The class stated off with some more Newsworthy
Presentations. Kisa tried to show us a video of Marrisa Meyer, Yahoo!'s new CEO
but due to technical difficulties, we weren't able to watch it in the morning.
That was a bummer. I've been hearing quite a lot about her but I never actually
saw her face before. So we went on with some more presentations until Angela
Romans, our last guest speaker, came in to talk to the whole class.
She earned her Master's Degree at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education and her Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Engineering at
Harvard College. She decided that she wanted to be an educator, so she pursued
that path. Eventually, she became a teacher and also worked in Brown's
Admissions office for 11 years. She also worked with a Diploma Plus, an
educational organization that aims to prepare young students for a brighter
future. Currently, she is working for the Mayor of Rhode Island as a Senior
Adviser on education. We talked a lot about low-performing schools and how
teachers are in the middle of the budget crisis in many states. I got to share
what it's like to be in a 'turn around' school since De Anza High School was
labeled as a school on California's bottom 5% list a couple of years ago. It's
been a whirlwind, honestly. We went from having a lot of teachers that had been
teacher there for 10 plus years to welcoming brand new teachers from all over
the country and a whole new set of admins. I think it definitely puts a lot of
pressure on students because we had to adjust to the new environment. Also, to
keep the School Improvement Grant we had to apply for, the school has to focus
on improving our test scores. Angela Romans gave me a lot of feedback about
that, saying that the issue with the turnaround schools is that it affects the
student body and there is not a solid way to assess if the school had improved.
I agree with her because personally, I'm not a great test taker and I don't
think that tests reflect my abilities in a classroom.
For the latter part of class, Kisa was finally able to show
us the video of Marrisa Meyer. Now that I can finally put a face to the name
I've been hearing about. What an inspiring woman. Who would have known that
such a vibrant, young woman was the Google's first engineer and is now a CEO of
Yahoo!, one of the largest corporations worldwide. She is on her way to
motherhood, and I feel that she is getting criticized for that just because she
holds such a high position. It goes to show that society is still having a hard
time accepting women with higher positions in large companies. She is
definitely someone the world will continue to hear about, as Kisa says.
Afterwards, we had an activity that addresses Ethics and Leadership together.
We discussed ethical controversies and dilemmas floating around the world. For
example, we had a heavy discussion on Stem Cell research and cloning. Is it
ethical? Are we allowed to "play God" for the sake of saving lives? I
didn't want to state my opinion on this just because I feel like I still need
to do more research on both sides of the argument. Anyway, we went on with an
activity that helped us evaluate our ethics. In groups of 3-4, we read
fictional scenarios about teens that are going through ethical dilemmas. In the
end of each reading, we had to answer questions like "if you were XYZ,
would you have done what he/she did?" It was a good way to reevaluate our
own morals. Well, at least it gave me a chance to really think if I am capable
of always doing the right thing.
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