As a second-semester junior, I have experienced five great semesters at Harvard. Most of my blogs are about my social or extracurricular life at the College; however, one of the most transformative experiences of Harvard is the classroom.
When I entered as a first-year, I already knew I wanted to concentrate in Sociology. And by the beginning of my sophomore year, I added an Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights secondary. However, I still had plenty of room in my schedule to take fun and interesting courses. Some of my favorite courses have fallen under my degree, but at least one of my electives has left an impact on my life.
The Border
The Harvard College Curriculum includes General Education requirements in four categories: Aesthetics & Culture, Ethics & Civics, Histories, Societies, Individuals, and Science & Technology in Society. In my sophomore fall, I fulfilled my Histories, Societies, Individuals, and Science with GENED 1089, The Border: Race, Politics, and Health in Modern Mexico. As a Mexican-American student, this course provided a great overview of the relationship between Mexico and the United States. I learned not just by lectures but by analyzing historical documents, reading memoirs, and listening to my peers. The most interesting unit in this course was “Contemporary Ethnographies of Migrant Health” where we learned about the forced sterilizations of Mexican women in 1975 Los Angeles, CA. I am grateful that this course highlighted parts of history that I never would have known to research by myself.
Immigrant Children & Youth
One rare opportunity at Harvard College is that undergraduate students can enroll in graduate school courses. Luckily, I was able to take advantage of this by taking a course at the Graduate School of Education titled “Immigrant Children and Youth.” Besides myself, there were only four other undergraduate students. What I loved most was the multiple perspectives from graduate students who have years of working experience in the teaching field. I learned by talking to them and seeing how concepts we read about in class play out in the classroom. My teaching fellows were very kind and my professor made sure the teaching environment was filled with teamwork. As a child of immigrants, this course was even more personal to me. I read so many articles that described my life and I used these experiences to further analyze what these research studies got correct or what they might be limited on. This course is one I recommend to every student as its foundational concepts can shed light on the experiences immigrant children face.
Sociology of Childhood
Similar to the last course, this sociology class talked about childhood experiences, but instead of focusing on immigrant children, it focused on the general American childhood experiences. This course took a historical perspective. While this was very lecture heavy, we examined how adults have viewed children and how it has changed since and what prompted these changes. But, this course also involved a lot of sharing our personal experiences. Participation in this class was never hard as who better knows your childhood than you? The papers in this class were also very interesting to write as the prompts were different from typical research papers while still focusing on applying theoretical frameworks to show your knowledge.
Narrating the Border
Another impactful course I have taken during my time at Harvard was co-taught by an Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights Senior Lecturer and a former New York Time photojournalist. Alongside theories regarding borders, we learned of how journalists go about reporting border relations. This course even brought a handful of photojournalists who have written some of the most-read articles regarding the Mexico-U.S. border to our class where they explained how they became established in their fields. Additionally, one of our projects involved writing a piece about a border in the Greater Boston area. I reported on the Rose Kennedy Garden and even mixed my photography expertise with writing to become a photojournalist for not just one but two projects. The last assignment in this class involved interviewing someone who has crossed a border while using photography techniques to use photography as another medium to story telling. Thanks to this course, I was able to dip my toes into the field of photojournalism.
Every person’s time at Harvard is different. My experience involves taking courses that I’ve been interested in since before my time at Harvard such as Sociology and Latino Studies. My education journey reflects what I hope to work in post-grad. I know the lessons I’ve learned here will stay with me for years to come.
