace for young people who want to become teachers but are inspired to pursue a different education program than they originally thought. In a time where we need as many new and well prepared educators as possible, switching education programs shouldn’t be this hard. Finding your teaching passion should be supported, not challenged. It’s early roadblocks like this that could be deterrents for other students that want to become an educator.
One of the other biggest challenges I’ve noticed as a latino, first generation college and low-income student, is the social transition to college. During my first year, I personally went through a point of isolation and loneliness which took time to break out of. The social transition is a big struggle for many students. Especially as first years, most students feel a sense of loneliness while in school, and I feel universities aren’t doing enough to help combat this. Universities should prioritize promoting their student engagement opportunities, not only at the beginning of the semester, but consistently throughout the academic year, especially during the winter semesters when seasonal depression is on the rise.
As a future educator, I have many dreams for myself and my future students. I had many influential and amazing teachers during my time in CPS. One of my goals that I always have in mind is that if I can leave as much of an impact on my future students as my teachers left on me, then I will know I am succeeding as a teacher for my kids.
I want to be a role model for my students, and support them as a student and as a growing young person. I want to be able to provide support and guidance if they need it. As a first-generation college and low income Latino student, I am also eager to offer the bilingual support needed in my Latine students, families and broader community.
